Dark Mild Reaper's Mild, 1st place 2011 HBT Competition

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First Mild and first time hitting over 80% efficiency. Looking forward to the results, no tweaking of the recipe and it smells glorious!! Also the Cowboys won which makes today a great day!
 
First Mild and first time hitting over 80% efficiency. Looking forward to the results, no tweaking of the recipe and it smells glorious!! Also the Cowboys won which makes today a great day!

I know... Shocking, isn't it?

Anyways, please post your results from the first tasting. Looking forward to it :)
 
Here it is

image-259976674.jpg
 
well. it was a fairly successful brew. Had to stop my second batch sparge short because it went below 1.008, so I topped up the kettle to get my volume. Ended up with a OG of 1.032. can't wait for it to be in the keg.
 
azscoob said:
This is an English brown mild, it is a low gravity session ale, so there is less grain in it than a higher gravity beer, the beer has big flavor from the malts used in it, so you get a great tasting beer with a lower ABV so it won't mess you up too bad, perfect for enjoying when you still need to get things done.

azscoob, thanks for the recipe and inspiring me to brew something other than pale ales and ipa's. I just got my grains in and plan on brewing this tomorrow. I ordered EKG and willamette instead of fuggles. Which one should I use for bittering?
 
azscoob, thanks for the recipe and inspiring me to brew something other than pale ales and ipa's. I just got my grains in and plan on brewing this tomorrow. I ordered EKG and willamette instead of fuggles. Which one should I use for bittering?

I personally would use the wilamette for your 45 minute bittering addition and the EKG for flavor/aroma addition, this is simply because I love the flavor of EKG hops later in the boil, one of my favorite hops!
 
Thanks for the recipe and tips. I brewed this a 3.5 weeks ago with ingredients I had left over from various other batches throughout the year. I ended up toasting some pils malt in my oven as well. It's been carbonating in bottle for 10 days and I sampled one last night. Pretty awesome for such a young beer... Again thanks for the great recipe!
 
azscoob said:
I personally would use the wilamette for your 45 minute bittering addition and the EKG for flavor/aroma addition, this is simply because I love the flavor of EKG hops later in the boil, one of my favorite hops!

Awesome, thanks.
 
Azscoob, dude. How could I have missed this thread? Oh, I remember now. I wasn't reading HBT then. Anyway, belated congrats on the win and the recipe looks great. I copied it for my future brews. Thanks...
 
This is my first attempt at a home brew. All my numbers came in dead on throughout the process. (Im an airplane mechanic, so following directions to a T is ingrained in me). Unfortunately I didn't have a tube for my Hygrometer on brew day. So I'm just going to let it sit on the cake for 3-4 weeks, cold crash, prime and bottle. Oh, and my local home brew supply didn't have WLP002, so I used WLP005. Cant wait to see how it turns out. Im marking this one up to a learning experience. As long as its not contaminated, Ill be happy. Ill just watch the FG in a few weeks and make the transition.
 
topshelf: traditional mild wouldn't be let to sit for that long, as you drink it a bit more 'green' than other brews, anyway, neither conditioning it those extra two weeks will hurt nor not doing it and crashing after two weeks
 
Okay, thanks for the info. I may just go ahead and bottle it after the 10 days then. Since im a noob, I'm kind of blind sided by how short of time this beer can be ready. Im cool with that though. Its the quicker I can brew the next. I absolutely love brewing beer so far. I think its all the variables.
 
Brewed this yesterday with a few tweaks.

- Used Crisp UK Pale Ale malt
- Only one addition of EKG hops at 45 minutes (5.8% AA)
 
Just out of curiosity, can anyone tell if the 15 minute addition makes any difference on a beer with such low IBUs?


In addition, this style is supposed to have little to no hop perception. Would a 45 minute addition be enough to keep this beer tasting the same as the original posted recipe?
 
Just out of curiosity, can anyone tell if the 15 minute addition makes any difference on a beer with such low IBUs?

In addition, this style is supposed to have little to no hop perception. Would a 45 minute addition be enough to keep this beer tasting the same as the original posted recipe?

The difference between a 60 and 45 minute shouldn't be too noticeable, maybe a touch more flavor from the 45, not much. 60 will bitter more though. A 15 minute will add flavor and a bit of aroma to the beer.
 
The difference between a 60 and 45 minute shouldn't be too noticeable, maybe a touch more flavor from the 45, not much. 60 will bitter more though. A 15 minute will add flavor and a bit of aroma to the beer.

I get that, I'm just wondering if this 15 minute addition will actually do anything with this small of a beer and with that small amount of hops with such low alpha acids.
 
Haputanlas said:
I get that, I'm just wondering if this 15 minute addition will actually do anything with this small of a beer and with that small amount of hops with such low alpha acids.

I have heard that the aroma/flavor has less to do with the aa co tent and more related to oils and several other compounds - leading some to recommend that you don't correct late additions for alpha. I'd be surprised if you couldnt notice the difference in a side by side with and without the 15 min addition.
 
Thanks very much for posting, and thanks for the extra info about 2-row+victory vs marris otter, that is very helpful.

To OP:

In your experience brewing this recipe, is there a difference between the MO and 2-Row/Victory versions? All things being equal, the 2-Row version will be cheaper. If there is a quality difference, I'd rather spring for the MO.

Thanks!
 
