Old Speckled Hen

Name: Old Speckled Hen
Style: Bitter ale
ABV: 5.2%
Serving: 355ml bottle
Brewery: Morland Brewing
Location: Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Weblink: Old Speckled Hen

So, St. George's Day. Well, I couldn't really review another Ontarian beer on Shakespere's birthday now, could I? So here we go with a beer that I have enjoyed for many years. Although it is better on draught in its original, lower alcohol form, this version seems to have been brewed with North American tastes in mind. Oh, and their expectations about how strong a beer should be. Also, it is the one and only British beer that is available within walking distance of my apartment. Yup, just Hen. There are three (count them, three!) Thai beers at the beer store, but just one British one. Very odd, although it does go a long way to illustrate the tastes of the average Joe on the Canadian streets. Well, at least it was this one and not ****ing Boddingtons.

The beer pours its usual fluid, deep coppery amber colour, with a fine, loose head of tan bubbles that dissipate within a couple of minutes of getting it into the glass. So far just what you'd expect from an English bitter. The scents that rise from those bubbles are very heavily dominated by butterscotch and citrus, a little like you'd expect a glass of orange juice with half a pack of Werthers Originals dissolved into it to smell. Behind that there is a yeasty freshness that reminds you yes, it was a beer you just poured. The flavours are, thankfully, quite a bit more complex though. There is still the citrus and toffee spine, but layered onto that are a fine bouquet of floral, hoppy notes, not unlike a herbaceous border on a warm summer's evening. Yes, definitely a hint of violets there. As the beer moves back in your mouth there is a crisp, clean dryness that develops. Not the astringent, medicinal dryness that seem to be popular right now, but a soft, bready dryness. The brewery ascribe this to their ancient strains of yeast, which I can believe.

However, this beer has been better. Since the Green King buyout in 1999 they seem to have developed this brand as their easy drinking bitter, masquerading as a quality craft product. It has softened off a lot, with much less of the yeasty character that it used to have, and more of the hoppy florals, balanced by an increase in the sweet tones in the flavour palette. This was a pioneer in getting good beers into the supermarket mainstream and for that every beer drinker should be grateful. But also be grateful that so many others have ridden on its coat tails and pushed what is possible and acceptable into the interesting realms that we now enjoy. Happy St. George's Day, cheers!

Young's Double Chocolate Stout

Name: Luxury Double Chocolate Stout
Style: Stout
ABV: 5.2%
Serving: 500ml bottle
Where: Pub Italia, Ottawa
Brewery: Wells & Young's Brewing Company
Location: Bedford, Beds., UK
Weblink: Wells & Young's

Well this one was mostly intended as a blast from the past, to reacquaint myself with a beer that used to rank up in my top five. Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, I used to live less than half a mile from the Young's brewery in Wandsworth, London. Walking to work on those mornings when they were mashing was always a treat, as my route took me straight past the brewery walls and the whole town was infused with rich, malty smells. Sadly that is all gone now, with brewing operations moved out to the Charles Wells brewery site in Bedforshire, following the merger of brewing operations by the two companies. I have nothing at all against Wells, in fact their Bombardier and Banana Bread beers are two that I have enjoyed on many, many occasions, but I can't help feeling that that DCS seems to have become a touch more "Wellsy" over the last couple of years, which seems a shame. mind you, you have to bear in mind that leading up to this beer I had indulged in another of Southern Tier's enormous Blackwater Series stouts, including the Choklat mentioned below.

So, the beer pours fairly thin (again, this is probably relative, but my frame of reference was skewed!) with a dark black-brown colour and a frothy tan-coloured head. Looking good so far. As with many beers in North America, this one was served a touch on the cold side, so the aromas took a while to ease out. I get that the majority of Americans drink piss water that needs to be chilled to within an inch of freezing to make it bearable, but what is the excuse for Canadians? Seriously folks, ease up a bit on the temperatures. Ales should be served at cellar temperatures, that means 8-12°C, not completely frigid. Anyway, I digress; once it had warmed a little the scents of sharp malts (mostly the pale ale and crystal I'm guessing) and a bitter cocoa note dominated the aromas. In the mouth, the first thing I noticed was that this beer seems almost artificially carbonated in comparison to the Southern Tier. The sort of aggressive, fizzy effervescence that you normally associate with lagers. This seems to impart a slightly metallic tang to the front of your mouth. After this more typical beery flavours wash through, led by a nicely toasty, dark malt and again the bitter note of cocoa. There is also a certain amount of yeastiness coming through which I didn't remember, but seems to be a fairly transient thing. In the middle of your mouth things start turning bad, with an unpleasant, burnt rubber acridness coming to the fore. Fortunately this is fairly swiftly superceded by the chocolate finally making its presence felt, with a lingeringly off-sweet dark chocolate taste dominating your senses as the beer swills down your throat.

Overall I was a touch disappointed with this beer. Maybe my tastes have changed, or maybe its this ineffable "Wellsyess" that I mentioned, but Double Chocolate Stout seems to be more heavily carbonated and sightly more processed in nature than I remember, so I probably won't be repeating this trial again for a while.