Mild Ale

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
thethirstyweasel

thethirstyweasel

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
118
Reaction score
21
Location
Telephone
This is my plan for a mild coming up on Thursday.
I do 17L batches easier for me to manage.

71.4% Pale Ale Malt (British Pale Ale malt)
7.1% British Crystal 60-75L
7.1% Aromatic malt
7.1% Brown malt
7.1% Flaked barley

.75 oz East Kent Golding @ 5.7%AA (60 Min)
.25 oz East Kent Golding @ 5.7%AA (15 min)

Looking at about an OG of 1.040 @ 70% efficiency ( I know out of style not for competition), 25 IBUs and 13 SRM according to promash.

Hey I think this is my first post, been a member for sometime been lurking around this site longer.

Please feel free to rip the recipe especially if your an expert on the style.

I love British Ale my main reason for HB'ing hard to get the good stuff on this
side of the pond, especially in Texas. I would really like to here some feedback, maybe from some of the Brits or a yank that's a real expert on the style.

Oh I'm going with Wyeast 1318 London Ale 3 (Boddington's I think) normally I would use WLP013 but I want to try something different that may finish a touch sweeter. Probably will mash 153-154F (67-68C).

Thanks,
Weez
 
Last edited:
Without comparing to my own mild recipes (I'm on my phone), I'd say it looks pretty good! All the right elements are there.

I'm a big British ale fiend, too. It's tough to mimic that real ale taste and mouthfeel, I think , without whole scale commitment to the cask condition and serving.
 
thethirstyweasel said:
This is my plan for a mild coming up on Thursday.
I do 17L batches easier for me to manage.

64.3% Pale Ale Malt (MO no Mild malt available from supplier)
14.3% British Crystal 60-75L
7.1% Aromatic malt
7.1% Brown malt
7.1% Flaked barley

.75 oz East Kent Golding @ 5%AA (60 Min)
.25 oz East Kent Golding @ 5%AA (15 min)

Looking at about an OG of 1.040 @ 70% efficiency ( I know out of style not for competition), 22 IBUs and 15-16 SRM according to promash.

Hey I think this is my first post, been a member for sometime been lurking around this site longer.

Please feel free to rip the recipe especially if your an expert on the style.

I love British Ale my main reason for HB'ing hard to get the good stuff on this
side of the pond, especially in Texas. I would really like to here some feedback, maybe from some of the Brits or a yank that's a real expert on the style.

Oh I'm going with Wyeast 1318 London Ale 3 (Boddington's I think) normally I would use WLP013 but I want to try something different that may finish a touch sweeter. Probably will mash 153-154F (67-68C).

Thanks,
Weez
Click to expand...

recipe looks good. If you want it to finish a bit sweet, mash even higher...more like 156-158°
 
Thanks for the comments. As a last minute adjustment I cut the crystal in half and upped the pale malt, I don't want too sweet. I should get the supplies delivered today. I am interested to see the actual AA of the hops, going to try to brew this tomorrow. I want a balanced easy drinker but leaning to the malt side (Aromatic malt I love the stuff). I've heard of people going strait Vienna as a mild malt substitute so 50/50 with MO would definitely work IMHO, but I kind of wanted to stay British with the base malts. I almost went with Golden Promise and might next time. I used flaked barley as I've read its a traditional ingredient in mild and hoping to recreate some of that creaminess to mimic cask conditioned real ale to the best of my ability.
Cheers
Weez
 
My last mild was pretty similar - 9% brown, 9% pale chocolate, 9% crystal 60, the rest MO. I even used London III. It turned out great. Would brew again.
 
Brewed it today I hit 1.040 on gravity
the EKG were 5.7%AA so I hit right at about 25 ibus a little high
oh well
Cheers,
weez
 
You know, even if it did end up having a few more IBUs than you wanted, the worst case is that you accidentally brewed a bitter instead of a mild.
 
pythonaut said:
You know, even if it did end up having a few more IBUs than you wanted, the worst case is that you accidentally brewed a bitter instead of a mild.
Click to expand...

this was exactly what I was thinking, there seems to be a rather vague overlap
between mild and ordinary bitter. Hey just as long as it tastes good.

Rocking fermentation in 15 hrs @ 68 going to try to hold it there.
cheers,
weez
 
Some milds have more bitterness like joey holts one is over 30ibu. Also remember the calculators tend to work out wort ibus, not beer ibus, so it'll be less than what you calculated anyway.
 
I was unaware that the IBUS is calculated for wort not beer and now that you say so it makes since to me. I thank you for that.
Are you true Scotsman my good man? If you are do you have a fine
60 schilling recipe for a poor Texas yank in search of the good stuff.
This is what I made last year:

66% Marris Otter
12% Carastan
6% Crystal 75l
6% Munich
6% Honey Malt
3% Pale Chocolate
1/2 oz EKG 7.2% AA for 60 min ~ 20 IBUs No aroma hops.
WLP013 London ale
OG 1.040 FG 1.010
It was very good but I'm not sure if its close to correct for the style.
cheers,
weez
 
I don't really make them, in fact it's almost extinct in scotland. I know loch lomond brewery make a good one although it's amped up so to speak at 3.8%. They are essentially the same as milds though

The post war ones were typically made with pale ale malt then just sugars were used to get the darker colour - dark invert and caramel coulourant.

the later ones, say from the late 1980s onwards would be pale ale malt, crystal malt and wheat of some type to aid the mouthfeel. You can add a small aroma hop addition, like 1/4 oz or so . Have seen recipes that used brewers gold for this


The main problem for homebrewers making these types of beer is serving them, they are always best from cask which need drunk within about three days of tapping or they lose condition and end up lifeless and stale. Bottling or kegging them doesn't work quite as well unfortunately. Doesn't mean it can't be done of course
 
Yeah it is

Although there over 100 breweries here now, most of the newer ones want to make trendy beers, i.e. what is big on the american craft brewing scene

And those who make mostly cask ale need to survive so they tend to make what sells, which is pale and hoppy beers such as golden ales and so on, it's not unusual to walk into a bar and see 5 out of 6 handpulls with golden ales on. I don't mind this that much as I really like pale and hoppy beers, but it would be nice to see a bit of a broader range sometimes

I'd much rather see breweries in the uk try and nail indigenous recipes rather than saisons or gose or american ipas or barrel aged jaffa cake beers etc. It's a bit of a shame they don't as there is such a vast range of beers that have been brewed here over the last couple of centuries they could try and make, but don't.

