Milds I have known

With Mild Month almost upon us, I'm getting all nostalgic. Thinking about those Milds I drank early in my drinking career. Beers which have almost all disappeared.

The 1978 Good Beer Guide lists 104 cask Milds being produced. Which isn't that far short of one per brewery. Of course, there were more Milds being brewed. As some breweries only produced evil keg versions. Bastards. Obviously, I never drank any of that muck.

My enthusiasism as a Mild drinker is is reflected in the number of the examples I tried - about two-thirds. And that's only the ones I'm sure about . You could probably add in another dozen or so maybes.

There were some real crackers in this disparate bunch. Courage Heavy, for example. Which was a rare Southwestern Mild. Even in 1978 Mild was a rarity in England's bottom left pointy bit. I only ever drank it at the Great British Beer Festival.

And the GBBF explains why I managed to get around so many. I worked at the early editions held at Alexandra Palace. Already being annoyingly fanatical about beer, but about especially Mild, I made a point of trying as many as I could. The GBBF being a good spot for that as many of the Southern Milds were already becoming difficult to track down in the wild.

How many Milds are regularly available now? And how many have you been able to tag?

Cask Mild in 1977
Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	tried?
Adnams	Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Ansell	Mild	Mild	1035.5	Y
Banks	Mild	Mild	1035.5	Y
Bateman	Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Batham	Mild	Mild	1036	Y
Belhaven	60/- Light	Mild	1031	Y
Boddingtons	Mild	Mild	1031	Y
Border	Exhibition Mild	Mild	1032.2
Border	Mild	Mild	1031.6
Brains	Dark	Mild	1035	Y
Brakspear	XXX	Mild	1031	Y
Matthew Brown	Mild	Mild	1031	Y
Buckley	Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Burt	BMA	Mild	1030
Burtonwood	Dark Mild	Mild	1031.8	Y
Camerons	Mild	Mild	1033
Castletown	Mild	Mild	1036
Charrington	Mild	Mild	1034.6
Courage (London)	Mild	Mild	1032.5
Courage (Plymouth)	Heavy	Mild	1032	Y
Courage (Reading)	Mild	Mild	1032
Darley	Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Davenport	Mild	Mild	1033	Y
Devenish (Redruth)	XXX	Mild	1033
Donnington	XXX	Mild	1033
Elgood	Mild	Mild	1030	Y
Everards	Mild	Mild	1033	Y
Felinfoel	Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Fuller	Hock	Mild	1031.5	Y
Gale	Dark Mild (XXX)	Mild	1031
Greenall Whitley	Dark Mild	Mild	1033.7	Y
Greenall Whitley (Wem)	Wem Mild	Mild	1033	Y
Greene King (Biggleswade)	XX	Mild	1030.8
Greene King (Bury)	Mild (XX)	Mild	1030.8
Guernsey	LBA Mild	Mild	1036.6
Hansons	Mild	Mild	1035	Y
Hardys & Hansons	Best Mild	Mild	1035.4	Y
Hartleys	Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Harvey	XX	Mild	1030	Y
Higson	Mild	Mild	1033.4	Y
Holden	Mild	Mild	1036
Holt	Mild	Mild	1033.4	Y
Home	Mild	Mild	1036.1	Y
Hook Norton	Mild	Mild	1032
Hoskins	Mild	Mild	1033	Y
Hull	Mild	Mild	1032.25	Y
Hydes	Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Jennings	Mild	Mild	1033	Y
King & Barnes	XX (Mild)	Mild	1031.6	Y
Lees	Best Mild	Mild	1035	Y
Maclay	60/- Light	Mild	1030	Y
Marston	Merrie Monk	Mild	1043	Y
Marston	Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Mitchell	Mild	Mild	1034	Y
Mitchell & Butler (Birmingham)	Mild	Mild	1034.6	Y
Mitchell & Butler (Walsall)	Highgate Mild	Mild	1034	Y
Morland	Mild (XX)	Mild	1032	Y
Morrell	Dark Mild	Mild	1032.6	Y
Okell	Mild	Mild	1035.2
Oldham	Mild	Mild	1031.7	Y
Paine	Extra Special	Mild	1032
Randall (Guernsey)	Bobby Mild	Mild	1035
Ridley	XXX (or Mild)	Mild	1030
Robinson	Best Mild	Mild	1032	Y
St Austell	XXXX	Mild	1032
Shepherd Neame	Mild	Mild	1031	Y
Shipstone	Mild	Mild	1034.6	Y
Simpkiss	Mild	Mild	1034	Y
Taylor	Dark Mild	Mild	1033.4	Y
Tennent	60/-	Mild	1031
Tetley	Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Tetley Walker	Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Theakston (Masham)	Dark Mild	Mild	1032	Y
Three Tuns	Mild	Mild	1032
Thwaites	Best Mild	Mild	1033	Y
Thwaites	Mild	Mild	1031	Y
Tolly Cobbold	Mild	Mild	1030	Y
Vaux	Mild	Mild	1030.2	Y
Ward	Best Mild	Mild	1034	Y
Welsh Brewers	Worthington Dark Mild or Dash	Mild	1033.3	Y
Whitbread (Marlow)	Dark Mild	Mild	1030.6
Whitbread (Portsmouth)	Mild	Mild	1031.5
Whitbread (Rhymney)	WBM	Mild	1034.1
Whitbread (Romsey)	Mild	Mild	1031.5
Wilsons	Great Northern Mild	Mild	1032.2	Y
Yates & Jackson	Mild	Mild	1030.1	Y
Young & Co	Mild or Best Malt Ale	Mild	1030	Y
All Nations	Mild	Mild, Light	1032
Bass (Burton)	Light Mild (or M)	Mild, Light	1033.1
Boddingtons	Best Mild	Mild, Light	1033	Y
Burtonwood	Light Mild	Mild, Light	1031.5
Darley	Light Mild	Mild, Light	1032	Y
Gale	Light Mild (XXX)	Mild, Light	1030
Greene King (Biggleswade)	KK	Mild, Light	1030.8
Hydes	Best Mild	Mild, Light	1034	Y
Ind Coope (Romford)	Mild	Mild, Light	1031
Lees	Mild	Mild, Light	1031
McMullen	AK	Mild, Light	1033
Morrell	Light Mild	Mild, Light	1031.6
Rayment	AK	Mild, Light	1031	Y
Taylor	Golden Best. Golden Mild, Light Mild or Bitter Ale	Mild, Light	1033.4	Y
Theakston (Masham)	Light Mild	Mild, Light	1032
Webster	Best Mild	Mild, Light	1033.8	Y
Welsh Brewers	PMA	Mild, Light	1033.2
Average			1032.61
Source:
1978 Good Beer Guide

