# English Mild



## wide eyed and legless (7/3/18)

I have brewed the English mild ale once before and served it through the beer engine where to me appeared fine, my last one which I made recently I bottled and I am disappointed with it. Seems rather thin and bland, also didn't come out quite as dark as I would have preferred, ales under 5% ABV I don't seem to enjoy, Anyone got a good Mild recipe coming in at around the 5% mark?


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## Peter80 (7/3/18)

Not really a mild if it is at that ABV. Scaling up my Mild recipe it looks very much like a porter. Is that what you are aiming for or are you aiming for more a Southern / Northern english brown ale?


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## TheSumOfAllBeers (7/3/18)

You could look for the Sarah Hughes mild recipe and scale down the gravity


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## wide eyed and legless (7/3/18)

Looked at the Sarah Hughes Mild, I am considering another one which is about 4.5% and just make sure it has plenty of body. Actually have a Nut Brown Ale which I have been mixing with this mild I have now and that lifts it a lot.


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## RobW (8/3/18)

wide eyed and legless said:


> I have brewed the English mild ale once before and served it through the beer engine where to me appeared fine, my last one which I made recently I bottled and I am disappointed with it. Seems rather thin and bland, also didn't come out quite as dark as I would have preferred, ales under 5% ABV I don't seem to enjoy, Anyone got a good Mild recipe coming in at around the 5% mark?



I made the Gordon Strong recipe recently.
Don't have the exact details but its Maris Otter and about 10% medium crystal and a touch of chocolate. 3.6% ABV
I found the same thing - thin and a bit bland.
I mashed at 70 but I suspect the White Labs British Ale yeast I used may attenuate a bit more than required (73%).
Will try again with a yeast that doesn't attenuate so well - Strong recommends Wy1968 (68%).


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## wide eyed and legless (8/3/18)

That was the one I made, Simplicity Mild, Gordon Strong's Warwick ale (clone of Bass) came out well.
I did use so4 in the mild so that wouldn't have helped.


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## RobW (8/3/18)

I'm considering subbing some of the Maris Otter with Munich to get a bit more malty sweetness too.


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## wide eyed and legless (8/3/18)

That is my intention, add some Munich and get some extra body, it is from the late Graham Wheeler's book.Home Brew Mild recipe, I have a feeling ED has mentioned that brewery on here or it was in some of his bygone days brews.


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## RobW (8/3/18)

Mine was based on this


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## wide eyed and legless (8/3/18)

RobW said:


> Mine was based on this


Pretty much the same as mine but using the so4 mine ended up at 1,308, I will check GS book and see what yeast he used. I'll get it right, though I must say I really enjoyed it mixed with the Nut Brown Ale, my wife noticed a slur and a sway so it must be good.


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## wide eyed and legless (9/3/18)

Checked in the book GS does recommend the Wyeast1968 London ESB, so the recipe was correct which came off Brewers Friend. The Home Brewery Mild I have checked again and it comes in at 3.75% but for some reason I have put in German Vienna as the base malt and can't remember why?


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## scomet (9/3/18)

Hi weal I think you just showed why we should all have a beer engine; they are truly magic with certain beers used right, they bring a rich creamy texture… I don’t, too hot here.

I have never made a good mild below 4%abv, 5% is good for a mid and the Porters are 9%+. 

I will look through my old recipes and try and help your question (I still use a pencil and paper!) good thread.


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## wide eyed and legless (9/3/18)

I am not going to let it get away from me, I want to make one under the 4% mark, was looking through the Barclay Perkins milds without going into the Victorian strong milds found this one. Also noticed Ed Mather who posts on here has put a comment under the recipe.
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com.au/2017/03/lets-brew-1946-tetley-mild.html


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## RobW (9/3/18)

Surprising that it's 25% sugar with 85% attenuation.
Presumably the 2 hr boil contributes something too.


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## awfulknauful (9/3/18)

I am liking the look of this, be a real good session beer after a game, I will have to research this mild ale more and get something in my recipe base, 3.5 % sounds good.


