Dark English Mild

DARK ENGLISH MILD


 Not a lot is said about the Dark English Mild Ale anymore. It's simply not all that popular. It used to be. In England, and other parts of the UK as well, the Mild was a wildly popular beer for hundreds of years. 

Believed to have been first brewed in the 17 century, the Mild spread throughout the isles as a drinkable, low octane beer that didn't have to be aged for very long before enjoying. It was called a young beer or fresh beer because of it's relative youth compared to the heavier beers of the day. At one point, almost every tavern or beer hall in the UK featured a Mild of some kind. 

Back in those days, beer styles were less rigidly regulated as they are today. A Mild was more about the impact of the beer, less about its coloration or hop content. A Mild could be dark, like the one we are making today, or golden, like a lightly hopped Bitter.



Milds are malt forward, leaving the light hoppy beers to the Bitter world. Caramel and chocolate malts lead to a sweet brownish beer that is easily drinkable due to it's big flavor and low gravity. These low gravity beers were essential in the old days due to the lack of trust people had in drinking water. The brewing process involves boiling, which kills any harmful bacteria in the water supply, a water supply that was used for everything from industrial purposes to storing dead bodies before burial. Because of all the detrimental additions to water, it was considered to be less healthy than low alcohol beer. In fact, water was so low on the preferred beverage power rankings, there was more beer than fresh water on the Mayflower.

Milds eventually lost market share to Bitters, and the hoppier beer took over. Pubs found them just as easy to make and more appealing to those who wanted a crisper, less malty beverage with similar alcohol content. These days, Milds are very rare, with a few craft breweries keeping the beer alive with occasional brews of the now esoteric style. The last bastion of real Milds lies in the coal mining towns in Wales, where miners require something with a little more body to get them through another day inside a mountain. 



OUR RECIPE

7 lbs 2-Row Pale Ale Malt
1/2 lb 80L Caramel Malt
1/4 lb Chocolate Malt

2 oz Fuggles Hops

S-04 Dry English Ale Yeast

1 tsp Irish Moss


Malts We Use

2-Row Pale Ale Malt: A basic base malt, this won’t impart too much color and very little flavor. It is a pretty clean, crisp malt that works well with specialty grains and pretty much any style of beer. American varieties are generally less starchy and lighter than English breeds.

80L Caramel Malt: This specialty malt will contribute not only a fair amount of sweetness, but also a beautiful color that makes this beer stand out from its cousins.80 is in the higher range of Caramel malt, which is bolder in flavor and color than the lighter versions with lower numbers.

Hops We Use

Fuggle: A versatile and traditional English hop variety, Fuggle was introduced in the 19th century and has been a staple of British beers ever since. Usually an aromatic hop, it can be used at any point in the brewing process. In this case, its low Alpha Acid levels make it a perfect bittering hop for low IBU Porter beers.

Yeast We Used

SafAle S-04: A basic English dry yeast strain that works well across all styles but really thrives in malty and dark ales. Top fermenting and reliable, S-04 dry yeast can handle most low to medium ABV beers, it ferments quickly and creates a tight sediment base, increasing the clarity of lighter English ales while still retaining the hearty characteristics of pub beer.

Adjuncts We Used

Irish Moss: We use Irish Moss as a clarifying agent. These negatively charged seaweed particles attract proteins and other free radicals in your boil kettle and drag them to the bottom once cooled, thereby removing haze from your final product. Whirlfloc tablets are another option for this process. Regardless of your preferred methods of clarity, it is important that beers of this style are clear. Lagering can do this as well, but most home brewers don't have that capability, so adding Irish Moss (or something similar) can work wonders for cleaning up the beer.



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