Morland Old Speckled Hen Ale

micksheff 10.03.2006 (10.03.2006)
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Review of Morland Old Speckled Hen Ale

...Hen is brewed by the Morland brewery, which was originally based in Abingdon in Oxfordshire. The company is now owned by Greene King (who purchased it in 1999) and the brewing now takes place in Bury St Edmonds. There is still a museum in Abingdon where you can look at some relics from the old Abingdon Brewery, but Old Speckled Hen is now firmly based elsewhere. I did a bit of research and discovered where it got it its name. Contrary to what it ...
...car not a bird! It was originally produced to commemorate the 50th Anniversay of the MG car ~ the Old Speckled Hen is a corruption of the phrase "Owld speckled 'un", a term used to descibe an old car used around the factory; it was old and covered in speckles of paint. This is where the beer's distinctive name arose! Old Speckled Hen weighs in at 5.2 % ABV and is brewed using Pale and Crystal Malts, Goldings hops and a special yeast that has been ...

tange 06.12.2002 (09.12.2002) · Read full review
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Review of Morland Old Speckled Hen Ale

Old Speckled Hen. It's a beer. Honest! And a damn good beer at that! Brewed by Morlands brewery, an unfortunately Southern beer, but you can't have everything, and named not after a chicken with measles, but an old vintage sports car, this is the king of real ales ... undoubtedly. Not only is it a whacking 5.2% in a 500ml funky bottle (it's clear and sort of multi-sided at the bottom, non-mathematically speaking), but the beer tastes wonderfully ...
...aroma, a sort of sweetness like fruit and nuts, which is just enough to get the inside of your mouth salivating at the thought of the smooth drink to come. Drink the beer and a similarly smooth experience ensues! You get the slight sweetness of caramel and toffee, plus a fruity lightness together with the malts and hops. Not a trace of bitterness in sight, so this beer should appeal to many, though there's quite a distinct hoppiness as you swallow. ...

peppermint 09.11.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Morland Old Speckled Hen Ale

When someone says to you ‘I’ve got a case of Old Speckled Hen’ they are not talking about a strange sexually transmitted disease, they actually mean that they have a case of a particularly interesting beer. I’m not going to get into arguments about northern and southern beers, this being a southern beer – to me if it tastes good then it doesn’t matter where it’s from! Southern beers tend to be ‘flatter’ ...
...a regular southern beer, it is still not a ‘fizzy’ as a northern beer. This, surprisingly doesn’t matter, as the combination of taste, aroma and texture negate the need for a particularly impressive head. This beer is brewed in the Greene King brewery – it can be bought in many specialty pubs – or for those who cannot find a pub with it – you can buy it in small bottles (even in the USA!) – it can also be ...

Simoncook1 30.11.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Morland Old Speckled Hen Ale

...~~~~~~~~ In the glass Morland Old Speckled Hen pours to a rich and sparkling, dark amber to russet colour with a warm, inviting, reddish tone. It has a very distinctive aroma which is sweet, nutty and fruity with very rich, toasted malt undertones. It's also a little floral and a yeasty bakery tone. With good carbonation, there's a fairly decent, creamy off-white head which isn't particularly long-lasting but still leaves a nice lace effect. ~~~~~~~~~ ...
...well rounded mouth feel and an extremely smooth taste that is slightly bitter, but it also has a toffee sweetness. The texture is excellent, frothy and smooth, with a snappy, bitter hop tang throughout that is well balanced by slightly sweet underlying malts. The finish leaves a pleasant aftertaste of hops with a hint of a medicinal flavour. Apparently the distinctive fruity and malty flavour comes from a mix of pink and crystal malts and a strain ...

proxam 01.07.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Morland Old Speckled Hen Ale

Old speckled hen is a fruity and tasty beer which is available in cans, bottles and on tap. Although it is not seen in a pub very often as it does not keep for very long in the barrel. It has in fact been a long time since I have seen Old Speckled Hen in a pub, I normally get there just as they have run out, I think that the locals drink the stuff like water. But there is a pub in my home town of Towcester who have Specked Hen on quite regularly, ...
...the Old Speckled Hen challenge. The challenge, which I have never seen anybody take up, is if you can drink 6 the landlord will buy the 7th, if you make it to 8 he will buy the 9th and if you manage 10 he will buy every other pint after that. A stiff challenge even for the hardest of drinkers. This Christmas I decided that Speckled Hen would be my particular poison instead of some of the other rubbish I normally drink. The only problem was that ...

jamesd 03.01.2003 · Read full review
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Review of Morland Old Speckled Hen Ale