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## wide eyed and legless (9/3/18)

RobW said:


> Surprising that it's 25% sugar with 85% attenuation.
> Presumably the 2 hr boil contributes something too.


Ed's the man to ask, hopefully he may chip in with some advice, as long as he talks metric.


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## scomet (9/3/18)

wide eyed and legless said:


> looking through the Barclay Perkins


This is a v good recipe from BP, long boil, don't get the invert sugar too hot if your making your own or you’ll get caramel. I use Nottingham and over pitch by 100% Mild is the cheapest beer on the bar, I think I put 1kg of invert in mine you couldn't taste it the abv was over 4


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## goatchop41 (9/3/18)

Don't be afraid to mash up at 70-72oC for a mere 30-45 mins to get a very solid body on your mid strength beers.
I've had cracking results with it, not only for English style mid strengths, but also mid strength versions of saisons, belgians and American style mid-strength 'session IPAs'


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## scomet (9/3/18)

wide eyed and legless said:


> the Barclay Perkins milds


My recipe/notes said, Brew #1 beautiful needs to be a bit darker, I used 2kg wey pale barley brown sugar and 1/2 kg of invert#3? my abv was 5.2. The second brew i subbed to 1kg dark invert, both had 7g fuggles per, abv was 5.8 my fg hit 1008 and 1004 respectively with Notto, you could jump in at 1015 and get a lower %

My next Mild I’m going to parti-gyle following a Porter which hasn't been sparged so much and see what we can get - but Nothing will beat pulling it through a beer engine (with the sparkler set write!) Cheapest beer on the bar - tastes like Heaven


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## Edd Mather 6 (9/3/18)

Hi All , 
I'll grab some sub 1.050 ° or so Mild recipies and post them up , but my personal post war favourite is the 1/4 Best Mild recipie that I wrote from 1948/9 from Richard Clarke's brewery in Reddish Vale , Stockport , I think I've also got a version of Tennant Brothers Best Mild from Sheffield (1956 ) somewhere, anyway, I'll do a few and dig them out !
Cheers
Edd


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## wide eyed and legless (10/3/18)

Cheers Ed, enjoyed your latest blog with Charlie Bamforth giving a talk about oxygen.
http://edsbeer.blogspot.com.au/


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## Edd Mather 6 (27/3/18)

Hi All ,
Here`s a nice Mild from Dutton`s of Blackburn , Lancashire .
It`s from 1967 and at only 3 % it`s one for quaffing !! ; and yes Wide Eyed , the temperature values are in that Metric thingy  !! .
Cheers & Happy Mashing ,
EDD


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## f00b4r (28/3/18)

wide eyed and legless said:


> Cheers Ed, enjoyed your latest blog with Charlie Bamforth giving a talk about oxygen.
> http://edsbeer.blogspot.com.au/



Different Ed but yes a great blog


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## wide eyed and legless (28/3/18)

f00b4r said:


> Different Ed but yes a great blog


How many Ed's are there, I thought it would be our Ed coming off the Boak and Bailey Beer Blog site.


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## Edd Mather 6 (28/3/18)

Hi All ,
I can confirm that there's only one of me ( unless my evil twin's escaped again  ) .
Cheers
Edd


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## Sidney Harbour-Bridge (28/3/18)

Edd Mather 6 said:


> Hi All ,
> Here`s a nice Mild from Dutton`s of Blackburn , Lancashire .
> It`s from 1967 and at only 3 % it`s one for quaffing !! ; and yes Wide Eyed , the temperature values are in that Metric thingy  !! .
> Cheers & Happy Mashing ,
> EDD


There seems to be 10.5 % of the good s missing?


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## wide eyed and legless (28/3/18)

Sidney Harbour-Bridge said:


> There seems to be 10.5 % of the good s missing?


The sugar is the 10.5% its written on the side.


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## Sidney Harbour-Bridge (28/3/18)

wide eyed and legless said:


> The sugar is the 10.5% its written on the side.








