Pale Mild Ale

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Dene
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Pale Mild Ale

Post by Dene » Thu Nov 03, 2016 7:37 am

Hi all,

It's spring in Australia and my mild ale keg is about to kick. It's been a favorite brew for the winter (which is quite long in Canberra).

I have mild ale malt and I thought I'd give a pale mild ale a try. I've only seen it at the Wig & Pen in Canberra. Is this a real style in England? If so, what are your suggestions for ingredients and/or recipes.

If not, I thought the mild ale malt with a little special roast or Simpsons Light Crystal (3-5%) and maybe a very small amount (handful or 1-2%) of Amber or brown malt. The suggestions are quite different in flavours and are essentially two avenues to take it.

Or just a SMASH of Mild Ale malt and an English hop.

Interested to hear your experiences of drinking this style, if at all, and of course brewing it.


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IPA
Under the Table
Posts: 1736
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:29 am
Location: France Gascony

Re: Pale Mild Ale

Post by IPA » Thu Nov 03, 2016 8:30 am

Dene wrote:Hi all,

It's spring in Australia and my mild ale keg is about to kick. It's been a favorite brew for the winter (which is quite long in Canberra).

I have mild ale malt and I thought I'd give a pale mild ale a try. I've only seen it at the Wig & Pen in Canberra. Is this a real style in England? If so, what are your suggestions for ingredients and/or recipes.

If not, I thought the mild ale malt with a little special roast or Simpsons Light Crystal (3-5%) and maybe a very small amount (handful or 1-2%) of Amber or brown malt. The suggestions are quite different in flavours and are essentially two avenues to take it.

Or just a SMASH of Mild Ale malt and an English hop.

Interested to hear your experiences of drinking this style, if at all, and of course brewing it.




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McMullen AK is a decent light mild @ 3.6 ABV The recipe can be found in Graham Wheeler's book BYOBRA
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip

It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)

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Kyle_T
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Location: Essex

Re: Pale Mild Ale

Post by Kyle_T » Thu Nov 03, 2016 10:46 am

That depends entirely on what period of brewing you are referring to as initially all mild ales were 100% pale malt, had gravities of around 1050 to 1080 and were relatively highly hopped, it wasn't until the 1930's that the modern mild became into being and of a lower gravity due to post war influences and lower again in the 1950's where it had largely remained up to the present day.
My Ridleys' Brewery Blog:
http://www.theessexbrewer.wordpress.com

bigtoe

Re: Pale Mild Ale

Post by bigtoe » Thu Nov 03, 2016 11:05 am

I have taken to making pale and dark milds BUT more in the old style with higher ABV around 5 to 6%. The mild aspect of the brew for me is the bitterness and aroma hopping, I take it very easy here, around 20 IBU absolute maximum. For me its all about the grain shining thru, the 4% range milds being less sweet than the higher gravity ones but all have that malty goodness coming thru in a big way.
Done a few now, very very drinkable, even done a plummy favoured 5.7% 18 IBU which i have just finished, utterly superb tipple although I will knock back the plum next time so its more a subtle hint.

Kyle mentions the real old ones being very high gravity and highly hopped, I think I will have to research some historic recipes and see what they are like also.

Rookie
Falling off the Barstool
Posts: 3559
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:30 pm
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Re: Pale Mild Ale

Post by Rookie » Thu Nov 03, 2016 6:38 pm

Dene wrote:Hi all,

It's spring in Australia and my mild ale keg is about to kick. It's been a favorite brew for the winter (which is quite long in Canberra).

I have mild ale malt and I thought I'd give a pale mild ale a try. I've only seen it at the Wig & Pen in Canberra. Is this a real style in England? If so, what are your suggestions for ingredients and/or recipes.

If not, I thought the mild ale malt with a little special roast or Simpsons Light Crystal (3-5%) and maybe a very small amount (handful or 1-2%) of Amber or brown malt. The suggestions are quite different in flavours and are essentially two avenues to take it.

Or just a SMASH of Mild Ale malt and an English hop.

Interested to hear your experiences of drinking this style, if at all, and of course brewing it.


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You could just reduce or eliminate the dark grains from your regular mild recipe.
I'm just here for the beer.

Dene
Tippler
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:26 am

Re: Pale Mild Ale

Post by Dene » Fri Nov 04, 2016 1:32 am

IPA wrote:



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McMullen AK is a decent light mild @ 3.6 ABV The recipe can be found in Graham Wheeler's book BYOBRA[/quote]

Thanks for this, I'll look into it.


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Dene
Tippler
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:26 am

Re: Pale Mild Ale

Post by Dene » Fri Nov 04, 2016 1:34 am

Kyle_T wrote:That depends entirely on what period of brewing you are referring to as initially all mild ales were 100% pale malt, had gravities of around 1050 to 1080 and were relatively highly hopped, it wasn't until the 1930's that the modern mild became into being and of a lower gravity due to post war influences and lower again in the 1950's where it had largely remained up to the present day.
I didn't know that about the grain bill. Thanks for the info. I'm going to read up further. I think I'd generally stick with lower gravity as I generally brew lower alcohol beers.


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Dene
Tippler
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:26 am

Re: Pale Mild Ale

Post by Dene » Fri Nov 04, 2016 1:36 am

Rookie wrote:
Dene wrote:Hi all,

It's spring in Australia and my mild ale keg is about to kick. It's been a favorite brew for the winter (which is quite long in Canberra).

I have mild ale malt and I thought I'd give a pale mild ale a try. I've only seen it at the Wig & Pen in Canberra. Is this a real style in England? If so, what are your suggestions for ingredients and/or recipes.

If not, I thought the mild ale malt with a little special roast or Simpsons Light Crystal (3-5%) and maybe a very small amount (handful or 1-2%) of Amber or brown malt. The suggestions are quite different in flavours and are essentially two avenues to take it.

Or just a SMASH of Mild Ale malt and an English hop.

Interested to hear your experiences of drinking this style, if at all, and of course brewing it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You could just reduce or eliminate the dark grains from your regular mild recipe.
As silly as it may sound, I didn't really consider this. I'll get into the software and have a look at what that produces. I do like the idea of 100% base malt for this one though. A SMASH that is authentic.


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Kyle_T
Mild King
Posts: 560
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 12:08 pm
Location: Essex

Re: Pale Mild Ale

Post by Kyle_T » Fri Nov 04, 2016 9:24 am

If you are looking to brew the lower alcohol examples then post WWII to the modern era would be your best period to look at examples from as these had a range of gravities from as little as 1028 and used a wide variety of adjuncts/ingredients due to the Free Mash Tun act of 1880.

Mild ale malt contains a higher level of nitrogen supposedly giving the malt a nuttier profile over Maris Otter and pale malt, an interesting alternative is to roast some of your own into diastatic brown malt.

The problem you will face doing a low gravity pale mild is that it may cross borders into golden and pale ale styles, mild being the old term for 'unaged', you can however make a mild on the lighter end of the spectrum but still with a bit of colour.
My Ridleys' Brewery Blog:
http://www.theessexbrewer.wordpress.com

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