After a month of keg conditioning, it’s time to do a taste test of my Old Speckled Hen clone attempt!
Old Speckled Hen Clone
- Basics
- Starting gravity = 1.055; final gravity = 1.011; abv = 5.8%; estimated IBU = 37
- Appearance
- The beer is a rich amber color with orangish hints; a modest bit of chill haze. Head is low, creamy and ivory-colored; fairly persistent.
- Aroma
- Light caramel notes, with a bit of maltiness at the core.
- Flavor
- Lightly malty, with a lingering bitterness on the finish. Very hop-centered. Unfortunately, I think the bitterness overrides the maltiness more than I like. This becomes a better beer as it warms up a bit, though.
- Mouthfeel
- In the mouth, the carbonation has an almost creamy effect that is quite nice. The overall body, though, is moderately thin and a bit thinner than I prefer in this type of beer.
- Would I brew this again?
- In it current incarnation, probably not. The aroma is delightful, but the bitterness:body ratio is just a too high for my preference. I attribute this primarily to the fairly low mash temperature called for in the recipe, as well as use of the highly attenuative Nottingham yeast strain. If I were to do this again, I would mash higher (maybe 156°), use a different yeast strain (perhaps WLP002), and cut back the bittering addition just a touch. As it is, the current iteration just doesn’t hit the round, malty notes that the original OSH does.
- Overall rating
- 4/10