I won't claim they were all great beers. The Greenalls ones were shit, obviously. But most were at least decent. When looked after properly and in decent condition. And there was the rub. As Mild sales fell, and casks sat around too long, there was inevitably a fair bit of vinegar in pub situations. Which undoubtedly hastened Mild's demise.

Provincial bottled Pale Ale on the eve of WW II

Bottled Pale Ales came in a wide variety of strengths, from as weak as 1030º to as high as 1056º. The prices charged varied accordingly. In most cases, you got what you paid for. Though the size of the container mattered. Beer sold in half pints worked out slightly more expensive per pint. While that sold in quarts was slightly cheaper.

Provincial bottled Pale Ale under 6.5d per pint
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1936	Beer & Rigden	Pale Ale	5.5	1030.6	1004.2	3.43	86.27%
1938	Shepherd Neame	Pale Ale	5.5	1031.4	1005.1	3.42	83.76%
1935	Wethered	Family Pale Ale	5.5	1031	1006	3.25	80.65%
1934	Tollemache	Light Bitter	5.75	1041	1006.3	4.52	84.63%
1937	Georges	Bitter Ale	6	1035.4	1007.3	3.65	79.38%
1936	Hey	White Rose Table Ale	6	1034	1005.5	3.71	83.82%
1936	Hope Brewery	Sun Bright Pale Ale	6	1044.7	1008.4	4.73	81.21%
1935	Steward & Patteson	Bitter Ale	6	1030	1003.7	3.42	87.67%
1936	Tamplin	Pale Ale	6	1031.7	1002.8	3.77	91.17%
1935	Anglo Bavarian	Pale Ale	6.375	1047	1015.3	4.10	67.45%
1935	Northampton Brewery	Pale Ale		1032	1008.2	3.08	74.37%
1936	Vaux	Pale Ale		1033	1006.5	3.44	80.30%
	Average		5.86	1035.2	1006.6	3.71	81.72%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive document TU/6/11,

Most examples are, as you would expect, in the low 1030ºs. The exception being the Hope Brewery beer. That could be because it was packaged in a can. There’s a good chance that it wasn’t a full pint in size. The Tollemache Light Bitter is slightly cheaper than you’d expect because it came in a quart bottle.

The rate of attenuation is extremely high, with the exception of a couple of examples, notably the Anglo Bavarian one. The high attenuation means that, despite there being some low-gravity examples, all come in at well over 3% ABV.

The next price class up, approximately 7d per pint, is much the same as 6d draught beers, in terms of strength. Though the Walmer Ale is a real outlier at just under 1030º. Most of the other examples are somewhere around 1040º.

