Mild! month

God, I'm stupid. CAMRA's Mild Month is the perfect opportunity for me to push my book about Mild.

It's called, if you're a goldfish, "Mild! plus". At least the full version is. (There's a shorter and cheaper "Mild!" for the financially challenged.)

I can say without fear of conflagration that it's the longest, most detailed and fact-packed book ever written about Mild. That's not such a wild, egotistical claim, as I know of only one other book on the subject.

"What is Mild?" The book will tell you. About everything Mild has been. In grillock-twisting detail. You'll wish you'd never asked the question in the first place.

"How do I brew Mild?". It'll tell you that, too. There's a ton of recipes spanning the 19th and 20th centuries. Mostly stuffed with brewing sugars you'll never be able to buy.

And a stack of other shit. Numbers, statistics, more numbers, the odd word that wasn't written 150 years ago.

I'd tell you more, but my chips are almost the right shade of browny-black.

Buy Mild! plus! Before my tea burns. 

Here it is in some other forms:

paperback

pdf

cheapskate

An afternoon in Folkestone

We start fairly early, at 08:15, on Linaeusstraat. I nip into the bakery and get a broodje gezond. Lekker, hoor.

It being Saturday morning, the roads aren't bad at all. Just after Antwerp, we stop at a service station. Mikey has a dump and I pick up, true to tradition, three cans of Gordon Finest Gold. Slightly superior tramp juice. Perfect to get me in the mood. But I've made a slight miscalculation and all three are drained before we get on the chunnel shuttle. I'll remember to get four next time.

13 minutes after pulling off the train we arrive at our hotel. Thirty seconds after that, pints are in front of us. Just a bottle of London Pride for me, as the Scuba Bar sells no cask. Mikey quickly disappears off to London. I've a free afternoon. A good chance to visit the real ale pubs he hates.

After a stroll down the high street, I dive into the Wetherspoons. It's in what looks like a former Methodist chapel. Mikey definitely won't come in here. I can see his point. It is a bit of a dump. I order a Whitstable Brewery Kentish Reserve. I am in Kent, after all.

My beer is very dark. If it's supposed to be a Bitter. At 5%, who knows? I'm not in style nazi mode (am I ever?). What do I care? It's just about drinkable. Just. About 5 minutes away from Sarson's. I do something I very, very, very rarely do: I leave it unfinished. Those Gordons have got me nicely warmed up. No need to knock back crap just for the sake of it.

Just before entering Wetherspoons, I spotted a pub I'd not visited before, the Guildhall. It's my next stop. Inside is mobbed by diners, but I find a stool at the bar. I order a Titanic Lifboat. This is definitely in Mild country, colour-wise. [RateBeer classifies it as a Bitter. So a Bitter it is. The brewery describe it as "fruity and malty,red brown bittersweet beer". Nicely unspecific about style.] If I'm not mistaken, it tastes like there are some American citrus hops in there. Bit weird, but at least it isn't going off faster than a runaway TGV.

Knacked. Je suis un peu knackré. Don't know why. It's Mikey who's been driving for 3.5 hours.

The landlord is trying very hard. Maybe this is one of his most profitable sessions. It reminds me why I wouldn't want to run a pub. I couldn't keep up the front of friendliness all day. I'd be the traditional miserable bastard type of publican.

I do finish my pint of Lifeboat. Then head on to my next stop, the British Lion. I've been here before. Eaten here, too. Quite a nice Sunday dinner, it was. I order an Adnam Gunhill. This one has both feet and its arse in Mild-land. British brewers - can't they decide what style they're making? Bastards. They just brew what they feel like and call it Bitter. Or nothing.

It tastes OK. But has that funny mouth-coating thing. Probably the best pint so far. Strong Mild, that's what I've decided to call it. So I have to like it. there. [RateBeer has it down as a Mild. Adnams website describes it as "as a cross between a dark mild and an old fashioned brown ale". That's cleared things up.]

Next it's the turn of the Pullman. It still smells of paint from its recent refurbishment. In the smoky old days, it would have just stunk of fags after the first session. Two blokes at the bar ask jokingly if I'm following them around. They'd been in the Guildhall.

I'm served a pint of Harvey's best, served by a fit young Polish barmaid. Does life get any better? It has the enchanting farty smell of an authentic Bitter. Deliciotastic.

