Dark Mild Mild Mannered Ale (AG) (E) UK/US

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First time I have brewed this one. SWMBO's favorite. Used London Ale III, 1318, Yummy .. Thanks Orfy

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I'd say no to spices ..... don't know that it can handle much in terms of other flavors, she' a delicate one .... silky smooth ....... with a gentle touch .....
 
Thanks for the recipe! Brewed this as biab and very happy with the results.
Only thing is I couldn't get down below 1.020.....not sure why. Any suggestions?
Will brew again for sure!
 
Come to brew this just now, boiler on, weighed out all but the crystal. Went to the garage to fetch it and when I picked it up the whole lot fell on the garage floor, looks like some mice have been at it :(
So I'm going to try this with an extra 100g of chocolate malt and no crystal anyone else tried it like this? Wondering what I'm letting myself in for....
 
Come to brew this just now, boiler on, weighed out all but the crystal. Went to the garage to fetch it and when I picked it up the whole lot fell on the garage floor, looks like some mice have been at it :(
So I'm going to try this with an extra 100g of chocolate malt and no crystal anyone else tried it like this? Wondering what I'm letting myself in for....

I think the crystal adds the sweetness to compliment the chocolate malt. Still, let us know how it turns out!
 
Thinking about adding this to my long list, seems like it'd be a nice spring beer

Put it at the top of your list :) It's an excellent anytime (but definitely Spring) beer, and has a really quick turnaround. I've had grain to glass in a week or so.
 
Seems like we have the same taste in beer, feel like we comment on a lot of the same stuff! ha might have to go out and try a commercial example first to be sure i like the style.
 
Seems like we have the same taste in beer, feel like we comment on a lot of the same stuff! ha might have to go out and try a commercial example first to be sure i like the style.

Haha yes we do! I'l be honest with you, I haven't had many commercial milds that compare to this recipe. It's very easy drinking and light, but has a great flavor. For Christmas I brewed this and bottled it into 22oz bottles to give away to my family for Christmas gifts. My dad (who drinks Old milwaukee light exclusively) loved it and I have to brew another batch just for him.
 
Haha yes we do! I'l be honest with you, I haven't had many commercial milds that compare to this recipe. It's very easy drinking and light, but has a great flavor. For Christmas I brewed this and bottled it into 22oz bottles to give away to my family for Christmas gifts. My dad (who drinks Old milwaukee light exclusively) loved it and I have to brew another batch just for him.

Is the original recipe still the one to go with?
 
Brewed my version yesterday, which is basically the same with a bit of flaked barley in the grist, I used wy1099 this time. This is an awesome recipe. What happened to Orfy?
:mug:
weez
 
Well this recipe came along at the right time. I am planning on brewing a mild this weekend and I was looking at a recipe for a dark mild that didn't include crystal, but after reading the reviews of this one, I'm going for it instead of the other one.
 
Would you mind sharing any of your changes and what worked?
Yep, no problem. Basically, all I did was add some more Maris Otter, included some Munich Malt, and changed the hops to East Kent Goldings. I suspect the magic to this recipe is the ratio of Crystal Malt to Chocolate Malt so keep those the same. I also kept the BU:GU ratio roughly the same - mine came in at 0.4.
My OG was 1.050 and IBUs were 20.5 it fermented down to 1.015. This puts it outside American competition rules for a dark mild, but being English, I know those guidelines are not accurate representations of reality. I'll stick my recipe up on Beersmith if you fancy a peek? Search for Unpropitious Summer.
 
And just when I'm trying to decide what to brew next I stumble across this gem. Looking forward to it. Thanks, Orfy, wherever you are. Long live the Mild!
 
Brewed this up last Sunday, ended up over shooting SG at 1.052 but today 6 days later its at 1.010 so ill give it a few more days then keg! Am I the only one here who doesn't particularly like the taste of the wort till after its cold and carbonated? Lol always hard to judge if their are any off flavorsor not until then for me
 
I brewed this up a few weeks ago. I completely missed gravity, getting an OG of only 1.030 (I discovered afterwards that a screw was loose on my grain mill and the gap widened as I was milling). On top of that, my FG finished at 1.012 (maybe mashed a little too high?). So ABV is only 2.4%.

