American Mild

I'm pretty sure that I got into Mild just because it was unfashionable. And odd. Like Syd Barrett.

Drinking Mild as your beer of choice, no matter how weird it might have appeared in parts of the country if you were under retirement age, was still possible. When I were a lad.

I keep harking back to Leeds. On reflection, a Mild heaven. So much Mild. Loads of pubs flogging enough for it to be nectar. Those faraway days when Mild was a mainstream beer.

Then there's the forgotten American tradition of Mild Ales. I've drunk me some of that Ballantine XXX. If that wasn't a sort of Mild Ale which had gone through several metamorphoses, what was it? Some random US Ale? No. One of the core beers you saw in East Coast Ale breweries.

Why am I doing this? US beer is outside my area of expertise. But, you know, I can't help bumping into information. Any proper US brewing historians feel free to jump in and call me out when I start talking bollocks.

It would fit into an East Coast Ale brewery range like this::

XXX
IPA
Porter
Stout

The XXX being "present use". That is, "mild". 

With probably other stuff later in the century. You know, this isn't really my area of expertise. I shouldn't be leading this conversation.

Or any one that doesn't begin with. "Hi Ron do you want that in 200 or 500 euro notes?"

American Mild Ale was a thing. And should be again.

I do have a few recipes. See two paragraphs above for details about how to proceed.