Old Speckled Hen is a premium bitter beer made by the Morland Brewery, now owned by Greene King Brewery. Old Speckled Hen was first brewed in 1979 in Abingdon, England, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the MG car factory there on 30 November 1979. Since 2000, when Greene King bought Morland and closed down the Abingdon brewery, it has been made in Greene King's Bury St Edmunds brewery. It is available in more than twenty different countries in bottles, cans and on tap from cask and keg. The brand has been expanded to include Old Crafty Hen, a 6.5% ABV ale, Hens tooth, a 6.5% ABV ale, Old Golden Hen, a golden coloured 4.1% beer, and Old Hoppy Hen, a 4.2% ABV pale ale. History Old Speckled Hen took its name from an experimental car called the MG Featherlight Saloon. The car's body was made of a wooden frame covered with gold-speckled black cellulosed fabric. It was used as a runaround for workers in the MG factory in Abingdon and was nicknamed the "owd speck'ld un". In 1979, the MG Factory celebrated the 50th anniversary of the MG Car Company's move from Oxford to Abingdon. They asked Abingdon brewers Morland & Co to create a special commemorative beer for the occasion, for which they would suggest the name and would also design the label. Daniel O'Leary (brewer and former cooper), had developed the recipe for a private beer in his garden shed in Abingdon and the recipe was then used when the brewery decided to release a celebration beer for the MG anniversary. The beer, an amber coloured Pale Ale, was then brewed at the brewery. It was brewed at a gravity of 1050 to denote the 50th anniversary. 25 barrels, 1200 dozen half-pints bottles, were produced, mostly for the promotional activities at MG, but also for limited distribution to Morland houses in the Abingdon area. What had been produced as a one-off celebration brew, proved so popular that a second batch had to be brewed in time for the main celebrations which were to be held in Abingdon over the weekend of the actual anniversary. After the MG factory closed in 1980, production declined and Old Speckled Hen was almost exclusively available only in pubs operated by Morland due to financial constraints and a different direction being taken by the brewery, which believed its future lay in the