Headlining as a ‘… distinctive pale ale’, this ale is brewed with Goldings Hops is one of those that sits in the ‘take it or leave it’ category for me.

This isn’t dissimilar to having a Cobra or another of those beers you get in an Indian restaurant and I am sure that – served chilled – this would be great with a curry.

I thought it was a bit too gassy for my liking and – even after giving it a few minutes degassing with a fork – was just a bit too gassy for me.

It’s got a nice bitter taste with a sweet honey after-taste (it isn’t honey but it’s something like that) but it’s just a bit too gassy for me and I was too impatient for it to go flat.

It’s an OK ale – 3 out of 5. As I’ve said before, the more malty, flat ales are more my cup of tea – but this one just doesn’t float my boat.

While people are stranded at airports and worrying about who to vote for in the election, my only real concern right now is what bottle of ale I am going to crack open first.

Hook Norton Brewery are based in Oxfordshire and I’ve previously sampled most of their range and Tweeted about them very positively.

Hook Norton have brewing award winning beers since 1849. They use ‘… water from their own spring-fed well.. ‘ and ‘… their brewery is still powered by a steam engine’.

Anyway – to the ale. Twelve Days is a 5.5% strong dark brown ale.

The bottle headlines as ‘… deliciously dark and strong’. It’s certainly delicious and – although it is 5.5% – it doesn’t taste strong.

Bottle notes tell us ‘.. Twelve Days is a Strong Dark Brown beer offering a dominantly malty palate with nutty overtones’ – and that it ‘…is a fine partner to the cheese board’.

I love this ale. It’s one of my top 10. It is indeed very malty and rich and dark and is really nice served at room temperature.

It would be hard to choose between the Bath Ales Dark Hare and this one. They are as good as each other – and I would never say no to either.

On the Ouse scale this would also score 4.5 out of 5.

Hook Norton have a fine range of ales – I’ll be sampling them and reviewing them later – but this is one of their best ones.