Milds

Ive maid five AG's now and the second a ruby mild from Greg hughes book. I guess you could say that was my epiphany brew that you get when suddenly you brew something that knocks the pants off of much of what you buy in the pubs.
So ive been going around and drinking as many milds as I can find to compare to mine.
Mostly they have been poor and week, which maybe there meant to be.(mine went just over 5%).
Stand outs have been windsors Boston mild(4.5%) and one called nosey parker(5.5%), not sure of the brewery.
So has anyone got any mild recipes that they can share with me that are just a bit more special than your average mild?
They seem to be my new trendy beer:thumb:

Cheers John

Cant help with any recipes but Arundel Brewery Black Stallion was a glorious mild. No idea if its still available though.

The Graham Wheeler book - Brew Your Own British Real Ales - has quite a few mild recipes.
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I haven't tried it but I think the DiyDog recipe for How to Disappear Completely satisfies your condition 'bit more special than your average mild' in that it's described as 'the world's first Imperial Mild', with an IBU of 198! [And no that's not one of the DiyDog typos.]

There is another mild recipe in there as well that's not quite as extreme.

Imperial Mild - love it :lol:

The bottled Thwaites Nutty Black is excellent IMHO.

Interesting that your mild, as well as some you've tried, are stronger than the BJCP guidelines.

I had read a good bit about milds on your forum, and read about some of you brewing them up. But then I read an article saying they've about died out over there, that they've lost favorability there to most all except for the older gents, and pubs typically don't sell them.

From what I started reading they sounded tasty and so I became interested, though I just don't care for my beers to be below about 4.7% as I just don't drink all that fast, and so it was my aim. As I tried to stretch my hobby funds thin I decided to try American ingredients instead as I had some on hand and what I'd buy would be cheaper.

This beer turned out quite good and was a hit with the neighbors as well. I'm making another batch tomorrow to have for a family vacation with the in-laws/brother-in-law as we have no milds.

Since mine uses American grains as was a good bit stronger than the style shows I called it a Texas Mild. This is a 19.9 liter batch:

2.27 kg Ashburne mild malt
624 g wheat
454 g brown sugar (FO)
227 g crystal 90
113 g chocolate 350*
113 g light DME (yeast starter)
21 g Willamette (5.1%) @ 70/21 mins
14 g Willamette @ 7 mins
US-05

1.045/1.009
4.8%
26 IBUs
17 srm

Nice one rodwha I'm going to put this one in my book to do sometime.
I think there making a bit of a come back. I was out in London on the weekend and found a few.
Mostly a bit stronger. Had a Boston one made by Windsor and saw a beer mat on a wall for an American one. Think West berks have one.
I brewed my one from seeing a couple of American youtube bloggers talking about them.
So i think you lot across the pond seem to be a bit ahead of us in trends.
We'll probably all be on Belgian sour beers next.

Interesting as I didn't know Americans brewed one. But then where I live is a bit behind the curve and doesn't get the far west or east beers that are iconic. I can buy the kit but I want the real deal.

I'm not sure if we are ahead on trends, though I've seen how the American pale and IPA are getting popular in Europe.

We certainly have a few unique brewers here. Some stuff is a bit too wild for me.

No sours for me!

rodwha said:

Interesting as I didn't know Americans brewed one. But then where I live is a bit behind the curve and doesn't get the far west or east beers that are iconic. I can buy the kit but I want the real deal.

I'm not sure if we are ahead on trends, though I've seen how the American pale and IPA are getting popular in Europe.

We certainly have a few unique brewers here. Some stuff is a bit too wild for me.

No sours for me!

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In Texas you have Jester King. They have a good reputation in Europe, but are not east to get hold of here.

I love a mild ale in the winter but it somehow doesn't do it for me in the summer. (If and when it arrives!!)

I made a Fulstow Brewery Marsh Mild recipe as my first AG brew early this year and it is a delicious brew.

http://www.homebrewcentregy.com/fulstow-marsh-mild-full-mash-kit

The 3.8% ABV may be a bit low for yourself but traditionally a mild ale was low in bittering hops, drunk in quantity and had a correspondingly low ABV; hence the name! :thumb: :thumb:

I brewed a mild with Special B malt as a bit of a twist...it wasn't great so I wouldn't recommend it. :lol:

DoctorMick said:

I brewed a mild with Special B malt as a bit of a twist...it wasn't great so I wouldn't recommend it. :lol:

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Thats interesting. I brewed a brown ale,which is basically a stronger version of a mild, with Special B (as well as 3 other types of crystal) and it came out great. Perhaps the extra strength helped things

Dutto said:

