About the Beer: Dark Mild

The History and a 1-Gallon Homebrew Recipe for Mild Ale

Rob King

Published in

1-Gallon Home Brew

5 min readNov 23, 2022

Introduction

When I was first of an age to visit the pub, the drink of choice was Mild, a dark and creamy ale often consumed in large quantities by my immediate family members.

Over 30 years later — now — I realise that ability to consume 10 pints and then roll home was not in fact due to my iron constitution as I’d always claimed, but rather the low strength of the beer (around 3.2% typically)

The History

Sometime in the eighteenth century, the term ‘mild’ was simply used to describe an unaged beer. Beers at this time were sent out for drinking within a matter of weeks after brewing and ‘mild’ provided a vocabulary to distinguish it from both younger ales and older, slightly sour, beers.

Drifting into the nineteenth century, popular taste moved to newly brewed beer, called ‘mild.’ This was purely a descriptive term, rather than a classification of beer in its own right.

An important development in English brewing that occurred around the 1820s was the development of India Pale Ale (IPA). Pale ales had been around for a while but were not popular until IPA. The popularity of porter and stout waned and ‘mild ale’ become the term used to describe brown, non-porter beers.

In the 1980s I was living in the Midlands, and enjoying a drink in the local working men’s club, mild seemed to be a popular choice. I didn’t realise it at the time but the popularity of mild had already been in a decline for over 20 years. In the 1960s Bitter had become the drink of choice in the UK, and by the 1990s larger had taken the crown. It turns out that the Midlands and the North of England were the last bastions of mild consumption, and by the 1990s it had all but vanished from the pumps.

Mild Data

Mild is a dark, low-gravity, low-alcohol, malt-focused beer with a low hop rate, it is a session ale, suited to drinking in quantity over a few hours, without falling over.

Aroma: Low to moderate malt aroma, and may have some fruitiness. A Low earthy or floral hop aroma is optional

Appearance: Copper to dark brown or mahogany. There are specific variations that can also come in pale or ruby versions.

Head: Low to moderate off-white to tan

Flavour: A malty beer, although may have a very wide range of malt- and yeast-based flavours (e.g., malty, sweet, caramel, toffee, toasty, nutty, chocolate, coffee, roast, fruit, liquorice, plum, raisin) over a bready, biscuity, or toasty base

Bitterness: Low to moderate bitterness, enough to provide some balance but not enough to overpower the malt in the balance.

Mouthfeel: Light to medium body. Sweeter versions may seem to have a rather full mouthfeel for the final gravity. Should not be flat, watery, or thin

Carbonation: Low to medium-low

Origin: England

Homebrew Ingredients

Mild, as it turns out, is a complex ale, requiring some extra consideration in the brewing process. The sweeter, fuller taste is achieved by using a higher temperature mash (67–68°C). This gives a higher level of unfermentable sugars in the wort which carries through greater sweetness and body into the beer.

Since this is not a hoppy style, specialist malts play a big role to achieve the flavour complexity in the beer. Crystal or roasted malts such as chocolate or black malt are the main sources of character.

Base Malt: An alternative to the Pale malt is a mild ale malt; Mild ale malt is kilned at a slightly higher temperature than pale malt, is a little bit darker, and adds some roasted/nutty flavour to the beer.

For extract brewing, a dark malt suitable for mild, porter or stout is an option.

Crystal malt is a common mild ingredient, at rates of about 10–15% of the total grain bill. Use the more highly-coloured crystals, 60 or 80 °L, for dark mild ale, as these give a nice nutty flavour and ruby red colour.

Chocolate Malt is also a common consideration, at rates of up to 5% of the grain bill. With a dark mild you can eliminate crystal malt if you use relatively high levels of chocolate malt. Using both Crystal and Chocolate malt will add to the complexity of the flavour.

Black malt can be used for dark mild ale, either alone, or in combination with crystal malt. This must be used sparingly, about 2% of the grain bill, or the beer will finish up harshly bitter and one-dimensional.

Specialist malts are normally mashed with the base malt. In extract brewing they should be steeped in hot water (66–71 °F) for 30–45 minutes, then the grains are removed and the wort moved to the boil.

Hops are used only for bittering. In general, English hops such as Fuggles and Goldings are the best choice.

Yeast is also straightforward, almost any top-fermenting strain will work well. Wyeast 1098 (British Ale Yeast), Wyeast 1028 (London Ale Yeast) are options. More usual for homebrewers is Fermentis Safaele S-04 English Ale Yeast or Nottingham Ale Yeast.