trying a mild

[Waynep005]

I am thinking of brewing a mild since I work outside in the summer I thought a low alcohol beer might be nice for after work. What do people think of this recipe?

Pale malt 6 lbs
crystal 30 8 oz
victory malt 4 oz
Ekg .75 oz 60 min
Northern Brewer .5 oz 5 min
Northern Brewer .5 oz 0 min
Safale S04

 

[lowtones84]

Sounds like it would be good to try to me. Have you used S04 before? I haven't actually but there are a lot of people who really don't like it. Nottingham works fine for milds in my experience. I like the simple grain bill and simple hop schedule though, definitely sounds like it would be good for hot summer days!

 

[Andrew862]

I have had good luck with S04. Keep the temp down and be patient. My last S04 brew took 2 days to become active (bubbles anyway) and the temp shot up almost 6 degrees in the fermenter. From what I read try to keep it in the low to mid 60s to avoid esters.

 

[JKaranka]

I'd skip the flameout hops, maybe move it to 15 or 20. There's a vast variety of milds out there, you want to mash a bit on the high side if you are using a lowish proportion of crystal (some milds are up to 30% crystal malt). You want a tad of hop character but not that much of its flavour or aroma really, mainly drive the mild with malty, nutty, toasty or roasty flavours. Best ones I've drank tend to have some fruit from the esters against a background of plenty of malt for the abv.

 

[JKaranka]

Btw, you might want darker crystal, I combine British crystal (I assume 65-70 lovibond) and dark crystal (100-120 lovibond) for milds. I might give a go to special B next time

 

[JKaranka]

Oh, a compilation of mild grists!

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=56335