The 3.8% ABV may be a bit low for yourself but traditionally a mild ale was low in bittering hops, drunk in quantity and had a correspondingly low ABV; hence the name! :thumb: :thumb:

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You'd think that wouldn't you because of the name but according to Graham Wheeler/BYOBRA it was called mild because it wasn't conditioned/matured for very long. "The term 'mild ale' originally meant new, fresh or un-matured ale.....the term had nothing to do with strengh or colour" In the early days of commercial brewing beers were matured for a year often longer so for commercial reason mild or beers that were matured for less time became popular

The strength was a higher a few hundred years ago too as they were just exactly the same brown ales matured for less time

Mild ales shouldn't really have to be weak, though there's nothing wrong with having half a dozen pints with your mates and still be able to go to work in the morning. I suppose that way of drinking is outmoded now.

This is an excellent blog, this history of milds is well worth reading.
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/short-history-of-mild.html

Not in my time! :lol: :lol: :lol:

As a lad, the mild was the cheapest brew because:

1. It had the lowest alcohol content and therefore attracted the lowest amount of tax.

2. The quality was always in doubt because the bitter "slops tray" was always poured into the barrel of mild when it needed emptying.

3. Because of these factors it was the cheapest ale in the pub and was drunk a lot by retired men; hence the "old mans drink" label.

In those days, the beer in most pubs (Note) was kept in a cellar below the bar in lightly pressurised wooden barrels and pulled up to the bar from the cellar with a hand-pump.

Here's a couple of useless bits of information.

1. When the beer was delivered it was dropped off the back of a lorry or a cart on to a sack filled with straw, rolled down the road and then down a ramp into the pub's cellar.

It obviously had to sit quite a while before it could be drunk because the yeast was well stirred about and secondary fermentation had to be completed.

This gave rise to the old joke about the drinker who complained to the barman that his pint was "cloudy". "What do you expect for two-bob?" said the barman, "Thunder and lighting?"

2. Barrels normally had three bungs.

The bottom bung on the end of the barrel was tapered so that increasing pressure tightened the bung.

The top bung on the end of the barrel was a lot smaller and tapered so that it could be pulled out to allow air in when the internal pressure disappeared.

The top bung on the side of the barrel was the widest of the three and tapered outwards to allow a) easy filling, b) recovery of the bottom bung before filling and c) it to blow off if there was too much pressure in the barrel.

3. Because the barrels were pressurised and the beer held in place with tapered bungs each barrel had to be "tapped" by the barman. It was a highly skilled job that could be carried out (or completely screwed up) with one swing of a mallet.

The bottom bung was knocked into the barrel by the simple process of hammering it into the barrel by the spigot of a wooden tap.

The operation was so quick (when successful) that hardly a drop of beer was spilled; but when it went wrong, oh dear what a mess.

Here's how not to do it.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDgNHU5CLnw[/ame]

Happy Days! :thumb: :thumb:

Note: One pub that didn't have a cellar was The Rams Head in Louth where the beer was kept in barrels that were lined up at the back of the bar. The beer was served by the simple expedient of opening a wooden tap and when the pressure that was present disappeared, by loosening the bung at the top of the barrel.

HebridesRob said:

Mild ales shouldn't really have to be weak, though there's nothing wrong with having half a dozen pints with your mates and still be able to go to work in the morning. I suppose that way of drinking is outmoded now.

This is an excellent blog, this history of milds is well worth reading.
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/short-history-of-mild.html

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That Barclayperkins blog is excellint if your interested in the the history of beer

DoctorMick said:

I brewed a mild with Special B malt as a bit of a twist...it wasn't great so I wouldn't recommend it. :lol:

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I did too and after a bit of time to let it round out, I really enjoyed it.

markcc said:

In Texas you have Jester King. They have a good reputation in Europe, but are not east to get hold of here.

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They used to have an excellent reputation. However they have an infection and now make nothing but sours, and they aren't held in high esteem any longer. They are about 30-45 mins from us in a little country town. Wish we had checked them out prior. I can't stand sours so won't be visiting now.

Dutto said:

I love a mild ale in the winter but it somehow doesn't do it for me in the summer. (If and when it arrives!!)

I made a Fulstow Brewery Marsh Mild recipe as my first AG brew early this year and it is a delicious brew.

http://www.homebrewcentregy.com/fulstow-marsh-mild-full-mash-kit

The 3.8% ABV may be a bit low for yourself but traditionally a mild ale was low in bittering hops, drunk in quantity and had a correspondingly low ABV; hence the name! :thumb: :thumb:

Click to expand...

My understanding is that (prior to WW II?) a mild wasn't so low in ABV but was low hopped and drank young. But taxes were higher depending on the ABV so a mild was reduced in ABV so as not to cost so much and remained so since then.