Modern mild - am I really the only brewer who makes it?

[DixeySJ]

I see they're doing a reprint of the 3rd edition so I've just bought a copy. Should be a good read. If anyone else wants to buy a copy here's the link:

https://durdenparkbeer.org.uk/index.php/product/old-british-beers-and-how-to-make-them/

Will order immediately! good spot :)

 

[An Ankoù]

I see they're doing a reprint of the 3rd edition so I've just bought a copy. Should be a good read. If anyone else wants to buy a copy here's the link:

https://durdenparkbeer.org.uk/index.php/product/old-british-beers-and-how-to-make-them/

It's a splendid booklet and I can thoroughly recommend it. There's a bit of conversion to be done: gallons (imperial) and pounds and ounces; and then upscaling to a reasonable volume- I don't think many of us make 4.5 litre batches.
There are some great recipes and some to be avoided if you're using modern ingredients eg, anything that uses only brown and amber malts and requires additional amylase produces quite a harsh drink with modern malts. Best make your own coloured malts for these recipes. it also avoids the range of invert sugars, which is a plus in my book.

 

[Cwrw666]

It's a splendid booklet and I can thoroughly recommend it. There's a bit of conversion to be done: gallons (imperial) and pounds and ounces; and then upscaling to a reasonable volume- I don't think many of us make 4.5 litre batches.
There are some great recipes and some to be avoided if you're using modern ingredients eg, anything that uses only brown and amber malts and requires additional amylase produces quite a harsh drink with modern malts. Best make your own coloured malts for these recipes. it also avoids the range of invert sugars, which is a plus in my book.

It does at least give you the method of making your own amber and brown malts which works very well. These days I hardly buy any malt other than pale malt.
My only gripe with the book is that most of the recipes are insanely strong.

 

[An Ankoù]

It does at least give you the method of making your own amber and brown malts which works very well. These days I hardly buy any malt other than pale malt.
My only gripe with the book is that most of the recipes are insanely strong.

I'm not much of a wine drinker and when I go to pick up some wine for The Wise One, I go through the bottles to find the strongest- it seems to work and I found one at 15½% last week, Anyway, I think the DP Beer Circle have adopted the same approach. I think you said ages ago that your current favourite was one of the Lovibond bitters (recipe elsewhere) is that still the case @Cwrw666 ? I've done quite a few versions changing only the hops. Also doing the same trick with the Five-points recipe. Both provide consistently good result, but entirely different beers.

 

[Cwrw666]

I think you said ages ago that your current favourite was one of the Lovibond bitters (recipe elsewhere) is that still the case @Cwrw666 ? I've done quite a few versions changing only the hops. Also doing the same trick with the Five-points recipe. Both provide consistently good result, but entirely different beers.

The Lovibond one is out of the Pattinson book. I've made it full strength and considerably weaker and it pretty much stays the same, but it is a simple recipe. I also regularly make the Cobb and Co Amber small beer (DP) which I really like and more recently the 1923 Lees Bitter, which is also excellent. Of course it might just be because my water really suits these paler ales.

 

[chopps]

@David Heath last week published a YouTube and brewfather recipe for a Dark Mild that I’m making for our local homebrew group’s ‘low ABV’ bottle swap in January. Looks lovely.



Recipe
Brewfather

 

[Andrew Booth]

I’m brewing the David Heath Dark Mild Tomorrow

 

[DixeySJ]

That looks good. I shall give it a try as a change from the Sarah Hughes (and a less strong alternative). Was interested to see such a short boil time.

 

[Andrew Booth]

Bit early to tell at the moment I did the 30 minute boil it looked like molten chocolate before I chilled it.

 

[531Man]

Will order immediately! good spot :)

Great suggestion thanks.
'Someone' has just bought this as a Christmas present.
I can't wait to start roasting my own!

 

[HSD]

I used to really enjoy the Brains dark mild, haven’t had one in years, post has inspired me to try brewing up a mild never done one for some reason! Cheers.

 

[Andrew Booth]

Well the Dave Heath Dark Mild is Fermenting. I will update this thread when it’s done. I did tinker with his recipe a bit adding 200g of Caramalt into the Grist.

 

[user 43495]

Suit yourself. The point you may have missed is that Crisp's isn't really Vienna, but mild ale malt. Of course hardly any commercial brewer wants to buy MAM nowadays as not a lot of people drink mild. Vienna on the other hand sounds more hip.
If I have a recipe calling for genuine Vienna malt, I use Bestmalz hence I have a sack of each "cluttering up" my malt bins.