Thankfully there is homebrewing at least :)

sorry for the rant :)
 
I think that is a tragedy. The UK produces probably the best beers in the world. I mean I like a lot of different styles but British, Irish, Scottish ales are some of the most distinct beers in the world. Its the reason I got back into home brewing because its very difficult to get good quality British beer in the states, and its expensive too. I got a 6er of Guiness in the fridge and I'm wondering if its going to be soured. Often stuff is bottled in clear bottles sets on the shelf for 3 years just waiting for me to come by. When I was younger I didn't think I liked British beer until I finally had some that wasn't spoiled. I never had a commercial example of a mild and that's why I'm really interested to talk to people from the UK so I can get good idea for how to formulate my recipes and come close to something that I haven't really tasted.
 
Hanglow said:
The main problem for homebrewers making these types of beer is serving them, they are always best from cask which need drunk within about three days of tapping or they lose condition and end up lifeless and stale. Bottling or kegging them doesn't work quite as well unfortunately. Doesn't mean it can't be done of course
Click to expand...

If you don't have money for "real" casks and a handpulled system, check these out: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=31618&catid=816

They can only hold max 1.5 volumes of pressure and after you tap it you have to drink it in a couple of days or else it will be totally flat, but with my bitters and milds at least one gallon always goes into these guys. There's a bit of a learning curve to make sure they don't spring a leak and still get a good condition, but it's totally worth it in my book.
 
I would avoid roast malts in milds. The main flavours come from darker sugars and maybe some restrained speciality malts. For some breweries the mild was the same as the light bitter but with dark invert and brewers caramel added for colour. Many of the newer milds are more like very weak porters but that is not what they used to be...
 
Bathams is a good example of that - their mild is the same grist as their bitter, just liquored back a bit then they use dark invert in the mild and light invert in the bitter. Both perfect examples of black country bitter and mild
 
Just pitched a 6.3 gallon batch of mild (weird size because I left less headroom than normal and dumped a few liters of almost-frozen water into the wort to water it down and cool it down faster). Ended up with 1.043 OG and 25 IBUs, which is a bit high for a mild but I'm using US-05 yeast anyway (because it's still a bit hot an US-05 does OK with slighter higher temps) so a bit of Americanization is fine.

For grains I had:
4 kilos Vienna (Marris Otter was sold out :( ).
-90 grams Cara-munich (all I had left).
-130 grams Cara-aroma.
-130 grams chocolate.

5 grams of Bravo of bittering, handful at flameout for a little flavor and to finish off the half pound bag that had been open in my freezer for too long.

Not especially traditional but should be tasty, I'm a big fan of Vienna malt and should go down nice and easy which is nice since I'm making my biggest batch ever.
 
Racked to bright tank today final gravity was 1.006 much drier than I expected.
A sample tasted sweet and malty more hop flavor than I expected. Not too estery tasted a lot like a flat Boddingtons.
 
Beer has been setting @ about 70-72F in bright tank for 5 days cooled down to
50-52F and fined with gelatin plan on bottling Thursday.
 
2 weeks in the bottle really pretty good malty, nutty, will definitely brew again.
I will try to post a photo if I can figure out how.:confused:
 
Have you tried Jamie's recipe? I brewed it this last weekend and from the small refractometer samples I tasted it's going to be freaking amazing. I also brewed a ESB, my first two brew day (new set up and gear made this possible). They have been fermenting since Saturday night. Let us know how it finishes out.
 
JosephN said:
Have you tried Jamie's recipe? I brewed it this last weekend and from the small refractometer samples I tasted it's going to be freaking amazing. I also brewed a ESB, my first two brew day (new set up and gear made this possible). They have been fermenting since Saturday night. Let us know how it finishes out.
Click to expand...

Jamie's recipe:confused: Hope your brews come out well, its so exciting and hard to wait and yet worth it in the long run. I racked my bitter yesterday and harvested the yeast. I'm a little less pleased with its progress, I think it'll be fine but not exactly all I had hoped for.
Cheers,
Weez
 
Before:

Picture 001.jpg
 
Hanglow said:
I hope it tasted good, but **** me that head is enough to suffocate a man searching for the actual beer :)
Click to expand...

Behold the power of flaked barley :rockin:

it really was delicious I will definitely brew it again.

Going to brew a Southern English Brown Thursday

:mug:
Weez
 

Similar threads

Zippy123
Feedback on recipe to split mash for two different beers
Replies
2
Views
484
Zippy123
Zippy123
H
Citrusy Pale Ale to clean out the freezer
Replies
7
Views
844
lumpher
lumpher
beersk
Domestic Ingredients
2
Replies
54
Views
2K
beersk
beersk
D
First Recipe: 1 Gallon Maris Otter / Goldings SMaSH (Comments, suggestions?)
Replies
6
Views
447
Northern_Brewer
Northern_Brewer
G
My Dunkles Weissbier Recipe
Replies
6
Views
1K
AlexKay
A
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top