Let's brew (1923 Whitbread) Mild

Time for another Mild recipe. This is fun, isn't it. It now really is March. I can get really into the swing of Mild March Month. Not seen much (well, any) mention of it elsewhere yet. Must be the CAMRA beer police suppressing it. Will they stop at nothing to impose May as Mild Month?

This is another pretty standard 1920's London Mild. People have commented in the amount of sugar in some of these old recipes. Here's one with just a little. But a very important ingredient as that provides all the colour. You can find details of No.3 brewing sugar here.

Some more recipe notes. MA = Mild Ale malt. Californian would usually imply 6-row barley. The Thetford was British 2-row.

Here's a word on Oregon hops. The main West Coast hop-growing regions were Sonoma, Russian River and Sacramento in California; the Williamette Valley in Oregon; and the Yakima Valley in Washington State. The commonest variety was the Oregon, also known as Late Cluster. It was thought to be a cross between an English hop and wild American hops. It had a high lupulin content an excellent preservative qualities. The only drawback was the strong blackcurrant flavour that meant it could not be used on its own. (Source: "Brewing Science & Practice" H. Lloyd Hind, 1943, pages 394-395.)

British Columbian hops. Large amounts of hops were grown in British Columbia in Cananda, mostly in the Fraser River Valley and on the Sumas Prairie. The most important varieties were English Fuggle's and Goldings which had been planted in the the middle of the 19th century. These hops were generally similar in flavour to their English ancestors. Some American Cluster hops were also grown.


In many brews, caramel was added to get the colour to exactly the right shade. The colour is given in the log 6.5 Red 40 Brown. Anyone have any idea how this relates to modern EBC values?