Dark Mild Jonas's Mild Flurries (Oat Dark Mild)

[Qhrumphf]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

1469 West Yorkshire

Yeast Starter

Maybe

Batch Size (Gallons)

5.5

Original Gravity

1.042

Final Gravity

1.012

Boiling Time (Minutes)

60

IBU

21

Color

~35 SRM

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

14 days @66F

Additional Fermentation

5 days cask conditioning

Tasting Notes

Balanced but malty, light roast, mild hops, molasses, tobacco, and licorice notes.

Based on my 88% efficiency, which may be higher than you may normally get. At 75% "standard" efficiency this should work out to about the same grain bill for a 5 gallon batch instead of 5.5 gallons.

Since I seem to brew new Milds during severe weather events, the name seems fitting, thanks to Gavin for the name.

The key to this is making English-style invert sugar, which is similar to Belgian candi syrup, but a bit different (namely sugar source). Use raw turbinado cane sugar. Use the following process for #3 Invert:

Boil 2 cups water per lb sugar
Remove from heat, add sugar, stir to dissolve
Add 1g citric acid per lb sugar
Heat to 230°F, stirring frequently
Heat as slowly as possible to 240°F
Lower heat to maintain at 240-250°F
For #3 (60-70 SRM), maintain at 240-250°F for 150-210 mins

For my #3, I went with 180 minutes. The invert sugar provides a lot of flavor that you can't get another way.

Additional color is provided via 3 oz (by weight) Weyermann's Sinamar coloring extract. BeerSmith computes the color from the Sinamar darker than it should be, based on what I could garner from Weyermann's information, color should be about 35 SRM. IF YOU HAVE ACCESS, which I do not (and unless you live in the UK, you probably won't either), Brewer's Caramel would be preferable to Sinamar.

3.0 oz Sinamar (Weyermann) (3120.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 2.5 %
3 lbs Mild Malt (Muntons) (4.0 SRM) Grain 2 41.0 %
2 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) (3.0 SRM) Grain 3 27.4 %
12.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4 10.3 %
8.0 oz Crystal Light - 45L (Crisp) (45.0 SRM) Grain 5 6.8 %
6.0 oz Chocolate Malt (Muntons) (395.0 SRM) Grain 6 5.1 %
8.0 oz UK Invert #3 (65.0 SRM) Sugar 7 6.8 %
0.75 oz Progress [6.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 18.7 IBUs
0.25 oz Progress [6.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 2.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg West Yorkshire Ale (Wyeast Labs #1469) Yeast 10 -


Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color

Measured Original Gravity: 10.6 Plato (~1.042)
Measured Final Gravity: 3.0 Plato (~1.012)
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.0 %
Bitterness: 21.0 IBUs
Est Color: 45.4 SRM

Mash this at 152°F, and ferment at about 68°F.

I repitch (in this case top cropped), but if you're starting fresh, target your starter for 0.5 million cells per milliliter of wort per degree Plato, ie about a 33% reduction from what Mr. Malty suggests.

Either serve on cask, or bottle condition low. Cask I serve at about 1.2 volumes CO2, bottles primed to 1.8 volumes.

For water, target 120ppm chloride, 75ppm sulfate, keep sodium low, and adjust acid/baking soda as necessary to aim for a 5.4 mash pH.

With my water I ended up at the following with a small bit of lactic acid needed:

Ca 103
Mg 8
Na 19
SO4 75
Cl 121
HCO3 92

Poured on cask:

 

[ChefRex]

Are you decocting the sugar?

Sounds good!

 

[Qhrumphf]

So for the record, this beer/process made NHC Finals. Hopefully does alright in the final round. Rebrew replicated all but exactly (at least within accuracy tolerance of my instruments so for all practical purposes it's exactly the same).

 

[OswaldvW]

Looks really yummy. Haven't brewed a mild yet.

 

[TurnipGreen]

subbed so I remember to make this later this summer.

 

[eelgerg]

Is the sins mar just a colour enhancer? Does it do anything for flavour or alcohol?

I won't be able to get this - how would I substitute this? More chocolate? Carafa3?

 

[Qhrumphf]

Is the sins mar just a colour enhancer? Does it do anything for flavour or alcohol?

I won't be able to get this - how would I substitute this? More chocolate? Carafa3?