However, despite the mess up, this beer is amazing! I'll try this again to get the true to recipe version, but I'll probably try to recreate this messed up version as well. For a 2.4% beer it's tasty as hell and you can drink several pints without getting too buzzed!
 
I think i missed the mark on this.

I boiled a 10 gallon BIAB batch. Used the correct amount of grains and started with 15 gallons of water. My hops were in a spider rig, and I added whirlfloc at the end of the boil. Removed the hop bag and cooled the wort to 100 degrees and dropped the hydrometer into the kettle for a 1020 reading. I'm assuming I used too much water, what gives? I went ahead and put it in the carboy, but i dont have much expectation for it. Thoughts?
 
I think i missed the mark on this.

I boiled a 10 gallon BIAB batch. Used the correct amount of grains and started with 15 gallons of water. My hops were in a spider rig, and I added whirlfloc at the end of the boil. Removed the hop bag and cooled the wort to 100 degrees and dropped the hydrometer into the kettle for a 1020 reading. I'm assuming I used too much water, what gives? I went ahead and put it in the carboy, but i dont have much expectation for it. Thoughts?

Did you use the quantities of grain for a 5 gallon batch and not doible it?
 
Anyone made this with WLP051? I harvested the yeast from an amber I did a month back.
 
I'm fairly certain I read this thread thoroughly, but may have missed this.. Has anyone used Wyeast 1318 for this? I'm planning on making this on Saturday.
 
Figures they it was only a couple pages back.... Thanks!
You are welcome, but it was just dumb luck that post was at the top of the page.

The search tool at the top of the page has an option to search your current thread, also an options to search particular forums too.
 
Haven't brewed in about 3 years....This will be my first one back into the business. What should my sparge temp be if I am mashing at 158 degrees for a 5.5 gallon batch? Should it be 185 degrees?
 
Haven't brewed in about 3 years....This will be my first one back into the business. What should my sparge temp be if I am mashing at 158 degrees for a 5.5 gallon batch? Should it be 185 degrees?
Jay, I'm not sure who you are asking, but I'll try to help. Sparge water can be cold or hot, it really doesn't matter. You don't want to go over about 170°F, though, because you could extract tannins from the grain husks. Think of the worst overboiled tea you've ever had. Or oak tree bark.

I heat my mash and sparge water at the same time. When the mash is done, whatever temp I have is what I use, no need to reheat. The advantage over using cold water is that it doesn't take as long to reach a boil if the wort into the kettle is already hot.
 
Thx. Batch sparge water should be under 170F. I was going to put it the same as strike water. So I do the vorlof then drain. Then I figure how much sparge water to use and mix it all up. Next I let it rest for 10 minutes. Vorlof again then drain into pot. This will be my fourth ever AG brewing so I'm no expert yet. I hope this turns out well.

Has anyone thought of adding a little biscuit malt? How much would you use just to give a little hint for complexity for the original AG recipe?
 
Have just brewed this. Smells superb. Brings back tastes of mild from years ago! Thanks to Orfy, if anyone has means to contact him...
 
Mine finished at 1020. I see a lot on here about kegging, but how young can you drink it if you bottle?
 
Brewed something close to this recipe today (had to account for the ingredients I had at home) and signed up to contribute to the community I was benefiting from. So, yeah, this is my first post and all. Exciting!

What I ended up brewing had an OG of 1.040 (I decided to up it a tiny bit) and 22 IBU, as suggested by the recipe.

Grain bill:
2,7kg Pale Ale Malt (no specific cultivar)
550g Munich Malt
600g Crystal 45L
150g CaraAroma
150g Roasted Barley

Mashed at 70C for an hour, collected the sweet wort, boiled for an hour.
45 min: 10g Hallertauer Tettnanger (3,6%), 10g East Kent Golding (5,8%)
15 min: 10g Hallertauer Tettnanger (3,6%), 10g East Kent Golding (5,8%)

Rehydrated one sachet of Nottingham Ale Yeast and pitched at 17 C.

