Whenever we have some news from the brewery or any of our pubs, we’ll be sure to post it here. Look out for lots of stories coming up, reporting on events and anything else we think might be of interest to you!
In the Brewery Malt store there is a key board hanging up and people on a Tour will often ask, what are the keys for? Well, the answer is they are part of the Inland Revenue act of 1880. Although this Act came in 137 years ago, and has been superseded by later Acts, there […]
Read more
At a Tour Guides meeting the other day we were discussing how many tours some Guides had undertaken. It appears at least two of them (Malcolm and Chris) had each done over a thousand. This got me thinking, given we have a Tower Brewery I wonder how high they could have climbed during these […]
Read more
A story goes that in the 1930′s a vagrant called at the back door of the Sun Pub. “I have no money”, he said to the Landlord, and continued “but if I can come up with a poem mentioning all the Hook Norton pubs will you give me a free drink?” “O.K., you have a […]
Read more
When taking groups on a tour of the Brewery and we reach the Malt store, I refer to our obtaining Malted Barley Grist from our Grist Mill. When hearing this people will often say ‘Surely the saying is Grist to the mill, not from the Mill?’ Actually, both sayings are correct. In a flour mill, […]
Read more
Having been a Hook Norton Brewery Tour guide for a number of years I had seen many brews in process but I now see things from a different perspective. This is because I recently had the pleasure of actually helping ‘hands-on’ to brew a Beer that was being brewed especially for a project I was […]
Read more
Over the years the buildings of Hook Norton Brewery have been used for a number of things other than Brew related. It started with World War Two and soldiers being billeted in the Stables, and then with the threat of invasion the Malt House was earmarked as a food store. In later years the local […]
Read more
When considering Hop growing areas in the UK we naturally think of Kent, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and maybe South Oxfordshire but not North of the county. What made me study this subject was the reference on an old 1800′s map of Banbury (above) to there being a ‘Hop garden’ showing on Salt Way. Here’s what […]
Read more
Brewers Spent Hops. Last month we looked at Brewers Grains and their use when the Brewery had finished with them, this month we look at spent Hops. Hops are the flowers the hop plant, they are used primarily as a flavouring and stability agent in beer to which they impart bitter, zesty, or citric flavours. […]
Read more
Brewers Grains. Regular visitors to Hook Norton Brewery will be aware of the Farm trailer parked at the base of the Brewery tower which is there to collect the spent grist from the brew mashing process. The grain is dispensed from the mash tun into the trailer via a tube in the centre of the […]
Read more
Any visitor to the brewery in December 1939 could be forgiven in thinking they had come to an army camp. This is because based here at that time were elements of the Durham Light Infantry. Fortunately for us historians the head brewer at this time, Bill Clarke, has written some comments about the early war […]
Read more
During Brewery tours I’m often asked the question “Which is your oldest Beer?”. The easy answer of course is ‘Mild’ as this is shown as ‘Brew number 1, November 24th’ in the original John Harris brew records of 1856. To further add to this, if we then look through the sources shown below we find […]
Read more
Looking back at Brewing and Pubs in Hook Norton. Today, when there’s talk of Beer in Hook Norton we naturally think of the ales brewed by our famous Brewery here in Scotland End In 1300 the Brewing scene was very different, and we have Margaret Dickens history of the village to thank for giving us […]
Read more© 2025 Hook Norton Brewery | Credits | Site map | T&Cs | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy.
