Morland Original recipe wanted

[orlando]

Hi Guys,

Had a pint of this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Greene King might brew it and destroyed the brewery but I still liked what they had brewed so wondered if any one knows what's in it. I have had a run of using American hops and want to have a "proper" pint of traditional bitter. If I can brew something like it I will be really happy.

[seymour]

I've never had it, but I'd love to. How would you say it differed from Old Speckled Hen?

[orlando]

I suppose if you were trying to classify them then they are an ordinary bitter and a best bitter. the Hen is a maltier brew with what tastes to me like it might have chocolate malt in it and a slightly sweeter edge. Morland Original is the classic session bitter and would be easier on the palate over the whole evening.

If I can't get hold of a clone recipe for this I'm going to do a SMaSH with a difference. I have been given an experimental breed of an old pale malt called Chevalier that was originally bred around the mid 1800's by the Reverend Chevalier, a rector in Suffolk just across the border from me. I have some Flyer hops to flavour it with that I haven't used before so quite an interesting brew. I hope to get hold of some local microbrewery yeast to really up the game and bottle to have in the Spring.

[seymour]

Your SMASH idea sounds like a tasty batch, though I wouldn't expect it to come out much like Morland Original. According to Roy Protz' Real Ale Almanac and other statements from the brewer:

Morland Original Bitter
Ingredients: Pale, Crystal Malt, Sugar (I would guess it's similar to Old Speckled Hen, 80-10-10, just less quantity overall)
OG: 1035
Bittering hops: Challenger
Later aroma hops: Goldings
IBU: 33-37
Colour: 11°SRM/21°EBC

You should try to use their own yeast strain, too. Jim's member floydmeddler recultured yeast from bottle-conditioned Morlands Hen's Tooth and has excellent things to say about its performance in his own homebrew batches.

[orlando]

Thanks Seymour. I'm going to do the SMaSH anyway (now called Knight Flyer), but now I have this recipe I will have a crack at this as well to keg, trouble is I see they use/d Pipkin Malt, at least they did before Greene King took them over, I wonder if it is still the same. I will try and get hold of a couple of bottles of Hen's Tooth, anyone know if a supermarket chain does them? You know it always amazes me that you can get so much complexity in a beer from such a simple list of ingredients, alchemy isn't it?

[seymour]

Pipkin is simply the agricultural name for a specific English barley cultivar, closely related to Maris Otter, Halcyon, Golden Promise, etc. In reality, any English pale ale base malt will be a perfectly suitable substitute.

If you wanna be really obsessive-compulsive about it: the Pipkin cultivar was most popular in the late 1980s and 1990s, but phased-out because it led to comparatively too much DMS. Many people consider that a flaw, so they switched their loyalty to Maris Otter, but if you consider a little DMS an essential component of Morland's taste, than substitute some of the base malt with lager or pils malt.

...You know it always amazes me that you can get so much complexity in a beer from such a simple list of ingredients, alchemy isn't it?

Exactly! That's the magic of English brewing history that I'm always trying to conjure up.

Cheers, and happy brewing!