The fifth mild

[prodigal2]

What with my homebrew store being emptier than a empty thing I needed to get my first of a few beers on whilst I am at home. Oh and I want something to drink before work takes me away again... so it has to be my "variation" on DL Amazing Mild as I will be quaffing in 10 days at the most. I did this yesterday and I would have posted then, but my internet connection was useless yesterday to say the least....

The Fifth Mild
20L

2.3kg pale
60g roast barley
60g chocolate malt
120g crystal
50g amber
50g torrified wheat
360g demerara sugar

20g EKG 4.3%AA FWH
11g EKG 80C steep

S04

I may have been heavy handed with the EKGs but there was only 31grms left in the bag and it was 2006 crop so, I thought what the heck.

This is a very reliable recipe for a quick modern mild though it is the first time I have used just 1 hop variety. I was just really happy to be brewing again, its like riding a bicycle and from start to finish I was done in under 6 hours(70min mash and 65min boil).

ANyhow this is the first of a fair few brewdays I will be having over the next week or two, seeing as I need to stock up for January when I will be home next

[oblivious]

Looks good, what was the O.G.?

[ChrisG]

That does sound a good one.

[spearmint-wino]

Looks great P2 - think I'll give this one a bash too as I have all the ingredients in the store cupboard and my old man is a bit more partial to mild than the evil 1:1 BU/GU ratio IPA I'm going to have on offer at christmas

[oblivious]

I'm going to have on offer at christmas

With that mild you will have a few chance to brew it before Christmas

[prodigal2]

Looks good, what was the O.G.?

1,039

Can't believe I didnt post that

I should be quaffing this next week.

I am getting wild about dark modern milds, they fit the bill so well. Easy drinking, refreshing, full of flavour and almost as important quick to be ready(although if you bottle they will make a fine brown ale a few months down the line). Only a Hefe provides a similar option. They tick all the boxes for brewing at home and keeping a much commercially ignored beer alive. I may on my next mild try out using some cascade and see how that would play, and I would imagine First gold would be a nice one to try. This recipe is so good for experiementing with and getting to taste tweak.

[Matt]

I'm brewing this recipe on Saturday P2. Have you tried it with a goldings + fuggles mix at all?

Matt

[prodigal2]

I have never brewed with Fuggles
Although Fuggles and goldings is a mild classic combo.

On 4 of my 5 milds I have FWH... just a thought..
Enjoy your brew day Matt, its a very good crowd pleasing grist.

Phil

[Matt]

Yeah. Think I'll go with 50/50 EKG/Fuggles. Will also do a FWH, it has been my SOP this year really.

It sounds like this will disappear quickly so might do another one with Challenger/EKG soon after.

Cheers for the recipe Phil

Matt

[Scooby]

Hi prodigal, this is an interesting thread. I'm not much cop at adapting
recipes so it intrigues me as to how you got from DL's original pale malt,
demerara sugar, crystal, roast barley and fuggles hops to the variation above.
What was the thinking behind the changes you made along the way to reach
your latest variation. Cheers

[prodigal2]

Great question Scooby.
Yes on the face of it the recipe has no bearing on the original DL amazing Mild, this was my first go at it:
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=10932

Before I had even brewed a mild I had done a fair amount of reading, CBA website, here on Jims, and David Sutulas Mild ale from the Classic beer series. And from what I can gather a mild is born out of the percentages of the grist, and DLAM is spot on(it also means I don't need to get my notepad out and work out different sugar additions).

The amber found its way in if I remember to slightly compensate for the use of Nottingham and I had some that needed using up, also I had seen it mentioned in many good recipes too. It does add a certain something to a mild too, so its a keeper.
So this mild was my first dark beer and in the interest of learning, I decided that I would split the roast barley and Chocolate on the recipe, at the end of the day it was a suck it and see(but informed by what I had read up on). The torrified wheat/wheat malt is there just for a bit of head retention. I have played around with this recipe but I have maintained the ratio pale/dark/sugar though I see that there is scope to use this as a learning platform to manipulate the dark malt mix.

The hoping is born out of what was in my stores as I can't just get something in for the following day. Though I work on the notion that you want for this style of mild to keep the IBU under 20ish and you are looking to add flavour more than bitering(hence FWH, or getting as much from your hops), and so far I have only used challenger, goldings, and BX in varying combos, which will be described as Classic British hops. I think as long as the flavour a hop brings will work with your grist(which my first year of brewing, I had being getting my head round hop flavour).

All I have done is apply what I have learnt and then applied this information to a recipe that is spot on. Its much like cooking when use a good recipe as a base to then experiment with. The key is a good base recipe.

through the power of osmosis I think I have picked up quite a good ratio of information on recipes, and the courage to experiement. Also I have never really wanted to copy commercial beers, I have just want good beer in the house, and get better at brewing every time the copper comes out.
Still so much to learn to feel confident

[Scooby]

That's a great insight into the way you brew prodigal2 and the thought you put into
your recipes. Some people seem to bung ingredients in because that's what they have
in stock and end up with a grist as long as your arm. I like your approach of fine
tuning but with so many recipes to choose from ie DL, GW, MO and the hundreds
on here, I tend to brew a beer and move on to the next one.

I have used a simple base grist of pale with a little wheat malt and brewed that
a number of times with single hop variety to get a handle on hop flavour, maybe I
should make small changes to the grist in the interests of research.

Cheers for that

[prodigal2]

Not a problem Scooby.
I know what you mean by some of the randomness of some recipe formulation.

There are various other dark malts that I will be trying out over the next year in this recipe formulation.

As far as not having what you need for a beer, we have all been there, its all about making a educated sub.

[prodigal2]

Well I bagged this up today(I use 5L winebags for my milds, with a oxygen barrier), whist I was brewing a Samual Smiths Oatmeal stout.
It dropped to 1,008 and is very Goldingy, which is great though masking slightly the malts, hay ho, its going to be great quaffer and is just what I needed, and I have already had 2 pints and another 2 are on the cards

Matt did you get round and brew this at the WE?

[spearmint-wino]

Some people seem to bung ingredients in because that's what they have in stock and end up with a grist as long as your arm.

Or there's the other one where you bung the ingredients in because a) you pretty much know they'll work and b) you get precious little time to brew and even less time to plan it so when the opportunity arises sometimes you just gotta go with what you got in the store cupboard

I totally admire P2s approach to brewing and he certainly impressed some of the more experienced LAB members with his rationale for what he did . I'm like you scoob, so many beers, so little time...

Will there be any bottles for a snifter at January LAB, P2?