Hook Norton Old Hooky

Where Spotted: D’Vines, 3103 14th St. NW

Price: $6/500ml bottle

Crust the Ocean: Old Hooky is a symbol of everything that’s good about English beer. Americans have hops and the Belgians have funky yeast, but the U.K. has an unparalleled talent for making beer taste like butter and warm, sweet bread. Old Hooky is a caramel-colored, velvety mug of malt that packs flavor into a light body—all in a beer as low in alcohol as Corona.

Barrel-y Believable: Bottle and keg beer is pasteurized and artificially carbonated for preservation, but the true way to enjoy an English bitter is from a cask—warm, unfizzy, unpasteurized, and alive. At room temperature, the uber-fresh beer unlocks such floral aroma and flavor that you’ll curse every frosty mug to cross the bar again. In D.C., find them at Pizzeria Paradiso, Birch & Barley, and CommonWealth.

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