36.5 + 36.5 = 73
+ 1.75 = 74.75
+ 3.5 = 78.25
+ 0.75 = 79
+ 5.25 = 84,25
+ 5.25 = 89.5

Is my maths right?

I don't think I missed anything


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## wide eyed and legless (28/3/18)

Sidney Harbour-Bridge said:


> View attachment 112086
> 
> 
> 36.5 + 36.5 = 73
> ...


Looks right, working at Ford didn't do your maths any harm then.  Ed has been know to miss out on the percentages, unless its imperial percentages.


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## yankinoz (28/3/18)

Peter80 said:


> Not really a mild if it is at that ABV. Scaling up my Mild recipe it looks very much like a porter. Is that what you are aiming for or are you aiming for more a Southern / Northern english brown ale?



When mild ales were more ubiquitous on tap in English pubs, quite a few breweries did a "Best Mild" of higher abv. None posted abv in those days, but low to mid- four percent would be my guess.

The category has never to my knowledge made the BJCP list of styles.


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## malt and barley blues (28/3/18)

Early days the milds were stronger but it is on the BJCP list
https://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style11.php#1a


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## Edd Mather 6 (28/3/18)

Hi All , 
God knows what happened with the grist on that Dutton's mild , I'll re convert it and post again ,
Cheers
Edd


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## Edd Mather 6 (28/3/18)

Hi All ,
As I said in the last post , god only knows what happened with the grist % of the Dutton`s Mild ! , a serious brain fart on this one as I was writing up the formulas for a couple of different breweries into my notebooks at the time ( from my rough workbook) , I can only imagine that I substituted the malt grist from another beer , profuse appologies for the cock up ; I`ve now corrected the mistakes by looking at the original brewing book entry for this beer and doing a fresh conversion !! .
Cheers
Edd

PS : Mental note to self , only write up one brewery at a time in future !!


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## wide eyed and legless (29/3/18)

Thanks for that Edd will definitely be having another go at a mild and hopefully not as thin as my last one. If it is it will be a Sarah Hughes Mild next in the mild ale queue.


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## yankinoz (29/3/18)

malt and barley blues said:


> Early days the milds were stronger but it is on the BJCP list
> https://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style11.php#1a


Mild is on the list, but Best Mild is not. It seems to be a outdated style, a bit like Northern Brown but with little roast.


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## Edd Mather 6 (29/3/18)

yankinoz said:


> Mild is on the list, but Best Mild is not. It seems to be a outdated style, a bit like Northern Brown but with little roast.


Hi Yankinoz,
I've not got many post war Best Mild recipies, two in fact ; Richard Clarke & Co , Reddish Vale Brewery , Stockport 1/3 Best Mild from 1947-50 and
Tennant Brothers , Sheffield , Best Ale from the 1950's.
I've quite a few from the inter war period though, and they're not that different from the post war , maybe a few points higher in abv & gravity ,
Cheers
Edd


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## NC1984 (30/3/18)

This is my partial mash London pride attempt, came out a treat at 4.2%. 





This was a bottle made from the balance of the brew that did not fit in the keg

The next picture is the same brew served via my beer engine with a sparkler, I like the cream style ales,


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## awfulknauful (31/3/18)

Going to be giving this a go tomorrow, stuck on which yeast to use, so4 or wlp002, leaning towards the wlp002 theso4 can get a bit carried away with itself.


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## wide eyed and legless (31/3/18)

I would go the WLP002 and have a good follow up to pitch onto the yeast.


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## Edd Mather 6 (31/3/18)

Hi All , 
Here`s TWO milds for you to go at , both from Wilson`s Brewery , Newton Heath , Manchester from 1955 - 6 .
Cheers & Happy Mashing 
Edd


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## Beermonster62 (1/4/18)

As with any beer thing, you really do need to go to the home of the style to understand it. If you drink M&B mild in Birmingham you will understand the style. Ansells mild was good until the eventual buy-out etc etc. My advice to all home brewers is that you cannot read stuff about styles from a bit of paper, you need to drink the styles where they originated. When I visited Dad's pub in Rugby back in 2013, I enjoyed the M&B Mild so much. When I returned in 2015 they (the brewery chain) had removed the hand-pumped Mild and replaced it with Coors Light - go figure.
Q What's this beer ?
A It's a Koelsch
Q Nice, have you been to Koeln ?
A Where's that ?
Q In Germany
A Oh really, that's interesting.

