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Dark Mild Marley's Mild - 1st Place English Ale - Fermentationland Homebrew Competition (AHA)

Yakima 728
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Cider123

Cider123

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2010
Messages
1,143
Reaction score
260
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
Wyeast 1469 (West Yorkshire)
Yeast Starter
yes
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.25
Original Gravity
1.038
Final Gravity
1.010
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
16
Color
light brown
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
21 days @ 66F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
nope
Tasting Notes
Mild malty flavor with lots of nuttiness. Great session ale
Ingredients
Grains
6 lbs Maris Otter 82.7%
8 oz Brown malt 7%
8 oz Victory malt 7%
4 oz Pale chocolate malt 3.3%

Hops
1 oz Fuggles @ 60 min AA 4.3%

Other
.5 tab Whirlfloc at 10 min


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.038 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.038 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.3% Actual Alcohol by Vol: 3.6 %
Bitterness: 16 IBU


I use the BIAB method and mashed this at 153F for 90 minutes. I also used a half tab of Whirlfloc at 10 min left in the boil and added gelatin after chilling in the keg.



This mild won 1st place in the English beer category at the 2014 Fermentationland Homebrew Competition in Central Maine. It was one of my first entries in a competition.



This beer comes out nice and clear with a moderate brown/ruby color. The best characteristics are the nutty finish and the fact that you can easily drink down a few pints as a session ale.
 
Looks delicious! What would be some suitable substitution for hop varieties in this brown ale recipe? I have several types that I need to use as they are aging...


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I imagine you could use most english hop varieties. The hops is only added at the 60 min mark as a slight bittering effect to counter the maltiness. There is no real hops flavor or aroma, which is typical for milds. So if you have some EKG or Challenger or even some Williamette.

Enjoy
 
Put this on my new nitro tap with beergas for the first time. Came out great. Very reminiscent of a cask-conditioned ale. You can drink a bunch of these, I'll tell you what.

I've added a pound of some medium crystal to this recipe to give it a more sweet and/or malty flavor... But then it comes out like any other low abv brown ale. How often do you see a mild ale recipe without any crystal or invert sugar? Come on, give it a try.

I think its the nutty flavor and simplicity that makes this ale special (to me anyway).
 
Brewed up a ten gallon batch and added 8 oz of black to darken it up and add a slight roast to it. Used 2 oz of Cluster at 90 and 1 oz EKG at flameout.
Split the batch and fermented on 1099 and 1469 respectively.
Both are tasting excellent and this is probably one of the best milds I've done.
 
Posting so I can give this recipe a try this fall. This looks like a great beer to drink while watching football!
 
Looks like a great recipe. I've been wanting to get back into British styles after a year or so doing mostly American (amber, various IPAs, wheat beers). How much bitter roast does this recipe have given the pale chocolate and brown malt? My Mild also uses MO as a base with some chocolate malt but I also have 8 oz. of caramel and some flaked oats that I toast in the oven before mash. Debating adding just a little extra edge to it.
 
Banks's Amber, sometimes called Banks's Bitter, is a similar enjoyable session mild. Used to drink it, when doing a lunchtime canal boat stop, around the Brewery area (Wolverhampton).
Still one of my favorite milds. So might be, my first mild brew. But there's loads of good Scottish milds, as well.

There's a recipe for Banks's Bitter, in Wheeler's British Real Ale book (3rd ed).
ABV 3.8% FG 1009 Bitterness (EBU) 33 Colour (EBC) 23
23L batch
Pale malt 3840g
Black malt 39g
Fuggle hops 57g, boil 90min
Goldings hops 19g, boil 10min
Protofloc 3g, boil 10min
 
This thread needed a picture here. I am excited to see where this one goes with time. It is very young and quite good. The West Yorkshire yeast is 100% the correct yeast for this beer.

I deviated slightly from the recipe and did 77% MO, 7.75% Crisp Brown, 7.75% Victory, 5% Pale Chocolate, and 2.5% flaked oats. Went for 21ibu from a single hop addition of Fuggles. Kegged on 11/11/24 - photo from 11/13/24, couldn't help myself.

Water Profile went with:
Ca: 54 Mg: 3, Na: 20, Cl: 59, SO4: 63
Mash pH: 5.39
1731589221722.png
 
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These ingredients are a lot like what I refer to as a "Brown Ale" in my recipe rotation. I add some medium crystal (and the Maris Otter is reduced slightly accordingly), but otherwise it's about identical. I've used Fuggles and 1469 at times as well.

I hope it's not off topic to ask what's the difference between a dark mild and a brown ale? I've been somewhat aiming for a Samuel Smith's Nut Brown but it's an elusive thing.
 
tracer bullet said:
These ingredients are a lot like what I refer to as a "Brown Ale" in my recipe rotation. I add some medium crystal (and the Maris Otter is reduced slightly accordingly), but otherwise it's about identical. I've used Fuggles and 1469 at times as well.

