Mild recipes from "Brew Your Own British Real Ale"

[OCurrans]

Has anyone made any of the mild recipes in Wheeler and Protz"s book "Brew Your Own British Real Ale" (BYOBRA)? I want to make some of the classics, but, when I plugged them into BeerSmith, the bittering was off the board. Are they really that bitter?

 

[zgoda]

Yes I did. And yes, using exact specified amounts make them more bitter than you'd expect. I just reduce amounts of bittering addition to match stats. Or my liking.

 

[OCurrans]

Thanks for the reply. I plan to make about half of them in the next 12 months. Were there any you were particularly fond of?

Cheers & Sláinte,
Howard

 

[HerbieHowells]

I did the Thwaites as my first ever batch. It turned out OK, given everything that I did wrong (chloromine in water and little temp control). I also got some nice results out of the Gales Festival Mild. Honestly, I was stabbing in the dark when picking the recipes, so I can't say for sure what the best recipes are.

I also own the classic styles book on Mild, which inspired me to look at the grist formulations of all of the recipes in BYOBRA. If I were to go back and brew several of the recipes from the book, I might pick based on the different grist formulations. There are some that are nothing but pale and crystal, some that are pale, crystal, and one dark malt, some that are pale, crystal, and two dark malts, and some that contain pale and dark malts but no crystal (that's off the top of my head- it may be somewhat different from what I remember). If you, like me, have no particular commercial brand of mild that you know and love, categorizing the recipes by malts used and brewing one from each family might be a good place to start.

 

[OCurrans]

Thanks Herbie,
The Gale's has been one I was favoring, so, I guess it will be my next. I will pick up the "Mild Ale" book from the club library, and go from there for the future brews.

Howard
Oviedo, FL

 

[Hanglow]

He has said that he only used something like 20% utilisation, when it should be higher, so adjust accordingly for your bittering hops at least

 

[Beerthoven]

FYI, nice compendium of British ale recipes here: http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8174

 

[HerbieHowells]

Thanks Herbie,
The Gale's has been one I was favoring, so, I guess it will be my next. I will pick up the "Mild Ale" book from the club library, and go from there for the future brews.

Howard
Oviedo, FL

Wyeast 1332 (Northwest Ale) is likely the Gale's strain, if you are looking for absolute authenticity. You would probably still get a good beer with one of the other English strains, but it is an option I don't think too many people consider when making an English style beer.