Mild Ale.

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beyondthepale

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Well, I'll be trying something different Monday, a "mild" ale. I've never drank or made one of these before, but it sounds good, and I want something light and refreshing for a party. Here's my recipe, what y'all think? Who's tried this style before, I guess they still have it in England but not here in the states...


4 lb. Gold pale DME
1/4 lb. Crystal malt, 60^L
1/4 lb. Black Patent malt
2 oz. British Pale Chocolate malt
1.5(?) oz. Fuggles hops, 4.0% AA
Wyeast London II Activator pack



Sound good? Does it need any last second tweaks?
 
Overall I think you got it. I would cut back on the Fuggles to an ounce, 1.5 oz would be a little too bitter for a mild. I know this is a five gallon batch but I noticed that starting with 5.5 vs 5 gallon post volume will put your gravity and color dead on. I just got through making a mild few weeks ago and it came out awsome. I went a little outside the box and used Munich malt as my base and added some Cascade hops for flavor and aroma. Here is mine for sake of comparison:

6 gallons

4.63# Munich
.65# Crystal 90
.32# Wheat
.25# Roasted Barley
.65# Corn Sugar

.3oz Nugget (boil)
.5oz Cascade (flavor)
.5oz Cascade (aroma)

1.038 O.G. 20 IBUs
 
Sounds good as is,if you like your beer dark,4oz black malt is in the top range for a mild,i'd make it 2oz and split the other 2oz,1oz each extra of crystal/chocolate malt,1.5oz of fuggle is just fine,again top end of the scale.
ps. mild ale is not that easy to find on tap here in the uk,sometimes goes under the label of "brown ale"
 
Well, I can't really cut down the grains that much, they are already pre-cracked together... Although I could hold back some of the mixture... As to the hops, I might do half for boiling and half for flavor. But maybe it doesn't need any flavoring hops?
 
Milds and browns are very similar. Some of my books claim that the only difference is whether it is bottled or kegged. I wouldn't go to that extreme. The black patent will put you at the dark end of the mild spectrum, but not over the edge. I wouldn't worry about it.

1.5 of Fuggles for bittering will be fine. It's a low AA hop. I've got mild recipes that use 3.5 oz. of low AA hops. EKG goes well with fuggles. Milds generally do not have flavoring or aroma hops, but you might consider keeping out 1/4 oz. for dryhopping.
 
david_42 said:
Milds and browns are very similar. Some of my books claim that the only difference is whether it is bottled or kegged. I wouldn't go to that extreme. The black patent will put you at the dark end of the mild spectrum, but not over the edge. I wouldn't worry about it.

1.5 of Fuggles for bittering will be fine. It's a low AA hop. I've got mild recipes that use 3.5 oz. of low AA hops. EKG goes well with fuggles. Milds generally do not have flavoring or aroma hops, but you might consider keeping out 1/4 oz. for dryhopping.



Yeah, I'm not really too concerned here with technical standards, or whatever. Actually, I never really am... But what I'm looking for is a low-grav, lighter bodied, tasty and refreshing beer for people to drink at a party. I've got a couple of other beers that will be the "featured" beers, so this just has to be refreshing and enjoyable. My main concern is to not go too overboard with anything. But from what y'all have said so far, it looks as though I have nothing to worry about. Not that I ever do...;)


So, thank you all, tomorrow is brew day, we'll see how it comes out...
 
is that anything like a small beer? Anchor brewery makes one, (the only one ive ever seen). Im not too fond of it though; It has a bland, sort of nothing-ness about it...Its cool they make it though, as an idea.

cheers
 
Bjorn Borg said:
is that anything like a small beer? Anchor brewery makes one, (the only one ive ever seen). Im not too fond of it though; It has a bland, sort of nothing-ness about it...Its cool they make it though, as an idea.

Right--a mild is the original, quintessential session beer: a beer that joe lunchbucket could knock a few of back on his break and still be good to go for the rest of his shift.

I'm sometimes struck by what a large proportion of the world's classic beer styles are fairly low gravity. Belgium and Scotland are exceptions, but for most other classic continental styles, the majority seem to have gravities 50 and below.
 
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