Old Speckled Hen is one of those beers that I seem to forget about, then I have one every few years and I’m reminded of how good it is. I was at a restaurant last night with a small but diverse beer menu, and when I saw the OSH on the list I decided to order one. I’ve heard complaints that OSH isn’t as good since Greene King took over Morland, but this beer was just fantastic. It has a great, distinct fruit-ester character, and just enough bittering hops to balance and dry out the finish. I honestly don’t remember the ester character being so distinct, although it’s been years since I had one. This is exactly what I’m looking for in a bitter, and I will certainly be reaching for this a lot more often, especially with Bass now gone.
Any idea if there’s a yeast strain that’s available to homebrewers that would come close to this ester profile? I’d consider using 1469, but the ester profile is closer to Fullers than Landlord for me, and I think you’d want something that finishes a bit dryer than 002/1968.
It used to be more widely available here and cheaper and I used to like it a lot. It’s definitely very dry and sort of sharp but with a fruity and flavourful backing. Been a while since I’ve had it, but I definitely miss having easy access to this or other sort of distinct english bitters. i miss ruddles county too.
fullers with a good amount of sugar, but my memory of it is so dry, maybe WLP007?
I was not aware that Bass is gone. I hadn’t seen it in years and haven’t had it in longer and had in my mind that I should try it again to see if I still had a taste for it. I drank a zillion pints of it in the 90s when restaraunts I worked at had it on tap and it was often the bext thing available when going out.
I was at Yankee Spirits the other day when I was in Sturbridge and looked for OSH and they didn’t have it, they used to. I haven’t had it in a couple years but remember liking it but not as much as TT’s Landlord.
Many years ago at a pub in London, I found OSH on cask. The bartender tried to convince me I wouldn’t like it, saying “it’s really strong - 4.8%!” I convinced him that I could probably handle it and had him draw me a pint. That cask had gone “off.” It was totally sour, pretty much undrinkable. I probably should have talked to him about that, but instead just left it and went to another pub. I’ve been irrationally afraid to have OSH since that day.
I’m surprised Yankee Spirits didn’t have it. It seems to be pretty easy to find at stores with a decent beer selection in my area. Even better is that they’ve switched to brown bottles and cans, rather than the old clear bottles it used to be in.
YS is the only place I have seen it. I will be happy to find it in cans or at least brown bottles. I remember it being in clear bottles and can’t remember if the last time iot was in a brown bottle or not.
I assume you have checked SUA Barclay Perkins for yeast info?
Yeah. Ron doesn’t have any recipes from Morland listed on his site. He does have a couple of Greene King recipes and those call for WLP025 (Southwold - a vault strain). From what I’ve seen online, it looks like this is from Adnams, who uses two strains. One is dry and clean (allegedly this is WY1335), and one is lower attenuating with moderate esters (allegedly WLP025). I have no idea if Greene King actually uses one (or both) of these strains, or if they kept Morland’s strain. I’m on the email list if this gets released from the vault anyways, because I’m always up for trying another flavorful English yeast, even if it’s not the exact one I’m looking for.
I had it on cask a long time ago in Durham, England and it was exquisite. You definitely should have let the barman know.
It shows up at our big box liquor store, I will have to give it a try since it’s now in cans. I had too many beers from England that hadn’t traveled well in bottles, so I gave up.
I bought a four pack of cans recently. They are nitro charged. The device is glued to the bottom of the cans so I doesn’t rattle like the Guinness cans.
Just so ya know.
I’ll agree with the OP. This beer is fantastic. Just sticking my nose in the glass told me I was going to enjoy it. It has a great caramel-toffee thing going on but is balanced nicely with a firm bitterness. Easy to drink, very unique, very interesting.
I had an Old Peculier that had gone sour in London years back. That was enough to make me shy away from that ale on subsequent trips. A few years back we were on a Yorkshire tour that included a stop at the Theakston Brewery. After the tour of the Victorian era brewery we had the range of real ales on cask. The Old Peculier was fantastic.
Lesson was don’t judge a real ale from a pint in a random London Pub.
Will have to look for it. British beer distribution is basically zero around here, despite having a good beer scene. Can’t even get Fullers, so it’s basically Sam Smith beers and maybe Youngs and Boddingtons. The last local Peter Austin brewpub stopped brewing locally years ago, too, and the brewer (wonderful British guy) moved on to the other 90s small brewpub here that still exists to make Belgian style beers. I miss getting beer on the handpump before an Orioles game.
Back in the early days of internet beer rating (2006ish), I remember someone describing this beer as “tastes like hamburgers and old green beans”, and I made it my mission to find this beer just to see for myself. Spoiler: it did not end up tasting like hamburgers and old green beans.
it’s brutal. the great hazy/session “craft” yellow fizzy water period that we are still living through has decimated absolute mainstays here.
i realized recently we haven’t had any of even the flagship fuller’s stuff on the shelf in years now. i love youngs too, but none of that or sam smith either. we basically get one offs that don’t even have any relevance - bombardier and greene king for some reason.
we actually have a much wider selection of the big name belgians than any british beer now, not even close - by a LOT.
lol, yes i forgot them. an interesting development here at least is that the bigbows -ab-inbev here dont even care about the malt-based beverage “seltzer” thing anymore, theyre just getting 97% ethanol and mixing a container of that with flavouring and sugar and water and its trending.
people truly have the memory of goldfish and the taste of worms
I always get these British things confused. Old Speckled Hen, Spotted D_ck, C_ck Ale.
Anyway, I think I’ve seen this at one of the local stores, so I’m going to seek it out. Haven’t had one in years. Oddly enough one of the few other British beers I was able to find was the Iron Maiden Trooper beer.
Edit: The forum filter clearly has an anti-British bias.
