Old Speckled Hen.

[JMass]

I going on #4 batch. Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow. What I learned from the last time. I recycle my yeast and brewed this one 1st and then a Guiness next. I don't think the Guiness fermented out due to the yeast eating up the sugars from the 1st batch. So lesson learned is to brew the OSH as my second use of the yeast.

Anyway, this has been a real favorite. I'll be boiling up some more invert sugar soon.

 

[BenG021228]

I wish I would have found this recipe before brewing this weekend. I found another one and modified it slightly based on what I had.

7lbs 12oz MO 79.3%
14.7 oz crystal 60l 9.4%
4 oz special B 2.6%
4 oz wheat malt 2.6%
1.6oz carapils 1.0%

4 oz of home-made candi sugar 2.6% (used this in the starter)
4 oz beat sugar 2.6%

mashed in at 152F for 90min

90 min boil

.5 oz challenger during sparge

.5 oz challenger 15 min
1 oz EKG 15 min
irish moss 15 min

1 oz EKG at flameout

I added the special B because the color and flavor of Old Speckled hen has so much carmel to it. (At least in my unexperienced opinion) plus I had it and the color of the original recipe I found was coming up really light compared to the bottle.

I used Wyeast london ESB 1968 in my 1L starter.

Ended up with an O.G. of 1.056 and 5g into the fermentor.

I've Brewed Orfy's hobgoblin clone twice (ag and extract both). Everyone that tried them said that they were awesome. Those kegs didn't last long.

 

[JMass]

It's difficult to keep this one around. So I ordered 2 batches of this. I'll try one on CO2 and one on Nitrogen to see how they compare. It seems I always overshoot my volumes on this one, but we'll see. Unfortunately, I didn't condition the yeast and just sprinkled it over the foam and it took a while to ferment. I brewed on Sunday and didn't notice bubbling in the bucket until Wednesday. Again, we'll see how it turns out.

 

[schia]

Has anyone brewed this lately?

 

[angrybits]

Has anyone brewed this lately?

No, but after killing a six pack I plan on it.

 

[brewbama]

I brewed Orfy's version a while back. Good beer. Not great but good.

 

[angrybits]

I brewed Orfy's version a while back. Good beer. Not great but good.

Do you like the commercial version?

 

[MT2sum]

I used an online converter - this is what it gave me for Orfy's original recipe in the locked thread; NUTS!! the color didn't come thru in the copy/paste - I'll get it. I hope this helps, as I didn't want to use any of the different ideas, just the original - then I'll maybe come back and look at some of the changes others have made ;>)!
Old Speckled Hen
Quantities and temps converted to US.
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Danstar Nottingham
Yeast Starter: No
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: No
Batch Size (Gallons): 6.5
Original Gravity: 1050
Final Gravity: 1013
IBU: 47
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 10
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7
Additional Fermentation: 21
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14

Recipe: Old Speckled Hen
Brewer: Orfy
Style: English Old Ale

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L 6.072 gal
Boil Size: 30.29 L 7.997 gal
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 10.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 47.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
0.45 kg Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM) Extract 8.3 % http://www.austinhomebrew.com/Lyles-Golden-Syrup_p_4513.html - $6.99/11 oz. (454g) 15.87 oz
4.35 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 80.0 % 9.59 lb
0.54 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 9.9 % 19.05 oz
45.00 gm Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min) Hops 42.1 IBU 1.587 oz
15.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min) Hops 4.1 IBU .529 oz
10.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (5 min) Hops 1.1 IBU .353 oz
0.10 kg Dememera Sugar (2.0 SRM) Sugar 1.8 % 3.527 oz


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4.89 kg 10.78 lb
----------------------------
Mash In Add 12.76 L 13.49 qt of water at 76.9 C 170.42°F 68.0 C 154.4°F 90 min

 

[MT2sum]

From pelipen - "Well, jury is out. (snip) I'm getting an interesting floral medicinal thing going on. It's not bandaid medicinal, it's like a chip of cough drop got in the glass. Kind of that belgian earthy phenolic funk thing."