It's a proper pint of Bitter. Like it used to taste when I were a lad in the 1920's. (I feel sometimes as if  I grew up in the 1920's. Too much time spent looking through old books.

The final call on my mini pub-crawl is Chambers. Down in a basement. Hey daddy - o, I don't wanna go down in the basement.

"A pint of Mild, please." "I haven't said that in a while" I quip to the barman. My repartee is shit. Finally something not Mild-like, but the real thing. Rudgate Ruby Mild. A bit generic, to be honest. But still Mild. I feel like I've done my bit for Mild Month March. Self-satisfaction keeps me warm as I wait on the freezing terrace of the Scuba Bar for the Asda delivery man to arrive.

Skuba Bar
2-4 Langhorne Gardens,
Folkestone,
Kent CT20 2EA.
Tel: 01303 251 444‎


Wetherspoons
23 Rendezvous Street,
Folkestone CT20 1EY.
Tel: 01303 251 154


The Guildhall
42 The Bayle,
Folkestone CT20 1SQ.
Tel: 01303 251 393



The British Lion
8-10 The Bayle
Folkestone CT20 1SQ.
Tel: 01303 251 478


The Pullman
7 Church Street,
Folkestone CT20 1SE.
Tel: 07801 859 592


The Chambers
Radnor Chambers,
Cheriton Place,
Folkestone CT20 2BB.
Tel: 01303 223 333

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1839 Barclay Perkins XXX

It's Mild month. I keep telling myself that in case I forget. "Mild March is Month." I mutter as I stand at the tram stop. At least it gains me plenty of personal space.

First, forget everything you think you know about Mild. Things like colour and strength. Mild isn't necessarily meek. Or dark. Or lightly-hopped even. All of those characteristics are 20th century innovations. We're going back to a proper Mild. Beers brewed when Queen Victoria was still a randy teenager.

Barclay Perkins, like the other large London Porter breweries, for a while only brewed Porter and Stout. But sometime around 1830 they moved into the Ale market. Just as well. By the middle of the 19th century Ale, mostly Mild Ale, was all the rage and beginning to make a serious dent in Porter sales.

There were three Mild Ales, imaginatively named X, XX and XXX. Let's take a look at them more closely.

Barclay Perkins Ales in 1839
Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	Pitch temp
1839	X	Mild	1071.5	1012.3	7.83	82.79%	9.09	3.16	59º
1839	XX	Mild	1087.3	1015.5	9.49	82.24%	9.00	4.08	58º
1839	XXX	Mild	1104.4	1018.3	11.39	82.48%	8.58	5.31	58º
Source: Barclay Perkins brewing records

The weakest was more than double the strength of a typical modern Mild. The strongest was, well, not for the faint-hearted. To give you an idea of how these beers fitted into the strength hierarchy of the day, here are the typical gravities of some other styles:

Porter: 1060-1065
IPA: 1055-1065
Stout: 1070-1075
Double Stout: 1080-1090

X Ales were, even comparatively, strong beers. Unlike IPA, which was, if anything, below average strength.

I think that's about all I have to say for the moment. Except this: "Drink more Mild!".



It's now Kristen's turn . . . .

Barclay Perkins - 1839 - XXX ale
General info: Mild. Simple right? Dark, weak, no hops. We've been over how wrong that statement is for sometime now. Here is another cog in the wheel of illumination. This beer resembles almost nothing of the current mild as we know it. Its huge. Its very high in alcohol. Its very hoppy. Its nothing like you've ever had before. This is truely history in a glass. This is something that everyone should try. For all of you that don't like mild, we salute you!
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.104		100% Mild malt			0%
Gravity (FG)	1.018		0%			0%
ABV	11.43%		0%			0%
Apparent attenuation	82.40%		0%
Real attenuation	67.51%
IBU	75.7		Mash	120min@151°F		0.763076923076923qt/lb
SRM	12			120min@66.1°C		1.6L/kg
EBC	23.6
			Boil	4 hours
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
Mild malt	19.80	lb	9.016	kg	1074.37	lb	415.10	kg
	19.804		9.016		1074.3682
Hops
Goldings 4.5% 240min	5.66	oz	160.5	g	350.96	oz	8.479	kg
Goldings 4.5% dry hop	0.26	oz	7.3	g	15.96	oz	0.386	kg
Fermentation	76°F /24.4°C
Yeast	Nottingham ale yeast
	1028 London Ale Yeast  - WLP013 London Ale Yeast
Tasting Notes: Big. Very big. Lots of booze and spice. Layers and layers of biscuity malt blended with hop tannins and bitterness. A round sweetness in the middle that is full of fruity hop resins and malt. The bitterness, tannins and spice really dry out the end which lasts well after is is swallowed.