Provincial bottled Pale Ale under 6.5d to 7.5d per pint
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1934	Eldridge Pope	Crystal Ale	7	1037	1007.3	3.86	80.27%
1938	Fremlin	Elephant Ale	7	1042.5	1013.1	3.81	69.18%
1938	Green	Lutonian Pale Ale	7	1035	1005	3.91	85.71%
1938	Lovibond	Yeoman Ale	7	1043.9	1005.4	5.03	87.70%
1935	Mitchell & Butler	Cape Ale	7	1040	1008.3	4.12	79.25%
1938	Simonds	SB Ale	7	1036.4	1006.1	3.94	83.24%
1938	Thompson & Sons	Walmer Ale	7	1029.8	1004	3.36	86.58%
1934	Woodhead	Special Pale Ale	7	1033.5	1008.4	3.25	74.93%
1935	Mitchell & Butler	All Bright Ale	7.5	1046	1008.6	4.87	81.30%
1934	John Smith	Star Bright Ale		1038.6	1009.7	3.75	74.87%
1937	Magee Marshall	Crown Ale		1037.5	1007	3.97	81.33%
1938	Melbourne	Gold Cup		1040.8	1008.2	4.24	79.90%
1938	Unwin	Pale Ale		1039	1005.7	4.34	85.38%
1934	Vaux	Pale Ale		1040.5	1007.5	4.29	81.48%
	Average		7.06	1038.6	1007.5	4.05	80.80%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive document TU/6/11,

The rate of attenuation is almost, but not quite, as high as in the weaker class. There’s just a single beer under 70%, Fremlin Elephant Ale.

The last table is proof that Pale Ales in the strongest were brewed in the province. Though the same ceiling – around 1055º – applied as elsewhere.

Provincial bottled Pale Ale above 7.5d per pint
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1938	Eldridge Pope	Crystal Ale	8	1036.7	1005.9	4.01	83.92%
1936	Hey	Golden Cup Ale	8	1047	1012.9	4.42	72.55%
1936	Hey	White Rose Ale No. 5	8	1045	1013.6	4.07	69.78%
1936	John Smith	No. 5 Special	8	1041	1012.7	3.66	69.02%
1935	Steward & Patteson	Pale Ale	8	1046	1007.8	4.98	83.04%
1934	Strong	Golden Ale	8	1044	1014	3.88	68.18%
1936	Tetley	Yorkshire Ale	8.5	1051	1012.7	4.98	75.10%
1936	Flower	Pale Ale	9	1053	1014	5.07	73.58%
1935	Morgans	Pale Ale	9	1048	1018	3.87	62.50%
1935	Mitchell & Butler	Export Pale Ale	11	1053	1008.4	5.83	84.15%
1936	Felinfoel	Pale Ale		1051	1014.7	4.71	71.18%
1934	Fremlin	Bitter Ale		1049	1001.3	6.27	97.35%
1937	Fremlin	Gold Top English Stock Bbitter		1046.8	1003.2	5.71	93.16%
1936	John Smith	Magnet Pale Ale		1056	1014.2	5.44	74.64%
1934	John Smith	Pale Ale		1050.3	1011.9	4.99	76.34%
	Average		8.55	1047.9	1011.0	4.79	76.97%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

The rate of attenuation doesn’t average out quite as high as in the other classes, but there is the most highly attenuated of all: Fremlin Bitter Ale. With a finishing gravity of just 1001.3, it must have been bone dry. The label states "almost sugar free" which is certainly true.

I suspect that this is the ancestor of Whitbread’s Stock Bitter bottled beer of the 1970s. Not so strange, as Whitbread did take over Fremlin

Truman Burton Pale Ale grists in 1939

The grists of Truman’s Pale Ales aren’t the most exciting in the world. Pretty dull really. And, as they were parti-gyled, they’re identical for all three.

The malt percentage, 87.5% is quite high for a pre-war beer. Around 75% was more usual. Though these were classy products, so that might be expected. At just 4.5% the amount of sugar is very low. Pre-WW I, top-class Pale Ales often contained surprisingly large quantities of sugar. It was there for a reason: to keep the body and colour of the beer as light as possible.

Which makes the presence of high-dried malt a bit strange. As this was a darker kilned malt. Truman used it in all their Burton-brewed beers, though the percentage is higher in their darker beers, such as Mild Ales.

I’ve no idea what the sugar was, other than some form on invert. My guess would be No. 1 invert, but it could also be No. 2 invert. They were the types usually employed when brewing Pale Ales.

The hops were all English, from the 1937 and 1938 harvests. Most likely quite classy ones, like East Kent Goldings. But as the brewing logs don’t record any details other than the grower, that’s impossible to know for certain.

Truman Burton Pale Ale grists in 1939
Date	Beer	OG	pale malt	high dried malt	flaked maize	invert sugar
28th Apr	Pale2	1047.4	74.34%	13.27%	7.96%	4.42%
1st May	Pale1	1053.5	74.34%	13.27%	7.96%	4.42%
28th Apr	Pale1 B	1053.5	74.34%	13.27%	7.96%	4.42%
Source:
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/339.