I hope it's not off topic to ask what's the difference between a dark mild and a brown ale? I've been somewhat aiming for a Samuel Smith's Nut Brown but it's an elusive thing.
Click to expand...
I would venture to say @Northern_Brewer would be the one to answer this question.
From what I know:

The English Brown is from southern UK
4-6% ABV typically
Slightly maltier than Mild
More Body
Sweeter
More IBU (20-30)

The English Mild is northern UK.
3-4% (3.2% is the sweet spot)
Less Body
Drier than brown
Less IBU (10-25)

The way I see it - the English Mild is an easy drinking beer that has malty flavors. An easy quaffer that you'd expect northern UK residents to drink several pints before dinner.
 
So happy to see the recent interest in this recipe. It's almost 10 years old now. Just like browns, there are sweeter recipes and there are nuttier ones. This one's nutty, and a favorite around here.
 
tracer bullet said:
I hope it's not off topic to ask what's the difference between a dark mild and a brown ale? I've been somewhat aiming for a Samuel Smith's Nut Brown but it's an elusive thing.
Click to expand...
I don't think there's a simple answer to this, as historically different brewers have done different things. It used to be quite common for breweries to sell draft mild as brown ale in bottles, I believe. The same beer. Other breweries made two different beers.

It's very difficult to find English brown ale in England, other than Newcastle brown, which is a very different beer now to what it used to be. I brew brown ales with all English ingredients sometimes though, and sometimes I drink cask ales that are very similar, but are not called brown ale. Most cask ales just have a brand name, so you have to decide what style it is yourself! And yet we don't really think in that categorising way over here, they are all just cask or real ales, and they vary in colour and hoppiness. Although a dark beer will usually have porter or stout on the pump clip. You hardly ever see bitter, mild or brown ale on the pump clip, nowadays, at least. Which is a change from the 20th century when pubs mostly sold bitter and mild. That was your choice, pretty much, on draught, in a lot of places.

Mild came in a variety of colours, and still does, it's just a lot harder to find these days. Is it different from brown ale? Maybe, maybe not. I think it depends where you are drinking it. And mild ales vary anyway, it's not one beer with one set of criteria. This hustling of beers into styles is a modern, bjcp kinda thing, I think.
 
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The Marley's Mild recipe looks good, I have always been a bitter drinker rather than a mild drinker, but I might give it a go. I can't get Victory malt here, so I'm wondering which English amber malt might be closest. And I'm tempted to increase the ibu a little, 20/22 maybe.
 
duncan_disorderly said:
The Marley's Mild recipe looks good, I have always been a bitter drinker rather than a mild drinker, but I might give it a go. I can't get Victory malt here, so I'm wondering which English amber malt might be closest. And I'm tempted to increase the ibu a little, 20/22 maybe.
Click to expand...

Per this thread they mention English Amber would be a fine sub. Victory is Briess Malting's Biscuit Malt so not sure if you can get Biscuit.

Amber should do fine.

I do really like where I hit the IBU around 21.
 
jdubdvdt said:
Per this thread they mention English Amber would be a fine sub. Victory is Briess Malting's Biscuit Malt so not sure if you can get Biscuit.

Amber should do fine.

I do really like where I hit the IBU around 21.
Click to expand...
Some english maltsters call their amber malt biscuit, I think they are the same thing. But there is a wide range of amber malts and they vary a lot so i'm wondring which one/s is/are closest to Victory.

Thanks.
 
Cheshire Cat said:
Did Marley’s Mild have a ghost of a chance 🤣
Click to expand...
In fact, it was named after the ghost. Dead as a doornail.

duncan_disorderly said:
The Marley's Mild recipe looks good, I have always been a bitter drinker rather than a mild drinker, but I might give it a go. I can't get Victory malt here, so I'm wondering which English amber malt might be closest. And I'm tempted to increase the ibu a little, 20/22 maybe.
Click to expand...
I had trouble recently finding Victory or biscuit malt. Ended up with Special Roasted Malt (not Special B) which Morebeer lists as similar to Victory. Haven't tried it yet.
 
jdubdvdt said:
Hmm... because we changed the recipe slightly?

Cheshire is northern UK, so what do you think of the original recipe? I think it is great, but I went slightly higher on IBU and added flaked oats for a creamier mouth feel. It's a creamy f-ing pint. :D
Click to expand...
I’m not an expert on Mild and haven’t drank it in over 50 years as the stuff then was appalling but I guess that the trend to make it is US and not UK. You just don’t see it in British pubs anymore.
 
Cheshire Cat said:
I’m not an expert on Mild and haven’t drank it in over 50 years as the stuff then was appalling but I guess that the trend to make it is US and not UK. You just don’t see it in British pubs anymore.
Click to expand...
Apparently it's still a thing in Wales, a Welsh friend told me who used to work there in some pubs. But only the old folks tend to drink it there.

In my five years of UK, I've seen only one time a mild on tap.
 

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