10th April 2009

femALE day at The Coach & Horses Banbury

As part of National Cask Ale Week, Wednesday 8th April was haled as ‘femALE day’. According to statistics from CAMRA and Cask Marque, only 16% of women have tried cask ale. This was a chance to encourage ladies to put down the wine glass and give cask ale a go.

Hook Norton Brewery held a tasting evening at The Coach & Horses, Butchers Row, Banbury. This was an opportunity to meet the female Brewer from Hook Norton, Janet Tailby and learn more about Cask Ale, especially how well different beers can complement foods.

Landlord Dave Organ provided a range of foods to match the Hook Norton Ales. These included Chicken with a parsley and Lemon Crust to go with Hooky Bitter and Rosemary & Lamb kebabs which were perfect with Old Hooky.

Feedback from the evening was very positive, Liz Berry (who is already part of the 16%!) said “I would not usually have tried Hooky Bitter because it is called ‘Bitter’, however, trying it tonight I would definitely now drink a pint of it. I was also surprised by the Old Hooky, it’s much sweeter than you’d expect and it really does go well with the Lamb.”

Teena Bowes was impressed with how well the beer went with the food: “The Hooky Bitter goes so well with the Chicken, I’ll definitely be trying out other foods with Hook Norton beers in the future.”

Sisters, Elissa and Jessica Mason enjoyed the evening and were pleasantly surprised by the beer and food matchings.

Honorary female, Oli Barnard was very interested in hearing about the brewing process from Janet and was surprised by how well the Hooky Dark went with spicy, Indian inspired foods.

The ladies behind the bar, Vicky Knight and Sophie Wragg also got involved in the evening, recommending different beers for different palates.

An enjoyable evening was had by all and hopefully some women were converted to cask ale and will spread the word!