Hook Norton Brewery is a regional brewery in Hook Norton,

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, England, several miles outside the

Cotswold Hills The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

. Founded in 1849, the brewing plant is a traditional

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

'tower' brewery in which all the stages of the brewing process flow logically from floor to floor;

mashing In brewing and distilling, mashing is the process of combining a mix of ground grains – typically malted barley with supplementary grains such as corn, sorghum, rye, or wheat – known as the "grain bill" with water and then heating the mixtu ...

at the top, boiling in the middle,

fermentation Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...

and racking at the bottom. Until 2006, the brewing process was powered by steam. Beer is still delivered in the village by horse-drawn dray.

History

The brewery was founded in 1849 in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire and was designed as a 'tower' brewery in which all the stages of the brewing process flow logically from floor to floor. Until 2006, the brewing process was powered by steam. However, the historic

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

(dating from 1899) is still in the brewery. It is run weekly for visitors. Beer is also still delivered in the village by horse-drawn dray.

Beers

Museum

Visitors can take a tour of the brewery, brew their own beer in the micro brewery and visit the museum with historic brewery artifacts and local history displays.

Steam engine

Hook Norton Brewery uses a Buxton & Thornley

that has powered most of the machinery in the brewery since 1899. It is the last commercially working open crank stationary steam engine in the UK. It is a small, simple engine consisting of a cylinder, flywheel, connecting rods and little else. The engine drives a system of shafts and belts connected to most of the machinery in the brewery; different sections of machinery can be engaged and disengaged by levers which slide drive belts on and off their wheels. Where there are gears in the lineshafting, each pair consists of one iron and one wooden wheel. Thus, if any machinery should jam, only a few wooden teeth will be damaged and can then be replaced by the brewery's mechanics instead of needing a complex iron casting. The machinery once powered by the steam engine includes: *Pumps, both for "liquor" (water) and wort. The pumps are located next to the engine and are original. *The grist mill, which crushes the grains of malt by a precisely-regulated amount. This is also an original 1899 machine. *The

and raking equipment in the mash tun. *A lift for filled casks, dating from 1900. *The sack hoist for loading malt. The steam engine now only powers the mashing equipment, mill and sack hoist on certain days. The mashing rakes and cask lift have been removed.

Tied houses

Outlets for Hook Norton ales include

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

s, off licences and free houses. The brewery also has a network of 47 tied houses spread across a region from Thame in the east to Worcester in the west and

Grove Grove may refer to: * Grove (nature), a small group of trees Places England *Grove, Buckinghamshire, a village * Grove, Dorset * Grove, Herefordshire * Grove, Kent * Grove, Nottinghamshire, a village * Grove, Oxfordshire, a village and civil ...

in the south to Napton-on-the-Hill in the north. In total there are 23 Hook Norton pubs in Oxfordshire, nine each in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, and three each in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.Hook Norton Brewery: Find a Hooky pub
<-->

References

External links

Hook Norton Brewery website

Directory of beers at Brewmad
{{Authority control Companies based in Oxfordshire Beer museums Museums in Oxfordshire Food museums in the United Kingdom Tower breweries Food and drink companies established in 1849 1849 establishments in England Breweries in England British companies established in 1849