Greg Hughes, mild

[Zephyr259]

I've often wondered whether DRC is very much different to Special B (or the copycats Special W and Special X). Getting a grip, I think mild is one of the most forgiving genres, and it's hard to make a one.

As far as I can tell they're pretty much the same, just a British made version, as I believe what makes Special B different is a 2-stage caramelisation/roasting process.

 

[Zephyr259]

@An Ankoù Special X is nothing like Special B. Special X is a toasted malt, B is a crystal malt. Was a big surprise to me because I bought both to do a split batch and I could tell by tasting them before I started it was pointless. It says in X's description it's a caramel malt but it's nothing like one. Unless I was sold any old tut and they slapped an X on it.

I don't know what W is like - wanna try it, though.

Are you sure you had Special X? From the Bestmalz site it's a dark crystal around 300 ebc like the other two which has been briefly roasted.

 

[Drunkula]

Are you sure you had Special X? From the Bestmalz site it's a dark crystal around 300 ebc like the other two which has been briefly roasted.

That's what I ordered and that's what it says on the bag. I was talking to Genus Brewing in a chat about it not being like a crystal malt. They said they use Special X in a lot of things to add a bit of something and they pretty much hate crystal malts.

 

[Zephyr259]

That's what I ordered and that's what it says on the bag. I was talking to Genus Brewing in a chat about it not being like a crystal malt. They said they use Special X in a lot of things to add a bit of something and they pretty much hate crystal malts.

Interesting, might have to try some and see what it's like sometime.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Having used special b and w in my experience they are pretty similar.

 

[Drunkula]

Just did a search online for Special X and it looks like I was already teaching sucking of eggs and all that :

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/anybody-used-special-x-malt-300-ebc.77974/
I'm deffo conviced I got the real thing after reading this, too :

https://www.greatfermentations.com/malt-week-best-malz-special-x/
53:06 in this.

 

[Seaside brew]

All very interesting hearing about the different qualities these different malts bring to a beer, I’m very much just blindly following the recipe’s out of the book at the moment and ordering as per what’s needed. Still very much at the bottom of the learning curve!! Got this one brewed and in the fridge today. Looking forward to trying this, be nice having something light and refreshing to get plugged into after a days work.

 

[peebee]

Here's another one then:

Crisp have long done "Mild Ale Malt". I think it was @An Ankoù suggesting it was the same as their "Vienna Malt". The two types of malts are virtually the same, but the UK use different barleys and perhaps different malting techniques to the continent, so for some they weren't quite the same. But in the Crisp range, they were most likely identical! "Mild Ale Malt" is perhaps losing ground as Mild Ale has for decades, so it appears Crisp have "reinvented" their Mild Ale Malt as (link) "Table Malt". They make it sound different, but it's probably the same as their recent "Mild Ale Malt".

I needed some Mild Ale Malt very recently but had none, nor "Table Malt", so Crisp's "Vienna Malt" (EBC 9) got used instead. If anyone thinks the outcome will be different, I think they've just got vivid imaginations.

 

[An Ankoù]

Here's another one then:

Crisp have long done "Mild Ale Malt". I think it was @An Ankoù suggesting it was the same as their "Vienna Malt". The two types of malts are virtually the same, but the UK use different barleys and perhaps different malting techniques to the continent, so for some they weren't quite the same. But in the Crisp range, they were most likely identical! "Mild Ale Malt" is perhaps losing ground as Mild Ale has for decades, so it appears Crisp have "reinvented" their Mild Ale Malt as (link) "Table Malt". They make it sound different, but it's probably the same as their recent "Mild Ale Malt".

I needed some Mild Ale Malt very recently but had none, nor "Table Malt", so Crisp's "Vienna Malt" (EBC 9) got used instead. If anyone thinks the outcome will be different, I think they've just got vivid imaginations.

That's exactly the case. Crisp's website show that their Vienna is made from English 2-row spring barley so I sent them an e-mail enquiring whether I could use it as mild malt. They responded by saying it was absolutely suitable for mild ales.
So I use Crisp's Vienna for making milds and Bestmalz Vienna when such is called for in a "continental" recipe.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

it was absolutely suitable for mild ales.

Mind you, you could say absolutely anything was suitable for putting in mild, historically from slops upwards - or at least, anything that wasn't "the good stuff"!!!

 

[An Ankoù]

Mind you, you could say absolutely anything was suitable for putting in mild, historically from slops upwards - or at least, anything that wasn't "the good stuff"!!!

Very true, I've heard from the staff of more than one pub that, back in the day, the contents of the drip trays- any drip tray- and God knows what else, went back into the mild barrel.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

The folk memory lingers - I've heard the older generation turn down a barman enthusing about a "modern" mild, on the grounds of "It's all slops, innit?".

And it wasn't just the pubs, Watney's recipe books say that something like 15% of their beer was in the form of "recycled" beer.