Help with a Mild Formulation

[drsmurto]

Racked my dark mild yesterday (so i could throw a Hobgoblin onto the yeast cake).

Went from 1.044 to 1.017 so a whopping 3.5% ABV....

The 1187 ringwood yeast just adds so much character to a beer, its fast becoming my favourite (altho i still cant go past 1469 in a TTL).

Will the access you blokes have to fresh seasons hops (and flowers rather than the pellets/plugs we have) and proper floor malted MO and GP i just dont understand why you turn around and throw dry yeasts into the mix.

Surely liquid yeast in the UK isnt that pricey. I pay $16 AUD for an activator pack here (~£7.50) vs $4 for a dry yeast but will use a liquid over dry every day of the week.

Could be controversial......

DrSmurto

[Barley Water]

Well as advertised, I brewed my first mild this weekend. For all you guys that brew in colder climates, you will appreciate the fact that it made it to 100F for the first time this year in North Texas. I brew in my garage so when I have both my propane burners going, it is very warm indeed.

Anyway, I made what should have been easy difficult. Once the sparge is done, I usually take a gravity reading. I did this yesterday and the reading told me I was going to miss my gravity so to compensate, I just boiled longer. For some reason, once I got done I took a final reading and now the gravity was too high so I ended up adding water to get to the proper finishing gravity. Because my system is directly fired by propane, I know I get some hot spots in the bottom of the boil kettle so I know I get some carmelization. I ended up boiling for around 2 1/2 hours after all was said and done. For a mild though, I don't think that will necesarily be a bad thing, it will be interesting to see what this stuff tastes like when it is ready.

[booldawg]

Keep us posted BW. I'm brewing a mild for my next one so will be interested to hear any updates.

[SiHoltye]

Racked my dark mild yesterday (so i could throw a Hobgoblin onto the yeast cake).

Went from 1.044 to 1.017 so a whopping 3.5% ABV....

Apparantly the Ringwood yeast needs regular rousing to achieve the potential attenuation. The brewery do this with pumps, recirc'ing for 15 mins in the hour .

[Barley Water]

Well just to follow up, I jumped 3 gallons of this beer into one of my 3 gallon baby kegs last night to take to a party this weekend. Since I had not done any tasting, I had a couple of pints to make sure I was not going to be feeding my buddies swill.

Overall, I think the beer came out pretty well. Of course being a low gravity brew, it does not have the body of say an Octoberfest but I would not say it tasted thin or watery. It also seems to hold a head pretty well so that is a good thing. I was a little surprised that it did not have a somewhat sweeter finish, it tasted pretty well attenuated but maybe that is just a function of the lower original gravity. The beer has a nutty component and some roast as well although not anywhere near what you might get with a stout or porter. I guess the good news is that I didn't pick up any off flavors or problems so overall, I would say this beer was a success. It is for sure a brew you can drink quite a lot of and not get yourself into a problem.

For some reason, I was expecting a little sweeter brew but since we really don't get Milds over here, it could be that I just don't completely understand the style. Based on reading the style guildelines, I think my beer conforms so maybe it is just a personal preference thing. Anyway, I will be doing this one again but I plan to do some screwing around with the formulation and process. Next time, I plan to carmelize some of the first runnings to get a little toffee thing going and I will also swap the dark chocolate for light chocolate malt to try and cut back just a little on the roast aspect of the flavors. I can see how the big trick with this style is getting everything into the correct balance, I would personally rather have a slightly sweeter brew but I can also see that if taken too far, the drinkability would suffer. One of the great things about this style is the quick turnaround, when using Fuller's yeast, you get bright beer in a big hurry and the low gravity means very little conditioning time is needed.

[booldawg]

Glad it all went well BW. I guess its the kind of style you can tinker round with for ages and small adjustments here and there can make alot of difference to the overall flavour.

What sort of quantites would you boil and how long for to get a bit of caramelisation?

[prodigal2]

Glad it all went well BW. I guess its the kind of style you can tinker round with for ages and small adjustments here and there can make alot of difference to the overall flavour.

What sort of quantites would you boil and how long for to get a bit of caramelisation?

Using a good brown sugar gives a great flavour to a dark mild(treacle/toffee). There seems to be a discussion going on in Jims that seems to have a problem with adding sugar with milds, but without the sugar the dark mild creeps into being a Porter/Stout.
If truth be told it is a style that has caught my imagination(perhaps its my Brummie heritage ). If you are adding sugar why should you not use a sugar that lifts the flavour profile(muscavado works well too)

BW. A modern dark mild should be a balance of malt and a light hoppyness, and if you have brewed a light ABV one it should be quaffable even on a warm day after breaking a sweat, and yet should present a balanced flavour even to a smoker. Also as styles go it allows for sooooo much tinkering as every ingredient should read in the taste, because a dark mild has had not time to diminish on any of its constituents.

the Classic beer style series on Mild Ale is a good read, all I have to say BW is stick with it, the style I think is right up your street, and is worth sticking with.

[Barley Water]

I have in the past pulled off maybe a quart (liter) of first runnings then boiled them down on the stove while the rest of the sparge was in process. I just keep going until the wort gets darker and it starts to smell somewhat like candy cooking. You will for sure notice a toffee flavor in the beer after you do this which I think is very tasty. The other thing I try to do is use a yeast that will throw off a little diacetyl which makes the toffee just a little buttery (just a touch though).

My thought was to try and reduce the roast flavor in the Mild and introduce the toffee flavor, I think it could be really good. I guess my question then would be, am I straying away from the flavor of a traditional dark mild by doing this? Anyhow, I think it is big fun to mess around with the flavors in the beer although I was pretty happy with the way the beer came out as is.

[prodigal2]

My thought was to try and reduce the roast flavor in the Mild and introduce the toffee flavor, I think it could be really good. I guess my question then would be, am I straying away from the flavor of a traditional dark mild by doing this? Anyhow, I think it is big fun to mess around with the flavors in the beer although I was pretty happy with the way the beer came out as is.

There is a huge scope for playing with flavour in a mild. I have to good effect been using FWH. It is a great style to play around with as the opportunity to create such a breadth of flavour, with just subtle changes.

[oblivious]

I think this is a style the BJCP maybe a little to confined or slight wrong, over the past few months I have tried a number of milds around 6 and they ranged from the BJCP describe style to hoppy dry brews and one something boarding a porter. It just see they is a massive interpretation of this beer out there.

[prodigal2]

I think this is a style the BJCP maybe a little to confined or slight wrong, over the past few months I have tried a number of milds around 6 and they ranged from the BJCP describe style to hoppy dry brews. and one somthing boarding a porter. It just see they is a massive interpretation of this breer out here.

Your not far wrong there OB. The style guide for 2008 does not allow for historic milds as the OG only goes to... 1,038. So there is no space for Sarah Hughs Ruby Mild. and then in the comments section:

A wide range of interpretations are possible.

Anyhow screw the style descriptions seeing as they only have space for a dark "modern" mild ish.
Dark milds are a joy that are worth finding and making, and should be heralded as a pivotal part of our brewing heritage. Although it should be noted they may have also been the bastard parent of the modern industro lager, giving accountants ideas about how quick a beer can be turned around.