Generation
Hook Norton Brewery Co. Ltd.

Light bodied, clear pale amber color with a small, short lived head.

Aroma is minimal, earthy, buttered biscuits and toffee.

Taste is light caramel/toffee malt, followed by a fairly dry finish with a smack of hops bitterness, slightly metallic and astringent.

Altogether, a decent ale, but not spectacular.

On cask at a oktoberfest celebration

Pours with a light amber body, slightly fluffy head forms, some retention and some lacing

Smell, hoppy aromas, perhaps hints of goldings, slightly malty

Taste, slight floral hints of hops, dry, malty with a slight sweetness on the finish

A nice little ale

More of a head and more carbonation that their Best Bitter. More bittering in the taste, and the hop character is definitely there. More than that I cannot add, since we tasted this out of tiny samplers at my homebrew club meeting among a whole bunch of English ales, and this didn't exactly stand out (which a session beer wouldn't do anyway, I suppose).

Light auburn hue. Initially thick head recedes readily into a thin, frothy layer that manages sparse lace. The aroma is a combination of soft diacetyl, nutty biscuit and a sweetly earthy, perhaps Progress derived hop nose. Clean, but underwhelming aromawise. Token caramel malt sweetness is perceived incipiently in flavor, then yields to ashen, mildy woody hop tones. Tempered, rather ho-hum diacetyl emerges mid palate along with hints of toasted malt, lending a subtle impression of burnt buttery brittle. Lightly bodied, with a somewhat functional dextrin content facilitating a passably smooth mouthfeel. Finishes mostly clean, with fleeting hints of biscuit and butter. Although devoid of outright flaw, Generation is only two notches above bland in overall character. Decent, but skippable.

Appearance: Pours a glowing gold with a hint of orange. The body is perfectly clear, with a foamy off-white head that holds at a tiny, incomplete cap.

Smell: Painfully faint, as all I can pick up on is a touch of fresh malt and toffee. Nothing else there...

Taste: Bland and uninteresting, with some grainy maltiness and toffee thrown in for good measure. Just like their Best Bitter, the hops barely even put up a fight. By the time they do show up, a strong oxidation flavor has taken over. Ends with a slight metallic note.

Mouthfeel: Watery and dry, with an astrigency towards the end.

Drinkability: Yawn...this brewery is putting me to sleep. I hear their brews are quite a bit better on cask. If they weren't, I don't know how they'd stay in business...

Hook Norton Generation: Interesting brown bottle, thick body with a very skinny neck. Ah, you want to hear about the beer. Well, it ain’t half bad, very easy to drink, light session beer. Color: light copper, with a bit of haze. Head, not too bad, leaves a decent lace, although the head itself dissipated fairly quickly. Aroma: light and malty. Taste: as noted above this is a light bodied beer, that brings a nice malt profile, followed up with a snap of hops. Dry finish. Not overwhelming, I would not mind drinking a bunch of them.

Golden bodied with a lacy, but thin white head.
Nose full of butter, English hops, and toffee.
Taste starts with some hard water mineral flavors fading quickly to the butterscotch sweetness, then to a slick buttery note. Hops enter and add some metallics an some light floral hues. Nice jab of bitterness at the finish.
Moderately thin in the mouth. Nothing special, but certainly nothing bad.
Fairly good, if somewhat standard English Pale Ale.