Blah blah blah


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## Edd Mather 6 (2/4/18)

wide eyed and legless said:


> Thanks for that Edd will definitely be having another go at a mild and hopefully not as thin as my last one. If it is it will be a Sarah Hughes Mild next in the mild ale queue.


Hi Wide Eyed , 
I'd go for a northern strong mild , the Walker's XX recipe I've done comes out at 7%Abv @ 32 IBU on a 1.060° OG and the XXX @ 32 IBU, 1.063° OG and a whopping 8% !!.
I've got a few others such as Tetley's from 1844-1916 ,
Cheers
Edd


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## malt and barley blues (3/4/18)

Beermonster62 said:


> As with any beer thing, you really do need to go to the home of the style to understand it. If you drink M&B mild in Birmingham you will understand the style. Ansells mild was good until the eventual buy-out etc etc. My advice to all home brewers is that you cannot read stuff about styles from a bit of paper, you need to drink the styles where they originated. When I visited Dad's pub in Rugby back in 2013, I enjoyed the M&B Mild so much. When I returned in 2015 they (the brewery chain) had removed the hand-pumped Mild and replaced it with Coors Light - go figure.
> Q What's this beer ?
> A It's a Koelsch
> Q Nice, have you been to Koeln ?
> ...


What is M&B? Would that be Mitchell & Butler's, they went out of business or taken over 50 something years ago.


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## Edd Mather 6 (3/4/18)

malt and barley blues said:


> What is M&B? Would that be Mitchell & Butler's, they went out of business or taken over 50 something years ago.


Hi Malt & Barley Blues ,
M & B merged with Bass of Burton on Trent in 1961 , and their brewery in Birmingham stopped production in 2002 , not managed to trace any of their records yet , but who knows eh ? ,
Cheers 
Edd


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## Edd Mather 6 (3/4/18)

Hi All ,
Here`s another Mild for you , a Best Ale recipe from Tennant Brothers in Sheffield , it`s from 1956 ,
Cheers & Happy Mashing
Edd


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## Edd Mather 6 (4/4/18)

Hi All , 
Here`s another Mild for you to have a look at ! , this one`s from Boddington`s Stangeways Brewery from 1901 ,
Cheers & Happy Mashing guys ,
Edd


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## wide eyed and legless (5/4/18)

Have you ever made this one Edd, or have you used molasses in a beer? I have almost been tempted to put it in a stout but never been game.


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## Edd Mather 6 (5/4/18)

wide eyed and legless said:


> Have you ever made this one Edd, or have you used molasses in a beer? I have almost been tempted to put it in a stout but never been game.


Hi Wide Eyed , 
Never used it personally , but the Lyle's Black Treacle would be OK as well , as No 4 /5 invert is a Very dark sweet invert ,and difficult to buy direct ; with molasses & black treacle the nearest easy buy sub's I can think of , as the residuals in these would compliment a Mild beautifully ,
Cheers 
Edd


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## clibit (10/4/18)

Milds are not as common here in England as they used to be. They used to range in colour from blond through to black, but you rarely see the blond versions now. Mostly deep, dark red, and black. I drink them occasionally but don't brew them. They are malt forward beers, usually 3.5 to 4.5% these days, and I prefer the black versions which focus on chocolate malt rather than crystal and dark crystal, but a combination of crystal and chocolate is good. You need a yeast that has some character and doesn't attenuate too much. I'm not a fan of S04, and I wouldn't use it in a mild anyway, although you could. Wyeast 1187 and 1469 are probably good choices. If I used a dry yeast, probably Windsor or MJ Empire Ale. In a low ABV beer with little hop presence, you need the yeast to provide something. Here's a recipe from a reliable home brew writer, his recipes have worked well for me.

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


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