And this from Bugaboo, concerning the Lyles syrup - "To be honest with you it has kind of an earwax taste to it. Really didn't care for it when I sampled it before putting it in the beer. Should of left it out."

You guys made me laugh, Thank You! I needed that tonite!!

Note to Orfy: If Lyles has this medicinal/cough syrup/earwax taste to it when mine is finished, what do you think about using treacle instead the next time around? Just curious, since I like to use Panela/Piloncillo/Jaggery in my Stouts and Porters sometimes to beef up the ABV and give it a slight bit of a molasses flavor. (I grew up in the '40's' having molasses on my toast, cheerios, mush, peanut butter sands etc.)

 

[Pappers_]

Am resurrecting this thread - any recipe thread with both @Orfy and @BierMuncher in it is worth another look.

I've agreed to brew an English pub ale, something like an Old Speckled Hen, for a party in mid-August and condition/serve it in my pin cask. I'm going to do 10 gallons, though - and keg the other half for my own enjoyment.

I'm going with as many English ingredients here as I can, and just placed an order with Farmhouse Brewing Supply. Here's what I've got so far:

Batch Size: 10 gallons
Target OG: 1.055
Bitterness: 42 IBU
Color: 10 SRM

Fermentables
14 lbs Maris Otter (Muntons)
2 lbs Kiln Amber 22L (Franco-Belges)
1 lb British Crystal Malt II 62L (Fawcett)
1 lb British Pale Crystal Malt 20L (Fawcett)
1 lb Dememera Sugar 2 SRM
1 lb Invert Sugar

Mash at 158F for 45 minutes

Hops
2 oz Challenger (7% AA) 60 minutes
1 oz East Kent Goldings (5% AA) 20 minutes
1 oz Challenger 15 minutes
1 oz East Kent Goldings 10 minutes
1 oz Challenger 5 minutes

Yeast
Omega Labs British Ale VIII - high flocculation and I'll make two starters

Other
Clarity Ferm
Irish Moss
12 ml Lactic Acid (in the mash)

Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions.

 

[Pappers_]

bumping for any responses

 

[SanPancho]

bumping for any responses

so howd this one come out? it seems a bit more complicated than the original orfy recipe, and while i'm no expert on british beers, from what i've seen/read they seem to stick with a base, a specialty, and a sugar. curious if the extra variety is a plus or minus for you?

gonna brew this tomorrow in a simple version to see how it compares to my memories of the OSH. 80% maris, 10 brit crystal, 10 lyles. mash at 160, wyeast thames valley, ekgs/goldings of some combination, and going to spund near FG for a bit of smoothness and creaminess i hope.

i'm also considering adding a small amount of malted oats, say 5%, to hopefully help give a bit more smoothness. not sure if that sounds like it'd work well in the recipe?

 

[Pappers_]

sounds like a plan!

 

[SanPancho]

so not sure if this is answered somewhere, quick google didnt help...

is the invert sugar supposed to be measured by volume or weight?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Do you measure normal sugar or malt by volume or weight?

 

[Pappers_]

so not sure if this is answered somewhere, quick google didnt help...

is the invert sugar supposed to be measured by volume or weight?

I do it by weight, before cooking it.

 

[SanPancho]

Do you measure normal sugar or malt by volume or weight?

weight obviously, but i thought about this after i already mashed in, and now im sitting here doing the calcs to figure out how much i need to add.

3.5 gal batch, should have 10oz of syrup.

but- the turbinado sugar i bought came in a 24oz bag, so i used 1.5 pints. that should be a grand total of 3# total weight. but i only have a hair under 30oz of syrup.

so if there's 24oz sugar in 30oz syrup, thats .8oz sugar per oz syrup. so im thinking thats 12.5oz of syrup i need.

if i was measuring by the sugar content. but all the recipes here just say "12oz lyles golden" and no idea how that corresponds to my syrup.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Sounds like you're pretty much there - the official analysis for Lyle's is 80.5g of carbohydrate per 100g.