[Reasoning behind this deviation: I didn't have any Maris Otter, so I decided to make up for the nutty, more saturated flavour of MO by adding some Munich Malt. Didn't have any Crystal 60 either, so I basically stuck to 45 L and added some CaraAroma for some of that dark-crystal-goodness. Had to sub in roasted barley for chocolate; this might deliver a stronger roasty punch and might need some time to mellow out. I also didn't have any Fuggles, but I've read that (German) Tettnanger is somewhat similar, so I took that and added some EKG for some "English character".]

Let's see how it turns out!

Cheers from Munich, Germany,
Daniel
 
Brewed something close to this recipe today (had to account for the ingredients I had at home) and signed up to contribute to the community I was benefiting from. So, yeah, this is my first post and all. Exciting!

Yesterday was bottling day for this one. Gravity only went down to 1.014, which I assumed was good (and the goal of the 70C mash), but now I see the recipe calls for a FG of 1.009 (mind you that my OG was ever so slightly higher, but not enough to justify the deviation).

During bottling, I pulled and tasted a small sample. While the aroma and flavour were there (that is, it did have some flavour, not necessarily the kind I was expecting), it was extremely thin, in fact watery, and had no mouthfeel whatsoever. This bums me out a little bit; I did not expect this with such a high percentage of crystal and this high final gravity. In fact, I did expect a rather velvety smooth texture, which might be the wrong idea altogether (a consequence of the fact I have never actually had a dark mild, I guess). Most of my low-OG beers contained a high percentage of oats or (malted) wheat, so maybe I am just habituated to a rather rich mouthfeel, but I thought the shitloads of crystal would do a similar service.

I did make some modifications to the original recipe, but I do not see where I could have screwed up like this. An infection could have wrecked the mouthfeel, but I honestly doubt it, since the aroma, flavour and FG do not give any indication in this direction.

Usually, I'd call it too early to judge, after only two weeks in the fermentor, but given that so many brewers here report exceedingly short turnaround times, I am a bit worried. Let's see if some time is all it needs.

EDIT: Scrolling through random pages of this thread, I found the following (ancient) post:

It is amazing how this little beer changes over time. I can understand why cellarmanship is such a skill on these lower gravity Real Ales. Mine (OG 1.042/24IBU) peaked in flavor after 4 weeks in the keg. I didn't care for it at week 2 (roastiness was too harsh, dead and thin finish), week 3 was meh, and week 4 was delicious! (turned to malty chocolate with a rounder mouthfeel). Now it's gone!

So there's stil hope, I guess :)
 
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Yesterday was bottling day for this one. Gravity only went down to 1.014, which I assumed was good (and the goal of the 70C mash), but now I see the recipe calls for a FG of 1.009 (mind you that my OG was ever so slightly higher, but not enough to justify the deviation).

During bottling, I pulled and tasted a small sample. While the aroma and flavour were there (that is, it did have some flavour, not necessarily the kind I was expecting), it was extremely thin, in fact watery, and had no mouthfeel whatsoever. This bums me out a little bit; I did not expect this with such a high percentage of crystal and this high final gravity. In fact, I did expect a rather velvety smooth texture, which might be the wrong idea altogether (a consequence of the fact I have never actually had a dark mild, I guess). Most of my low-OG beers contained a high percentage of oats or (malted) wheat, so maybe I am just habituated to a rather rich mouthfeel, but I thought the poopyloads of crystal would do a similar service.:)

So, although this thread is turning into a rather intimate conversation between me and myself, I just want to add that the issue seems to be resolved after a little time in the bottle. It is rather thin (I think that Notti just won't leave anything sweet in a beer), but not watery; one might just call it "light". The taste really is surprisingly rich, it is packed with flavour, unlike what you'd expect from a beer at only 3.5% abv. There is some fruitiness to it, a combination of the hops (I find Tettnanger a bit fruity, maybe it was not the perfect sub, but I like it) and the dark crystal, but mostly cocoa and some roasted bread (a bit pretzel-like, I'd say). I'm really happy with the way it's turned out.

Cheers,
Daniel
 
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