The Brewery was founded in 1849. Originally a maltings business, brewing started on a small scale; the first purpose-built brewery was constructed in the 1870s. In the 1880s, the Banbury to Cheltenham Railway was constructed, a branch line of the Great Western Railway. Once opened, the railway opened up business opportunities for the Brewery, and as trade grew, plans were developed to build the Victorian Tower Brewery, which is still in use today. The architect was William Bradford, who was also responsible for Harveys in Lewes, Flowers in Cheltenham, Holes in Newark, and Tolly Cobbold in Ipswich, among many others.
The Brewery at Hook Norton is of traditional tower design, rising to six floors, and utilising gravity as much as possible. The design was generic to a degree, with a central energy centre, in this case two coal-fired boilers, generating steam, which was then distributed throughout the site. For over 100 years, this was the way we operated. As energy supply, security and cost has grown, we are always looking for ways to improve efficiency. We are now, of course are aware of the environmental challenges, and that we need to do all we can to reduce our carbon footprint.
So, we have been reviewing energy usage and looking at how we can reduce our carbon footprint.
New Boiler
In early 2025, we installed a new steam boiler. The brewing process demands a lot of energy to boil the wort, and heat the hot liquor for the brewing process. Following an extensive procurement programme, we selected a two-pass Babcock steam boiler. This is still oil-fired, as we have no gas in the village, but it is modern and efficient, and already saving around 30% in oil consumption.
PV Panels
We have installed an array of solar panels in the field to the rear of the brewery. This should deliver around 70% of our electricity requirements. Half the panels are online, with the balance coming online in February when National Grid upgrade our incoming transformer.
New Hot Liquor Tanks
The original design of the brewery saw the main brewing water tanks on the third floor, above the Mash Tuns, so steam was sent from the boiler over 150 metres to heat the tank. This had commensurate energy losses and a high maintenance requirement. We have now installed two hot water tanks adjacent to the boiler, so steam only travels a few metres, and then we pump hot water up to the Mash Tuns. This is much more energy-efficient, and the new tanks are so well-insulated that we are seeing little thermal loss overnight. We will also install immersion heaters in these tanks, aiming to utilise solar energy, particularly over the weekends, to heat the brewing water.
Lighting
The brewery is now fully LED illuminated – very efficient, and good quality of light, particularly useful when showing people around the brewery.
Vehicles
We have tried an electric van, but do not feel this is the solution at this point; as soon as the van was loaded, the range reduced significantly, and load capacity is compromised by the battery weight. All of our delivery vehicles are diesel, but all Euro 6 compliant. We are looking at alternative fuels such as HVO. Company cars are moving to hybrid – already three on the fleet. Sales staff have Euro 6 compliant trucks, which gives resilience for emergency orders, and poor weather, and indeed, for the appalling state of the roads around here – potholes more like craters.
Waste Streams
Waste yeast and cask, and tank bottoms are collected and sent to an AD plant, where they contribute towards energy raising. We are looking at working with a more local AD facility to reduce travel distances. Spent brewers’ grains are used as an animal feed locally and come under our food safety accreditation.
Brewing water
Water used for cooling is collected and reused in the process, something that has happened since the beginning, and the new kit ensures excellent thermal transfer. The water used to cool the wort is heated up in the process, and we only have to add around 20oF of heat, so a huge saving.
Air Source Heat Pumps
The rebuild of the stables and offices following the fire in 2024 has allowed us to install air source heat pumps, replacing the old oil system.
Future Works
We continually review our carbon output and have a dedicated sustainability team. We have signed up with Planet Mark and are working on our scope 1 and 2 emissions data.
We are very lucky to work in such an amazing building. Whilst parts of it are nearly 200 years old, we have set ourselves the task or measuring and reducing our carbon footprint. As custodians of our generation, we have a duty to both preserve the buildings but also to reduce our environmental impact. We will be one of the most efficient breweries, whilst still preserving our historic setting.
Wherever possible we believe in supporting the local community and the region in which we live and work. Quality ingredients are vital to our product and if we can buy locally, then we do, working hard to maintain close relationships with local farmers who can supply us with the raw ingredients we need to make the very best beer.
Our water doesn’t travel too far – just 200 feet up from the wells beneath the brewery, giving Hooky beer a flavour all of its own. We also use our own yeast culture and have been using the same strain of yeast for many years!
All the barley and the majority of hops that we use (Fuggles, Goldings and Challenger) are grown in the UK with some even being sourced from Oxfordshire (some Maris Otter and Fuggles.) Every year we visit hop merchants and hop farms to assess the quality of the hops and the aroma. Following an age old system, hops have great traceability – when they arrive at the brewery we can tell the variety, the crop year, the farmer, the field where they were grown and when they were harvested.
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