(Another) recipe for a Mild

[booldawg]

Seems to be a popular brew at the moment. I've been tinkering around with the recipe for a while and have the WLP-002 starter made as I'm going to brew it next Saturday. Looking through my stores I'm a bit short on the Crystal; the recipes calls for 400g and I've only got 250. Will this have a big effect on the finished brew and what else can I use to compensate? (I have plenty of torrified wheat, black malt, chocolate malt and maris otter)

I now dont have spare time to get to LHBS, so maybe I can increase/reduce levels of other grains?

Recipe as follows, for 30L

1930.00 gm Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 39.39 %
1000.00 gm Mild Malt (4.0 SRM) Grain 20.41 %
1000.00 gm Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 20.41 %
400.00 gm Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.16 %
300.00 gm Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 6.12 %
170.00 gm Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 3.47 %
58.00 gm Fuggles [3.70 %] (90 min) Hops 18.7 IBU
14.00 gm Goldings [3.50 %] (15 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
14.00 gm Goldings [3.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
100.00 gm Dememera Sugar (2.0 SRM) Sugar 2.04 %
1 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.038 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.34 %
Bitterness: 20.6 IBU
Est Color: 21.7 SRM

[Barley Water]

First a disclaimer, I have only brewed one Mild in my 25+ year brewing career. Having said that, yes, I think being short of crystal malt will cause you problems. Crystal malt adds non fermentable sugars to the wort that both increases the sweetness of the brew and also adds alot of body. My only suggestion would be to try and boil down some of the first runnings. This will hopefully produce some non fermentable sugars the hard way, be warned though, you will also add a big caramel/toffee flavor to the brew (which I think is really nice in a beer but different peoples' taste differ).

[booldawg]

Cheers BM. As I've put the recipe together for 30L then may just scale down a bit to accommodate for the lack of Crystal.

What percentage Crystal would you recommend?

[bconnery]

You could also decrease the IBUs slightly and up the mash temp to increase the FG.

Scaling the recipe down a few litres won't hurt. If you do I'd reduce the choc malt a little as well.

The munich in there will give you some malty background as well so I don't think it will be the end of the world to have a bit less crystal.

It isn't like 250g is no crystal...

[drsmurto]

You could also decrease the IBUs slightly and up the mash temp to increase the FG.

Scaling the recipe down a few litres won't hurt. If you do I'd reduce the choc malt a little as well.

The munich in there will give you some malty background as well so I don't think it will be the end of the world to have a bit less crystal.

It isn't like 250g is no crystal...

+1

Mash at 69/70C and you will have plenty of body and unfermentable sugars

[booldawg]

Thanks guys. I've scaled it down to 23L which still gives about 6.5% Crystal. I was going to reduce down 2L of the first runnings anyway to give a slight touch of caramelisation. Hopefully will pull it off

[Barley Water]

To tell you the truth, I don't feel qualified to answer your question concerning the percentage of crystal malt as I have only made one Mild in my entire career (see disclaimer above). I would probably try to get the beer to drink as big as possible though otherwise a low gravity beer like Mild will tend to taste watery and thin. Besides a good dose of crystal malt, I would also make sure I used a yeast strain that was not a good attenuator (my personal favorite is WLP02) and I would also mash pretty hot as others have suggested. Remember, these comments are coming from a Yank who is used to craft beers rarely starting at less than 1.050 so you might want to take my comments with a grain of salt. Finally, if you use WLP02, remember that the strain will throw off a lot of diacetyl so manage your fermentation appopriately.

[booldawg]

Yep, I'm using WLP-002 as recommended on here. Its my first time using a liquid yeast so fingers crossed. I've made up a 1.8L starter with 200g of spraymalt. That was last Wednesday so I put it in the fridge last night.

I'm toying with the idea of making the recipe as per 30L, biting the bullet and doing the 30 mile round trip to LHBS on the brew day. Just means I wont be able to get an early start. The upside is I'll buy everything I need to last until later this year! Seems a bit pointless to do the journey for the sake of 150g of Crystal.

[mysterio]

I think you'll be fine without the extra crystal, just brew as is. 1.038, to me, is on the high end for a mild so you wont have problems with the body so long as you mash fairly warm (70 is good). Munich and mild malt will also help with the body. The only way a 1.038 beer is going to taste thin is if you use a high attenuating yeast like Nottingham or you use a lot of highly fermentable adjunct.

The sugar, however, will thin the beer out. I would chuck it altogether personally, especially if you're low on crystal.

[Aleman]

My advice is not to go over the top with Crystal malt, yes it will add sweetness but too much will become cloyingly sweet. IMNSHO You should aim for a mash temp around 68-70C which will produce a sweet under attenuated wort if you leave it there, but adding a few percent of sugar to the boil will thin the body while leaving the sweetness in place. I'd also ditch the mild and add an additional 500g of pale and Munich

The real problem with these beers is to produce one that is balanced, its all too easy to go too sweet/bitter/strong

[booldawg]

Will a stiff mash also help residual sweetness? I usually mash the ratio of 2.5L water to 1kg of grain. Maybe 2L per kilo would suffice?

[Aleman]

Will a stiff mash also help residual sweetness?

It can, although I've only found the effect noticeable on higher gravity beers (Like 1.070 upwards0

[booldawg]

I think you'll be fine without the extra crystal, just brew as is. 1.038, to me, is on the high end for a mild so you wont have problems with the body so long as you mash fairly warm (70 is good). Munich and mild malt will also help with the body. The only way a 1.038 beer is going to taste thin is if you use a high attenuating yeast like Nottingham or you use a lot of highly fermentable adjunct.

The sugar, however, will thin the beer out. I would chuck it altogether personally, especially if you're low on crystal.

Point taken on the sugar. I've just had a few bottles of my winter bitter and couldnt put my finger on what was wrong with it. Its definitely got a very slight cidery twang. Just re-checked the recipe and it has 5.65% demerara sugar. Even such a low percentage as that has effected the overall taste.