Yes, that's exactly what it is. The idea is to get the color without the added roast. The flavor and ABV contribution are not zero but they're negligible. Its made from Carafa, so if you were going to use grain I'd do that. But if your supply spot carries Carafa, they carry Weyermann (who make Sinamar), and I suspect if they don't carry it they could get it for you on special order.

Alternatively look into Brewer's Caramel coloring. Would be even better, but I don't have access. Can't see location info from the app, but if your spelling and phrasing is any indication you may have an easier access than I do. Either way, you're looking to bump it from a medium brown to a deep very dark brown.

Alternatively you could just skip it and deal with a lighter color. It's still in range for a Dark Mild anyway, just on the paler side. Nowhere near Pale Mild.

 

[eelgerg]

Sweet. I love me a dark mild and want to try this for my next brew. I tried Orfy's mild mannered recipe in December, but something went horribly wrong as the colour is nowhere near a dark mild. More like an amber mild.

 

[roblanderson]

Qhrumphf - I have a couple questions about making invert #3. I am planning a mild brew next week and would like to try this out. Thank you for a very detailed recipe post!

1) Your directions say to stir frequently when heating to 130F, but don't mention stirring again after that. Do you stop stirring when you reach 130F?

2) Is adding additional water ever necessary during the 3-4 hours of boiling? I'm curious how thick the syrup gets.

3) Your recipe calls for 8 oz of invert. Is that 8 oz of sugar + water that was inverted or is that 8 oz of finished syrup weight? And if it is the finished syrup weight, about how much sugar does that start with?

4) Is the invert added during the boil? At the beginning or end?

Thanks!

 

[Qhrumphf]

Qhrumphf - I have a couple questions about making invert #3. I am planning a mild brew next week and would like to try this out. Thank you for a very detailed recipe post!

1) Your directions say to stir frequently when heating to 130F, but don't mention stirring again after that. Do you stop stirring when you reach 130F?

2) Is adding additional water ever necessary during the 3-4 hours of boiling? I'm curious how thick the syrup gets.

3) Your recipe calls for 8 oz of invert. Is that 8 oz of sugar + water that was inverted or is that 8 oz of finished syrup weight? And if it is the finished syrup weight, about how much sugar does that start with?

4) Is the invert added during the boil? At the beginning or end?

Thanks!

1. During that initial heating, the heat is on full, and you don't want to burn it. Once you've hit the next temp you're cranking the heat down very very low. At that point, I'm stirring occasionally to prevent hot spots and keep the temp consistent, but not stirring it constantly.

2. You could in theory, and many do that. I've done that as a means of keeping the temp down, but found it greatly increases the time taken to achieve the darkening you want, so I just meticulously keep an eye on it and only adjust the stove to adjust the temp. I'd say the consistency of the syrup is about on par with LME, both in heated and unheated forms. As in it's quite thin while hot, but when it cools it will be very, very thick. But if you do it correctly it shouldn't actually go solid. I have some #4 I made in December that still will flow in the jar.

3. You're going with 8 oz of the syrup for the recipe. But the instructions for making it are with starting sugar, so if you start with 8 oz sugar, you'll have a little extra syrup left over. Without going into the napkin math, you'll end up with slightly more syrup by weight than you did initial sugar (I usually end up ~4.75 lbs syrup packaged plus a little waste from 4 lbs initial sugar). This is due to a small amount of water content that doesn't boil off (in my experience you'll hit a stall in temperature around 218F where almost all the water will boil off, and then start to heat again). It almost exactly lines up (again napkin math) with the 1.036 PPG of things like candi syrup (which it closely resembles), as opposed to the 1.045 PPG of the raw sugar.

But the stuff has a very long shelf life, so if you plan on using it multiple times you might as well make more than 8 oz at once. I make 4 lbs at at a time, and package it 8 oz (by weight) at a time.

4. Either will be fine. Unlike DME, you're not going to have problems putting it in at the start of the boil, so that's what I do. If you're super worried about hop utilization I guess you could stick it in at the end.

 

[roblanderson]

I gave it a go with less than perfect results, although I think the beer will still turn out great. Here is my thread describing how it went.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I gave it a go with less than perfect results, although I think the beer will still turn out great. Here is my thread describing how it went.

Taste is the important part. It does cool very thick, especially with the darker inverts. So I wouldn't necessarily say you didn't do it correctly.

 

[Shwagger]

Making a mild with leftover D90 tomorrow. Making invert is not my cup of (British) tea