# English Mild



## paulmclaren11 (25/9/12)

Fellow brewers,

I am seeking advice on my planned English Dark Mild. Essentially I am using what I have on hand. 

My question is, is this too much Choc Malt? I know a little goes a long way... I also have some caraamber, caramunich, munich on hand.

Any improvements needed such as mash temp (higher maybe)? This is the first mild I have brewed.

*English Dark Mild* (Mild)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.036 (P): 9.0
Final Gravity (FG): 1.009 (P): 2.3
Alcohol (ABV): 3.54 %
Colour (SRM): 23.9 (EBC): 47.1
Bitterness (IBU): 17.7 (Average)

Pale Ale Malt 2.5kg
Crystal 60 350g
Crystal 120 300g
Chocolate 200g

25g East Kent Golding Plugs (4.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)

0.0 g/L Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 67C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 20C with Danstar Nottingham or Safale S04


Recipe Generated with *BrewMate*


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## MHB (25/9/12)

I know your using what you have on hand but if you want to make a really good mild why not use "Mild Malt" its made for making mild beer and it really does make a big difference.
There are both English and American versions available in Australia, of the two I personally prefer Thomas Fawcett floor malted.
Use what you have for a small batch of bitter and get the right malt to make mild.
Mark


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## WarmBeer (25/9/12)

Got any Black (Patent) malt? If used in small quantities, it gives a great chocolatey flavour, better than chocolate malt itself.

Based on my recipe for a Dark Mild, I'd go:
250g Crystal 60
125g Crystal 120
125g Chocolate
80g Black

Mash high, 69-70, this will give you the "fuller" mouthfeel you want to counter the low % alcohol.

I'd go S-04 before Nottingham, but if you can get your hands on either 1968, 1187 or 1469 liquid yeasts, it will bring it to a whole new level. No need for a starter, but aerate the hell out of the wort prior to pitching the yeast. Ferment at 20-21.


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## paulmclaren11 (25/9/12)

I have some carafa special (3?) - would this be okay?

Thanks for the responses.


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## sponge (25/9/12)

I'd be thinking carafa III would be fine in place of black in a mild. Probably gives a little less harshness to the roastyness as well...


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## paulmclaren11 (25/9/12)

Okay thanks everyone, so my revised recipe is:

Pale Ale Malt 2.5kg
250g Crystal 60
125g Crystal 120
125g Chocolate
80g Carafa 3

25g East Kent Golding Plugs (4.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)

Mash 69-70c for 60 mins
Safale S04 at 20-21c

Good to roll??


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## paulmclaren11 (26/9/12)

I do have about 1.4 kg of Maris Otter Ale left over, is there any issue using this and topping up the base malt with Joe White Trad Ale??


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## tiprya (26/9/12)

It should be slightly different, but not to great detriment, I would have thought.


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## sponge (11/10/12)

Hey all,

I'm looking at doing an english mild/brown and just after a little critiquing..

88% MO
4% brown
4% heritage xtal
4% dark xtal

1.038 (68-69'C for 60min), 25IBU

styrians @ fwh, and maybe 0.4g/L @ cube

either 1469 or 1968.

Just wondering if I should be dropping a little of the dark xtal, or anything else that looks slightly out of place.

This will be my first lowish gravity beer (normally do >1.045) but am keen for a bit of a more sessionable brewskie.


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## Mike L'Itorus (11/10/12)

sponge said:


> Hey all,
> 
> I'm looking at doing an english mild/brown and just after a little critiquing..
> 
> ...


imo, drop the brown out.
drop the crystals to 3% each
Add choc and/or carafa to 3% (or 2% plus 1%black)
drop IBU to 20
mash @70
don't cube hop. hop @ 20 0.5g/L

[email protected]

2c


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## sponge (11/10/12)

Even going into brown ale territory, I was just keen to see what it brings to a beer since I hadn't used it before and have some on hand. 

As for the higher % of xtals, its the reason I was looking at mashing around 68 instead of 70 - which I was originally going to do.

As for dropping IBU's, wouldn't you want something a little higher than ~0.5 BUGU, especially with high mash and a nice whack of xtals? Granted it would probably would make it well drinkable, but thought something more along the lines of 0.6-0.65 BUGU would help balance the high FG?


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## Mike L'Itorus (11/10/12)

sponge said:


> Even going into brown ale territory, I was just keen to see what it brings to a beer since I hadn't used it before and have some on hand.
> 
> As for the higher % of xtals, its the reason I was looking at mashing around 68 instead of 70 - which I was originally going to do.
> 
> As for dropping IBU's, wouldn't you want something a little higher than ~0.5 BUGU, especially with high mash and a nice whack of xtals? Granted it would probably would make it well drinkable, but thought something more along the lines of 0.6-0.65 BUGU would help balance the high FG?



you might want to read this thread here

page 2 in particular.



edit: and don't make the mistake of thinking you're going to get an opressively high FG: Milds are deceptively hard, and the most common error in this malt driven style is attenuating too far, leading to a bland, watery beer. Hint: malt driven style, but due to low OG, hasn't got a lot of malt in it (when you consider the grist weight to the volume, and compare it to a higher OG beer).