Sorry if I have offended you. I have to store my grains in a 14th C cellar which routinely has mice visiting. I have only got space for 2 x galvanised dustbins to keep it mouse-proof and therefore have to be pragmatic about what I buy in to store there. My view is the VM is not what I want to use for my milds.

 

[user 43495]

I see they're doing a reprint of the 3rd edition so I've just bought a copy. Should be a good read. If anyone else wants to buy a copy here's the link:

https://durdenparkbeer.org.uk/index.php/product/old-british-beers-and-how-to-make-them/

That's really good news. Mine is simply a photocopy given to me back in the 1990s by one of the then Firkin brewers, a lovely chap called Mike Puddephat. Not a name one forgets. I would particularly recommend the Burton IPA recipe (1860 I recall). Make it as per and bottle it in those old Bulmer's quart cider bottles if you have any. For the best results mature in the bottles for TWO YEARS! Yes! I found two bottles in my old house's garage 18 months after thinking I had scoffed the lot. It was divine. It has a high hop rate by today's standards but given it's destination originally one can see why.

 

[user 43495]

No indeed - I have brewed the Sarah Hughes based recipe in GW referenced above several times. I have slightly tweaked it by using Mild Ale Malt and cutting down slightly on the Crystal.I just use Safale 04 yeast. Definitely a winner - can't comment on how it compares to the original as not yet had a chance to try it!

In the days when that recipe was formulated, mild just meant fresh porter. So get the Durden Park book, make their Victorian Porter and drink it Mild not Sour.

 

[user 43495]

Fair enough. Neither of those options are really to my taste; Nottingham is a good standby but very 'neutral'. I'm sure your bass yeast would have made a cracking pint though.

It would now require a 4 hour round drive to get it. None of the breweries local to me use wet yeast, and while I don't want to inflame anyone's ire, I have always been just a tad dubious about the insistence upon the use of one particular yeast-v-another, and also obsessing over water treatments. Maybe it's the Emperor's new clothes. I can't say I have felt any brew using Nottingham (or equivalent) has come close to persuading me to throw it down the sink. That's where I usually put Mateus Rose.

 

[user 43495]

It does at least give you the method of making your own amber and brown malts which works very well. These days I hardly buy any malt other than pale malt.
My only gripe with the book is that most of the recipes are insanely strong.

Historic beers were.

 

[user 43495]

It's a splendid booklet and I can thoroughly recommend it. There's a bit of conversion to be done: gallons (imperial) and pounds and ounces; and then upscaling to a reasonable volume- I don't think many of us make 4.5 litre batches.
There are some great recipes and some to be avoided if you're using modern ingredients eg, anything that uses only brown and amber malts and requires additional amylase produces quite a harsh drink with modern malts. Best make your own coloured malts for these recipes. it also avoids the range of invert sugars, which is a plus in my book.

I am of the age when I have to do far more conversions from metric to imperial! The DPBC book means I don't have to bother; well, I don't anyway because for the last 20 years I brew exclusively my own formulations, a few of which are written down, in gallons, pounds and ounces, or busked, as we say in the jazz world.

 

[Oneflewover]

It would now require a 4 hour round drive to get it. None of the breweries local to me use wet yeast, and while I don't want to inflame anyone's ire, I have always been just a tad dubious about the insistence upon the use of one particular yeast-v-another, and also obsessing over water treatments. Maybe it's the Emperor's new clothes. I can't say I have felt any brew using Nottingham (or equivalent) has come close to persuading me to throw it down the sink. That's where I usually put Mateus Rose.

I'm afraid I will have to disagree, although you certainly won't inflame my ire . The same base wort fermented with, say, 3 very different yeasts will result in 3 very different beers. Similarly a chloride forward liquor will produce a completely different beer than a sulphate forward liquor.

Nottingham is ok, it's just.... well, boring. It tends to mute hops, doesn't have much character at all, and ferments out quite dry. And that may be exactly what you are looking for in a mild

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Nottingham is ok, it's just.... well, boring…And that may be exactly what you are looking for in a mild

Nooooo! You’re not looking for boring in a mild, or in any other beer for that matter (well, maybe lager! ).

Edit: PS Yes, Nottingham is a bit meh!