{"id":65,"date":"2013-06-28T13:15:11","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T20:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/?p=65"},"modified":"2013-06-28T13:17:16","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T20:17:16","slug":"bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick\/","title":{"rendered":"Brett\u2019s June Featured Beers Top Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Old<\/a>With the June beer shipments just beginning to arrive in our members\u2019 hands, it\u2019s time again for me to highlight my top pick from among our US and imported 12-oz beer selections (which I have the tough job of sampling each month in order to bring you the write-ups in the newsletter). I hope this preview whets your appetite for this really great brew. (Or would it be whets your thirst? \u2013 or perhaps it should be\u00a0wets<\/em>\u00a0your thirst, \u2018cause, you know, it\u2019s a beverage we\u2019re talking about here.)<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s get to it. My top pick this month is Old Crafty Hen, a special version of one of England\u2019s more iconic beers, Old Speckled Hen. The key difference is the inclusion of a very strong Old Ale from parent brewery Greene King called \u201cOld\u00a05X\u201d\u00a0which weighs in at 12%\u00a0ABV\u00a0and is the culmination of 2-5 years of age in giant oak barrels. That\u2019s right, this is a blended beer \u2013 with wood aging \u2013 pretty unusual for English ales in this day and age.<\/p>\n

So how well does it all come together? Really well for my palate, let me tell you. A short description of a complex beer just won\u2019t do it justice, so here\u2019s the full\u00a0monty:<\/p>\n

On the pour this Hen presents an attractive amber color with a head that drops plenty of lace. Richly malty on the nose, there\u2019s also a distinct fruity quality that only a fine ale can deliver. There\u2019s a sweet impression along with a distinct\u00a0raisiny\u00a0note, prominent caramel and some bread dough. Look for a touch of butter to lend a bit of a toffee character, while hops and oak age add some floral, mildly spicy notes with hints of citrus and wood. Complex as hell on the palate, expect a prominent dark fruit character composed of cherry, raisin, and currants, all surrounded by robust, satisfying caramel malts which deliver some honey notes as well.<\/p>\n

\"100<\/a>
100 barrel maturation vessels for Old 5X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We found this crafty brew fairly sweet, but there\u2019s a moderate hop bitterness and a hint of tartness (thanks to the aged\u00a05X) to balance, along with just a hint of spicy, drying alcohol. A touch of buttery\u00a0diacetyl\u00a0is a\u00a0hallmark of many English ales, and we get some here, as well as mild oak notes and slight hints of oxidation from the prolonged barrel aging, which provide a sherry-like component. Enjoy this fine brew on its own, or pair with a plate of complex cheeses. Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the June beer shipments just beginning to arrive in our members\u2019 hands, it\u2019s time again for me to highlight my top pick from among our US and imported 12-oz beer selections (which I have the tough job of sampling each month in order to bring you the write-ups in the newsletter). I hope this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBrett\u2019s June Featured Beers Top Pick - Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My top pick this month is Old Crafty Hen, a special version of one of England\u2019s more iconic beers, Old Speckled Hen.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brett\u2019s June Featured Beers Top Pick - Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My top pick this month is Old Crafty Hen, a special version of one of England\u2019s more iconic beers, Old Speckled Hen.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beermonthclub\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-28T20:15:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-06-28T20:17:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Old-Crafty-Hen-291x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett Olson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BeerMonthClub\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@BeerMonthClub\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett Olson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Brett\u2019s June Featured Beers Top Pick - Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club","description":"My top pick this month is Old Crafty Hen, a special version of one of England\u2019s more iconic beers, Old Speckled Hen.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Brett\u2019s June Featured Beers Top Pick - Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club","og_description":"My top pick this month is Old Crafty Hen, a special version of one of England\u2019s more iconic beers, Old Speckled Hen.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick\/","og_site_name":"Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beermonthclub\/","article_published_time":"2013-06-28T20:15:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-06-28T20:17:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Old-Crafty-Hen-291x1024.jpg"}],"author":"Brett Olson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@BeerMonthClub","twitter_site":"@BeerMonthClub","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brett Olson","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick\/","name":"Brett\u2019s June Featured Beers Top Pick - Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-06-28T20:15:11+00:00","dateModified":"2013-06-28T20:17:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2cdcb12bd71af0516ba46ec9bd38a57d"},"description":"My top pick this month is Old Crafty Hen, a special version of one of England\u2019s more iconic beers, Old Speckled Hen.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/bretts-june-featured-beers-top-pick\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Beer Blog Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Brett\u2019s June Featured Beers Top Pick"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/","name":"Craft Beer Blog from The Beer of the Month Club","description":"A craft beer blog written by the experts of The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2cdcb12bd71af0516ba46ec9bd38a57d","name":"Brett Olson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f9b7bd044876ec886936b59edb9abed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f9b7bd044876ec886936b59edb9abed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Brett Olson"},"description":"A dedicated beer geek, Brett has been with The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club since 2005 and is a member of our beer selection panel. As monthly newsletter writer for our 12-oz. clubs, he brings you the scoop on each of our featured breweries as well as tasting notes for each beer.","url":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/author\/bretto\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beermonthclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}