New friends

Interesting guest beers at The Sun Inn in Hook Norton. Lemonhead from Growler and Gem from Bath Ales. Unusual for a tied house to do two guest beers but with the loss of The Bell Inn, the only free house in the village, all the more important. Lemonhead boasts ginger as well as lemon amongst the ingredients but happily neither too noticeable. Instead what you get is a refreshing, well-balanced beer with nice hope on the nose and on the palate. A bit challenging for some local drinkers more used to traditional bitter styles, but used to the varieties of hoppy pale ales now being made by London microbrewers, I liked it a lot. My friend Jem, understandably, opted for Gem.