Available Ingredient New England Mild

I have all sorts of stuff coming from deciding to go with NBs $200 free shipping deal, but it's scheduled for Monday, and I'm brewing Saturday. I've been not getting a round tuit for several years, so I'm committed to going ahead and filling a fermenter without further ado, and I'm fine with what I have on hand, though I had been looking forward to playing with some of the new stuff - I'm going to make the leap from steep to partial mash and see if that leads me down the all-grain path. But this one is just extract and steep.

Orfy's post in praise of British Milds from last year got my attention, as I often make a heavier dark beer (some sort of stout/porter/storter/porout), but am really quite happy with both low alcohol and low IBUs - and my on-hand materials include a few ~4 lb bags of Laaglander DME which has the high-temp mashing the grain version calls for already done. I've got Chocolate malt out the wazoo, and have made plenty of beer with wazoo-like amounts that I'm happy with (my tiptoe into new-to-me Mac brewing freeware indicates that I've already blown the color end in too dark for style - though 25 is supposedly full black, so perhaps 39 is still full black, just moreso).

As calculated, not yet brewed:

5.75 gallons into fermenter, full boil

4 lbs DME (Laaglander) (1.031)
2 lbs Chocolate malt (Breiss) (1.008) (1.039 - style 1.030-1.038)

0.5 oz East Kent Goldings - 60 min (15.2 IBU)
0.25oz Tettenang homegrown - 15 minutes (1.8) (17 - style 10-25)

Yeast - either Munton's gold or Danstar Windsor. Dry, rehydrate, no starter.

I have a variety of other hops in the freezer, but this seems workable. It will finish a bit high with the Laaglander - that's fine with me. Thoughts?

If you're using Laaglander, I wouldn't go with the Windsor because it doesn't attenuate that well. Do you already have these yeasts on hand, because I would recommend the Safale S-04, if your set on dry. (starters aren't that hard )

Safale S-04
"A well known English ale strain noted for its fast fermentation and rapid settling. Used in the production of a wide range of ales including English ale styles. Available in 11.5g sachet"

I have some other stuff on order, but that's what's in the house. LHBS isn't actually all that Local. Might as well use up the Munton's. Starters don't bug me too much, but unless I get slants under control there's no way I'm paying the premium for liquid, with far more concern for age and handling over dry.

I would go with the Munton's over the Windsor in this case.

I hope I'm in time.

[swoops in, cape flapping]

Two pounds of chocolate!? That's far and away too much, no matter what the style! I mean, there's "out the wazoo", and there's "out of any situation that makes a lick of sense".

Mild Ale is a "...light-flavored, malt-accented beer that is readily suited to drinking in quantity." It is a session beer, low-gravity, refreshing with enough flavor to remind you you're having a real beer.

With two pounds of chocolate, you've got a one-dimensional flavor bomb.

Please don't misundertand me; you may brew whatever you like to drink. It's your brewery, your ingredients. I just don't want you to waste the time and ingredients on something that's pretty much guaranteed to be barely - just barely - within the realm of "drinkable".

Cheers,

Bob

+1..........that's way too much chocolate! orfy's mild mannered ale uses .15kg(just over 1/4 lb.)!

2 lb is actually applying a great deal of restraint. I considered 3.25 chocolate and 3.25 DME. It will be a nice session beer with low alcohol, just black as a Black Angus bull at midnight in the fog. Flavor bomb - probably a good thing, IME; But I won't make you drink it.

I've got one on the books with 4.25lbs chocolate, 7.5 lbs laaglander and 1.5 lbs honey - 5.5 gallon batch (not a low alcohol beer- 5.7 even with laaglander as the DME and a 1.038 FG) which was very nice, and well-received by others, at least one of whom portends to be a beer snob (...I wonder - spottle, are you on this thing?) This is in that vein, but looking for the lower ABV session-beer drinking characteristics, while retaining the wazoo. I am not representing or intending this to be like Orfy's mild-mannered - but I am being inspired by the idea of a lower ABV but dark and flavorful beer.

Take the section in the page Orfy linked (linked again below) regarding Chester's fighting mild as my inspiration, if you will, along with my previous success (or personal satisfaction, with, anyway) far more chocolate in heavier beers in the past.

Beer Styles - Mild

Okay! So long as you know what you're in for. Like I said, it's your beer. Hell, I'd try it, just to see what it's like. Can't say I'd finish the glass, though!

You get down with yo bad self!

Bob

BobNQ3X said:

Two pounds of chocolate!?

Click to expand...

Ya, I missed that part. If that's what you want, go for it. That is going to kick you in the teeth with roasted flavor, I would suggest around 8oz, but to each their own.

It's bubbling.

Perhaps I'll change the name to New England Midnight Mild, for posterity, and for sure if it gets done again.

Some slight alterations (had a zip lock with 4.25 lbs of DME and didn't bother to extract the extra .25, boiled off a quart more than planned, etc) lead to an OG of 1.044, but with Laaglander's amazing ability to ignore the cries of hungry yeast, it should still be low-test.

Switched the late hop from Tett to Saaz, as I had a bag of Saaz of about that size handy. Tidy the freezer.