Beginners Mild

[rodwha]

You're killing me ericbw! That sounds similar to something I thought I was going to try to create after having made a Cascadian Dark! I wanted a dark beer that wasn't so roasty by using carafa special that would garner the cross-eyed look by those who just drink typical American big box fizzy stuff. So it has a name after all...

 

[rodwha]

I noticed the mild skitter originally posted has an ABV of 5%. Is that high for a typical mild then?

I generally brew my "light" beers at 4.7-8%. I drink too slow to bother with anything lighter as I like the buzz too.

 

[EarlyAmateurZymurgist]

I noticed the mild skitter originally posted has an ABV of 5%. Is that high for a typical mild then?

The beer that skitter posted is not a mild.

 

[rave808]

Yards brawler is a mild

 

[rave808]

Yards brewery from Philly makes a good mild called brawler

 

[skitter]

I didn't post a mild or a beer, unless your referring to the Firestone DBA? My personal recipe for my current run of beer is an amber, nothing to do with a Mild. The recipe I posted was a quote from EarlyAmateurZymurgist that I want to try

 

[rodwha]

Ooops! Guess I misunderstood.

 

[ericbw]

I noticed the mild skitter originally posted has an ABV of 5%. Is that high for a typical mild then?

I generally brew my "light" beers at 4.7-8%. I drink too slow to bother with anything lighter as I like the buzz too.

A mild is supposed to be like 3%.

 

[VikingChrisColby]

Here's a mild ale recipe of mine. It uses actual mild ale malt for an "Old School English" flavor.

http://beerandwinejournal.com/stringbag-mild/


Chris Colby
Editor
beerandwinejournal.com

 

[skitter]

Here's a mild ale recipe of mine. It uses actual mild ale malt for an "Old School English" flavor.

http://beerandwinejournal.com/stringbag-mild/


Chris Colby
Editor
beerandwinejournal.com

Thanks, I'll try that one as well! I only have the 1 LBK so I'll do them one at a time.

 

[ericbw]

Thanks, I'll try that one as well! I only have the 1 LBK so I'll do them one at a time.

This one looks like a partial mash. That means that you're mashing, not just steeping the grains. Mashing just means steeping at a specific temp for specific time with a specific amount of water. It's like steeping with a few more instructions to follow.

If you can steep, you can mash. You'll need a bigger grain bag because its more grain.

You could also replace the 2 pounds of pale and mild malt with more extract.

 

[ericbw]

Well that works

I have a hop bag, was planning on using that for my grains since they aren't in the pot at the same time.

Why not use LME over DME?

In case no one answered, I just think it's easier to measure DME unless your store sells in bulk and you can buy 1 pound. Opening a can and using some of it can be messy and sticky. DME keeps longer, too.

If you are doing a stronger batch, and just using a whole can, I would say it might not matter so much.

 

[skitter]

I buy from my lhbs only as much LME as I need for 1 batch, I dont keep extras. DME is more expensive

 

[skitter]

rodwha your inbox is full

 

[skitter]

rodwha your inbox is full

Sigh...

 

[skitter]

Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS) Mild

2.5 Gallons

Base Malt: 1.75 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract

Specialty Malts:

4 ozs Special B Malt
2 ozs Pale Chocolate Malt

Kettle Hops: 3/4 ounce Goldings (U.S. or UK)
Finishing hops: 1/4 ounce Goldings (U.S. or UK)

Yeast: 1/2 package of Danstar Nottingham

This beer will have an original gravity of approximately 1.032 and an ABV of around 3%. If your local home brewing supplier does not sell grains in sub-one pound increments, you are going to have to purchase a pound of the special B and pale chocolate malts. Hopefully, your wife owns a 12 quart or larger stock pot and a meat or candy thermometer.

In keeping with the KISS principle, you can crush the malt using a rolling pin (place it in a heavy gauge freezer bag). You can make grain steeping bags out of sections of old panty hose by tying a knot in one end, adding the crushed malt, and tying the other end.

Process

1. Boil two gallons of water the night before you plan to brew (this water will be used after the boil to top off your batch)
   
2. Clean and sanitize your Mr. Beer Keg and everything else that will touch your wort after it is cool
   
3. Assuming that your wife owns a stock pot that holds at least 12 quarts, place the stock pot on the the stove and add 2 gallons of tap water (if she owns a larger stock pot, add 2.5 gallons of tap water)
   
4. Bring the water up to 150F, kill the heat, add the bagged grains, and allow the grains to steep for 30 minutes
   
5. Remove the bagged grains and carefully mix in the dry malt extract before applying heat to the pot
   
6. After the wort comes to a boil, reduce the heat, and allow the wort to boil for 15 minutes before adding the kettle hops
   
7. After boiling the wort an additional sixty minutes, kill the heat, add the finishing hops, cover the stock pot, and place it in a kitchen sink full of ice water
   
8. Allow the wort to cool to room temperature before pouring it into the Mr. Beer Keg, toping off with the water that you boiled the night before, and pitching the yeast (you should have more water than you need)

Note: You can also make hop bags out of old panty hose. Using hop bags will reduce the bitterness level slightly.

Putting this into the fermenter now, Using LME which I added in the beginning instead of DME, how bad will that effect the recipe?

 

[rodwha]

As long as you made up for the difference between the two (DME is more dense) nothing.