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## Fatgodzilla (11/10/12)

[quote name='Mike L'Itorus' post='961460' date='Oct 11 2012, 10:39 AM']you might want to read this thread here

page 2 in particular.[/quote]


aahhh .. a thread with The Rook, Kook and Butters in it .. the good old days .... a great read that thread. Thanks for finding it Mike.

It's good you get answers here young Sponge cos you'll get great advice on Saturday about milds et al. - you just won't remember any of it ! :chug: (sorry for the thread steal .. IBUs having a real ale day (RAF) this weekend .. 4 beer engines .. I'm not bringing a brew, so the high quality of the produce will be maintained ..it'll be gooooddd....


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## sponge (11/10/12)

As per FGZ's comment above, that really is a great read. 

I have had read through a few mild threads before but had never come accross that one... 

I may just have to tweak the recipe a smidgen and use some of the good tips in there. 

Glory days ahead.


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## Bizier (11/10/12)

I mash high AND use a ton of spec grain in a mild. I have a mild on at the moment with 20% spec malt, and so long as you attenuate and what is MEANT to be fermented and appropriately condition the beer, it should not taste unfinished or unreasonably sweet.

And as for choc malts, I much prefer to go with higher percentages of lower roast (think bairds pale choc).

I would definitely use MO and top with JW trad ale, that is something I do regularly. I use MO in my milds, the base malt flavour is critically important in my opinion. I guess mild malt could be a better choice, but having only tried Briess (US), I would stick with your UK malts. JW is too clean for a good mild.


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## paulmclaren11 (12/10/12)

I took the advice of MHB and ordered some mild malt and also some Windsor yeast for my first crack at at Mild.

Will try and put it down next weekend and get drinking it before it gets too hot weather wise.

Looking forward to tasting this bad boy!

Next time I will use my left over MO and JW Trad Ale to compare the difference.


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## Mike L'Itorus (12/10/12)

paulmclaren11 said:


> I took the advice of MHB and ordered some mild malt and also some Windsor yeast for my first crack at at Mild.
> 
> Will try and put it down next weekend and get drinking it before it gets too hot weather wise.
> 
> ...


you wont look back from the floor malted UK varieties, imo. Back when I started brewing, there was very little variety (esp locally to me) there was very little variety, and I used trad ale. I used to beef up the base with German malts. Then as availability improved, I moved on to the TF. GP, Mild, and MO work particularly well in milds. GP or Mild malt is my malt of choice for Milds or lower grav Bitter.

Next imrovement for you would be with the yeast. B)


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## Tony (12/10/12)

Back in 2006, i sent an email to Thomas Fawcett's asking how to make a decent Mild Ale as Mild ale malt was not available in Australia. (I plan to try some myself now that its here)

here is the reply i got:


Dear Tony
Thank you for your email. The advice from our end is as follows. We think you should be able to make a reasonable stab at a mild by using 85% ale malt , 7.5% brown malt and 7.5% crystal malt in your grist. 
If you wanted to make a more traditional dark mild you would need mild ale malt at 7-8.5 of colour for 90% of the grist with crystal making up the remaining 10%.
Hope this information is helpful.
All the very best
James Fawcett
(managing director) 


about a year or 2 ago, i had a go at it, only i used TF MO, and replaced 7.5% brown malt with 5% brown and 2.5% choc.

mashed high and fermented with 1469 and it was awesome!

cheers


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## paulmclaren11 (16/11/12)

I am putting this one down this weekend, a slight change to my original recipe based on the recipe in Jamil's book:

2.5kg Mild Malt
500g Marris Otter
200g Dark Crystal
175g Light Crystal
50g Dark Choc
50g Carafa 3

EKG @60 for about 20 IBU

Wyeast 1469 @ 20c (popping my cherry with liquid yeast!)

Any last minute suggestions? 

I dropped back my choc malt additions from 100g as it is not pale choc and I thought it might be over doing it with Dark Choc and the Carafa... Also, would a 5 min addition of EKG, Fuggles or Styrians keep this in the mold of a mild?

Cheers.


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## paulmclaren11 (2/12/12)

I have just kegged the above recipe. Used 1469 and fermenter @ 20c and mashed at 68c.

It has fermented out more than I thought it would, my temp calcs have a FG of 1009 - was hoping for 1010-1011. It smells great, but tastes a bit watery (granted it isn't carbed yet).

What could have gone wrong here? Or am I jumping the gun and should wait until in the fridge and carbed up?

I upped my hops to about 23 IBU.

Any thoughts?


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## Bizier (2/12/12)

Sounds good, I am a big fan of pale choc, though you could also use carafa spec 1, I also love brown malt. You could mash higher, like 70, and you could also use more crystal.

Seriously, people whinge and whine about crystal percentages, but if you have tastebuds in your head, just keep adjusting up or down to suit your own taste.


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