MILD

[barney]

I am trying to generate an original and genuine MILD recipe, this is my starting point.

Grist Og 1036 at 40ltr

Home made invert (Dark Red) 270g
Fawcetts Crystal Malt 490g
Fawcetts Mild Ale Malt 5900g



Hops

Cluster 25%
EKG 75%

boil 90 mins
Hops at 60 mins to 0.5 BU/GU

Any schoolboy errors?

[CestrIan]

Looks good! What yeast barney? I've done a couple of milds and you need a quite low attenuating yeast to give you some body. I've used windsor and it turned out quite good. I would mash at 68 or 69C too and keep the late hop additions to a minimum.
You could add a healthy slice of munich malt to give it more depth.

[barney]

Hello Cestrian, I was thinking of using Brewlabs East Midlands 1 which is recommended for Mild Ale. I dont actually know what the attenuation is but am assuming it will be low. I thought that the body would come from the Mild Ale Malt, do you reckon that I should mash high as well? I had it in my head that the malt will give a similar body to an all vienna brew.

The recipe is a 1950's one for a "Best Mild".

[CestrIan]

I didn't use mild malt. I used MO, but it wont hurt to mash higher than normal. The main risk with a mild is it finishing too thin and watery. I've just noticed you've got invert sugar in your recipe. I wouldn't use it myself. It will not add any body and will make it finish dryer. I'd replace it with more mild malt. The only time I use invert is on big belgian beers at 7-8% that need thinning out. I haven't used that midland yeast so don't know.

[ChuckE]

Mash at 67 or 68 (to add body)
drop the sugar (to not make it dry)
up the malt (to replace the sugar)
low or no flavor/aroma hop addition (to not distract from the malt goodness)
use a flavorful yeast that's not too attenuating
ferment at the yeast's higher temp (to add character)

[Cazamodo]

Ill keep my eye on this thread, want to try my first mild beer soon.