To OP:

In your experience brewing this recipe, is there a difference between the MO and 2-Row/Victory versions? All things being equal, the 2-Row version will be cheaper. If there is a quality difference, I'd rather spring for the MO.

Thanks!

While the MO is quite awesome and won me the gold, I honestly prefer home toasting some 2-row to make my own victory, and adding that with 2-row for this recipe.

The flavors are fresh and malty, almost nutty.

I think I listed my process for home toasting is in the first few posts of this thread, give it a try, your house will smell fantastic while toasting the malt....malty, peanut buttery... Amazing. You won't be disappointed, and if you are like me you will start subbing home toasted and 2-row for all your recipes calling for MO.
 
I just bottled my batch. I brewed on 12/24 and bottled today (1/12). I was a little surprised to see the final gravity at 1.024. My og was 1.049. I fermented in my closet ( no temp control) which ranged from 60-70 degrees. Could this have made the difference in the attenuation?


The beer tasted good straight out of the fermenter. I can't wait to see how it turns out when carbonated. I used 8 oz of chocolate malt and 1oz willamette and 1oz EKG.
 
While the MO is quite awesome and won me the gold, I honestly prefer home toasting some 2-row to make my own victory, and adding that with 2-row for this recipe.

The flavors are fresh and malty, almost nutty.

I think I listed my process for home toasting is in the first few posts of this thread, give it a try, your house will smell fantastic while toasting the malt....malty, peanut buttery... Amazing. You won't be disappointed, and if you are like me you will start subbing home toasted and 2-row for all your recipes calling for MO.

I think you convinced me to try toasting.

Let me verify: you take 1lb of the total base malt (2-row) and toast it, then (after a week) add it back into the rest of the (2-row) grist for crushing.

Sound right?
 
Franc103 said:
I think you convinced me to try toasting.

Let me verify: you take 1lb of the total base malt (2-row) and toast it, then (after a week) add it back into the rest of the (2-row) grist for crushing.

Sound right?

I really have to try this.
 
Started this brew today. Second all-grain attempt. Thanks for the recipe can't wait to try it out
 

About to keg this. I have another 50ish lb of Maris Otter I have to go through before I'll likely do this.

Anyways, I know that I'm going to be making an English Mild one of my regulars. Hope this turns out as good as I'm looking for.
 
I just kegged this and put a little sample into a bottle with the carbonator. And wow! This is the one of the best milds I've ever had. In addition, this brew came out to around 2.75% ABV! I am so damn impressed by this beer. Great job on the recipe!

OG 1.034
FG 1.013

ABV 2.75%
 
Just want to say this is a great recipe and was my first all grain. I've done 3 batches now and this will remain a staple in my brew lineup.
 
Just want to say this is a great recipe and was my first all grain. I've done 3 batches now and this will remain a staple in my brew lineup.

Glad you like it! My first all grain recipe is still on my regular brew schedule, it's been years since I first brewed it, I have tweaked it a little but nothing major.

That's what makes this hobby so much fun, finding a great beer and fine tuning it to your preferences.
 
I'm gonna brew this up soon, and pardon me as I have not read the whole thread, but has anyone tried this with golden promise in lieu of maris otter? I have some golden promise on hand, no MO. Thoughts?

Also, how about subbing EKGs for the Fuggles?
 
I'm gonna brew this up soon, and pardon me as I have not read the whole thread, but has anyone tried this with golden promise in lieu of maris otter? I have some golden promise on hand, no MO. Thoughts?

Also, how about subbing EKGs for the Fuggles?

EKG is what I used. Worked out great. Also, many others on this thread used EKG with good results.

Golden Promise is a little bit lighter and less malty than the MO. It should be OK and I'd suggest you go for it, but it's possible that it might make the beer a tad thin for some's tastes.

You could always toast some of the grain (as the OP mentioned). Sounds tasty to me!
 
EKG is what I used. Worked out great. Also, many others on this thread used EKG with good results.

Golden Promise is a little bit lighter and less malty than the MO. It should be OK and I'd suggest you go for it, but it's possible that it might make the beer a tad thin for some's tastes.

You could always toast some of the grain (as the OP mentioned). Sounds tasty to me!

Thanks for the response. I have always heard that Golden Promise is basically a "superior Maris Otter". I thought that implied maltier, is that not the case?
 
Thanks for the response. I have always heard that Golden Promise is basically a "superior Maris Otter". I thought that implied maltier, is that not the case?

Maybe, just note that I've never used it before.

I looked at this link:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...-malts/base-malts/british-golden-promise.html

Which shows golden promise to be 2L, Whereas the Marris Otter I've used is 3.5-4.5 L.

This to me just implies a maltier/nuttier character in the marris otter.

I think others who've actually used it vs. Marris Otter could give you better opinions. I'm just comparing what I read on paper.
 
I was looking forward to kegging this today but my batch has stalled at 1.020 with initial gravity of 1.039. Any suggestions to try as this is only my 4th batch of homebrew? Thanks.
 
saxowam said:
I was looking forward to kegging this today but my batch has stalled at 1.020 with initial gravity of 1.039. Any suggestions to try as this is only my 4th batch of homebrew? Thanks.

Start by some gentle agitation, raise the temps maybe? Repitching would be next, lastly amylase enzyme.... But the AE would be a last resort...
 

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