Had it have been me I would have used a small amount for the boil so that it doesn't darken the color so much, but with LME it becomes messy quickly! That's one of the reasons I like using DME for the boil and LME for flame out, but with such a small batch it changes things, though 1 lb of LME in the boil and 1 lb of LME @ FO wouldn't have likely been too difficult if your LHBS doesn't mind bagging 2 separate bags of LME.

 

[skitter]

I supply the containers, so should be able to do that. This beer may be a bit weak then, used direct translation, probably shpuld have done 2lb total

 

[rodwha]

Using Brewtoad, which recently was changed for the worst in that it won't give the tenth of a percentage for ABV now, shows that, if brewed according to the recipe, gives about 3.5% ABV, 12* L (same as SRM?), and 32 IBU's if done at 60 mins and 5 mins for the hop schedule. Using LME instead appears to change the ABV to about 3.2% I'd guess. Not a big deal. Since the extract was boiled the whole time the color is likely to be a little darker, by how much I'm not sure, and this was based on ultra light LME BTW.

Is this what you expected?

 

[skitter]

Using Brewtoad, which recently was changed for the worst in that it won't give the tenth of a percentage for ABV now, shows that, if brewed according to the recipe, gives about 3.5% ABV, 12* L (same as SRM?), and 32 IBU's if done at 60 mins and 5 mins for the hop schedule. Using LME instead appears to change the ABV to about 3.2% I'd guess. Not a big deal. Since the extract was boiled the whole time the color is likely to be a little darker, by how much I'm not sure, and this was based on ultra light LME BTW.

Is this what you expected?

I never know what to expect, I'm still learning. I'll have to make it again with 2lb LME and adding half the LME at flameout.

 

[skitter]

One more thing. I found the pot that I have been using is like a 5qt, so by the time the boil is done I'm left with 1g of wort. This further gets diluted when adding the water to the 2.5g mark.

Realy need to get a cheapo 12qt stock pot from Wally...

 

[rodwha]

If/when you get 2 lbs of LME make sure they are in separate containers as it's VERY messy trying to pull out just a portion. It gets all over everything!

A larger pot is certainly something you'll need. That's quite a bit of diluting. I do like a bit of top off water as it helps further cool the wort down, but for a batch of that size I wouldn't want to use any more than 1/2 gal.

Room being a concern at the moment I'd try for a 3 gal pot. A little room for the boil, and a little extra for the boil off so that you end up with ~2 gals of wort when done.

 

[skitter]

If/when you get 2 lbs of LME make sure they are in separate containers as it's VERY messy trying to pull out just a portion. It gets all over everything!

A larger pot is certainly something you'll need. That's quite a bit of diluting. I do like a bit of top off water as it helps further cool the wort down, but for a batch of that size I wouldn't want to use any more than 1/2 gal.

Room being a concern at the moment I'd try for a 3 gal pot. A little room for the boil, and a little extra for the boil off so that you end up with ~2 gals of wort when done.

I'll remember that. I may have to skip a 2 week cycle just to get some equipment for the next cycle. I put it in the Mr. Beer keg yesterday, the water was at 35 degrees when I added 2 of my 3L Ozarka bottles into the keg. It has taken till now just to get to 62 degrees with the swamp cooler setup... Oops... Looks like it will be in the keg 2 weeks after all. Was hoping for a 1 week fermentation...

 

[ericbw]

Using Brewtoad, which recently was changed for the worst in that it won't give the tenth of a percentage for ABV now, shows that, if brewed according to the recipe, gives about 3.5% ABV, 12* L (same as SRM?), and 32 IBU's if done at 60 mins and 5 mins for the hop schedule. Using LME instead appears to change the ABV to about 3.2% I'd guess. Not a big deal. Since the extract was boiled the whole time the color is likely to be a little darker, by how much I'm not sure, and this was based on ultra light LME BTW.

Is this what you expected?

Yeah, what's with that change to brewtoad? The slider still shows the line between (say, at 4.5), but anything over 4% jumps to 5%? Lame!

 

[rodwha]

I told them that was a terrible way to display it, that it news to show tenths at the least, and they said they were going to have it changed, but it's been maybe 2 weeks now... They also got rid of Willamette hops!!! Dropping the ball!

 

[ericbw]

I told them that was a terrible way to display it, that it news to show tenths at the least, and they said they were going to have it changed, but it's been maybe 2 weeks now... They also got rid of Willamette hops!!! Dropping the ball!

I noticed that, too.

 

[skitter]

I brewed this on Sunday, and it took until this morning for it to get up to 66 degrees on my fermometer. This batch should be rather interesting as it has been very low and slow type fermentation. I can see a nice 1" krausen ring on it, last night at 62 there was about 1/2". Fermentation is picking up, but I will definitely have to leave this puppy in the fermenter longer as it has taken this long for it to get going.

Using Nottingham as directed, doesn't seem to be as vigorous as S-04

 

[rodwha]

Interesting. I have that yeast in my fridge, and haven't used it before. Actually, I have both of those yeasts, but haven't used them yet, only US-05 as far as dry.

 

[skitter]

Safale S-04 is my favorite so far, but I like malty beers. This is my first time using Nottingham.

 

[rodwha]

I've tended to lean towards high attenuation, and typically American yeasts known as clean.