Old Speckled Hen Review (Nitro-Can)

Brewery: Greene King/Morland Brewery| Beer: Old Speckled Hen
Style: English Pale Ale | ABV: 5.2%
Serving Method: 14.9 oz. nitro-can poured into pint glass

Old Speckled Hen was first brewed in 1979 to commemorate the anniversary of Greene King's fellow Abingdon townsmen, the MG company. As it was the 50th, the brewery designed the beer to have an original gravity of 1.050. Everything else about the beer was designed around that gravity figure.

While MG has since moved on from Abingdon, Greene King still brews Old Speckled Hen. The name refers to a beloved MG company runabout, know as "the old speckled one." Really, any beer brewed to honor a British sports car legend gets bonus points in my book.

In the American market, Old Speckled Hen is available in both clear twelve-ounce bottles and 14.9 ounce nitro-cans. Pitched as "a great choice for those who enjoy a rich, strong beer to drink," it's an English Pale Ale. Here's how the brewery describes the beer:

Old Speckled Hen has a superb rich malty and fruity aroma. When tasting it you will experience a wonderful warming flavor that is bursting with body. Malty (malt loaf) toffee flavors from the pale and crystal malts combine with bitterness on the back of the tongue to give balanced sweetness which is not cloying. This is followed by a dry finish, surprising for ale of this strength.

If it measures up to that lofty description, Old Speckled Hen would be one of the most complex English Pale Ales I've ever tried. Here's hoping.

Appearance: Rich orange-amber body with the tightly packed, creamy head one would expect from a beer equipped with a nitro-widget. The head is a finger high and features brilliant retention and lacing.

Aroma: Rather weak, with lots of banana and some caramel malt notes.

Taste: Nice earthy, mildly bitter tones from the hop department with a somewhat solid toasted brown sugar malt base. Still getting a lot of the banana here, but it's not totally unwelcome. It's just a little bit thin in the flavor department, and there are definite metallic tones every now and then. The moderate booze occasionally rises up to the surface.

Mouthfeel: Standard nitro-can creaminess and low carbonation levels, but with a somewhat watery body. The finish is slightly dry.

Drinkability: Goes down smooth and easy with just over five percent alcohol by volume, making it a good session beer.

Verdict: Old Speckled Hen is a solid, but generally unexciting beer. Nice enough flavor profile, very sessionable, and has the brilliant creaminess that you get with a nitro-can. If you're looking for something in a nitro-can besides Guinness and Boddingtons, you won't go wrong here.

Grade: B-

Boddingtons Pub Ale Review

Brewery: Boddingtons | Beer: Boddingtons Pub Ale
Style: English Pale Ale | ABV: 4.7%
Serving Method: 16 oz. nitro-can poured into pint glass

Boddingtons is one of the most ubiquitous time-honored of the British imports, reviewed here in the sixteen ounce nitro-widget can that Guinness Draught made famous (although in the US Guinness Draught comes in 14.9 oz. cans). This beer was brewed for over 200 years at the Strangeways Brewery in Manchester. The company, also named Boddingtons, managed to keep its independence until 1989, when it was sold to Whitbread. Whitbread, mainly a hospitality company, decided to sell their portfolio of brewers to Beligian megabrewer Interbrew in 2000. Who, of course, became InBev when they merged with Brazilian brewing giant AmBev. You might recognize the name InBev, as they recently bought American brewing titan, Anheuser-Busch. Bud Light and Boddingtons step-cousins, who would have thought?

So, Boddingtons is now just another great historic brand rolled up into the faceless InBev corporation. But, all corporate angst aside, what really matters is what's inside the can. Growing up, this beer was always a fixture around the house, becoming one of the main poster children of "good beer" to me. When I started really drinking and appreciating beer, this was one of the first beers I counted as one of my favorites. However, people still curse me for getting them to try a sip of Boddingtons in years past, and I'm not really sure as to why.

By the way, if you have ever wondered why the logo features two bees on a cask, allow me to explain. Manchester's coat of arms features a (modest) swarm of bees as a symbol of efficient industry. The bees became a symbol of the city and are featured on Manchester's Town Hall floor, many public fixtures around the city, and on every can of Boddingtons. Now that you know, and we can proceed with the rest of the review as scheduled.

Appearance: Brilliantly clear honey (how appropriate) colored body. Thanks to the widget, the head is amazingly dense, creamy, and measures a full two fingers. Great fun to pour and watch with interesting little bubbles that cling to the glass. I could watch this all day, not quite as cool as the Guinness cascade, but certainly worth the cost of admission. Even after the head settles, this is an exceptionally pretty beer. The head rides all the way down to the bottom of the glass, leaving sudsy lacing behind.

Aroma: Clean and crisp with roasted malt and hints of a floral, hoppy bitterness. A little thin, to be sure.

Taste: Bitter up front with some dry, roasty malt flavors in the back. At times, you can pick up a juicy, fruity sweetness that reminds me of British wine gums. A nice combination, but nothing that's going to change your world.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, creamy, and soft - when I think of an exceptionally creamy beer, this immediately springs to mind. Mouthfeel is really one of the highlights of canned Boddingtons and just another reason to bow down to the widget. The aftertaste is pleasantly bitter.

Drinkability: While bitter, the alcohol content is relativity low, so if it suits your taste you can drink this all night (much like Guinness).

Verdict: A very different beer, Boddingtons in a can is an experience all beer lovers should try at least once. Perhaps the taste is not the most remarkable in the English Pale Ale category, but the appearance and mouthfeel are so unique that the beer will always stand out to me. A worthy survivor of more than two centuries.

Grade: B+