Ingredients and technique

Grist & such
How many times have we seen simple milds with 5, 6 or 7 ingredients. 3 different sugars with a caramel addition and some colored priming sugar. This, sorry to disappoint, is made up of a single malt. One. Single. Pale. Malt. To get as close as possible to the original version I would use mild malt. Paul’s Mild, if you can find it, is the best you can buy.

Hops
The hops were all very fresh, barley being a year old. Per the usual for BP beers they were all middle Kentish. One single addition at makeup was the extent of the kettle hopping. That being said, the single hop addition totaled a whopping 75-80 BU’s. Just as important as the BU count is the huge amount of tannins this much hop material would deliver. Using anything other than low alpha acid hops in this recipe will significantly change the flavor profile of this beer. A small amount of dry hops were added that would have given just a slight hint of the spicy Goldings.

Mash & Boil
Per the norm, a simple single infusion along with a single underlet kept the mash right in the middle ‘sweet’ spot. The boil is an entirely different story. FOUR hours. The long boil would have added another layer of complexity for this big beer.

Fermentation, Conditioning & Serving
This is another point where this beer has strayed into the unusual. The fermentation was allowed to rise to extraordinary temperatures. For a beer this size this would have meant a completely different profile. The high temperatures would have surely made this beer less smooth and fruity and more harsh, phenolic, spicy and hotly alcoholic. It would have been conditioned for a few weeks and served with about 2.0 volumes of CO2.

Gyling & Blending
Another interesting thing with this beer is that there was no gyling. With such a huge beer it would only make sense to gyle or one would lose a huge amount of sugars and was a lot of the malt. That being said, when you go over the log in detail there was a huge amount of ‘return’ that they took from this beer. Another neat way to save money!

Once upon a time

It's arrived. Yesterday it came. The box of Pretty Things Once Upon a Time Mild. I'd looked forward to it so much.

It doesn't disappoint. The colour is a beautiful deep copper. And the taste. If I hadn't abandoned beer descriptions, I'd tell you stuff about minty hops, caramel malt and a strong, but in now way overwhelming bitterness. But I'm crap at that sort of thing, so I'll just say that it's like a souped-up Fullers ESB. Or an improved Gold Label. Dead nice and right down my street. Easy Street. Easy to get pissed if you're not careful street.

Only the second Mild post this Mild Month. My apologies. I'll just have to have a second Mild Month in May.

Mild month again

Oh dear. We're already half way through March and I've not mentioned Mild yet. What is wrong with me. Mild is March month.

I still obsess about Mild, despite drinking it only once a decade. Later this week I'll have a rare opportunity to knock some back. Bottles of Pretty Things 1832 Mild will be delivered on Wednesday. A full-strength Imperial Mild, originally brewed by Truman. Right down my street, what with its 10% plus ABV.

This is also a great opportunity for me to plug my book "Mild!". Easily the best book ever written about Mild Ale. Mostly because I can only think of one other. "Mild!" tells you everything you could ever need to know about Mild. And a whole load more. Then more after that.

Want to expose that arrogant know-it-all in the pub? Well bugger off, because that's probably me. But if you want to know enough to think you can impress a geek in a T-shirt, "Mild!"is the book for you. Unless you're not interested in beer history. In which case, why the hell are you reading this dull blog?

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1917 Whitbread GA and 1918 Whitbread MA

Hey kids, I've a special treat in store for you today. A truly extreme Mild. Yep, a beer that's about as mild as an Ale can get. Sam Calagione eat your heart out.

Before we get to the tables that leave Stonch sighing in his armchair, time for a little background. GA is short for "Governement Ale", a beer whose strength and price was set by government decree. The intention was to ensure more beer was brewed from the same quantity of raw materials and keep down the price to stop unrest amongst the working class. It doesn't seem to have quite worked out as planned, due to resistance from brewers and publicans.

Stylistically, it was like a lower-gravity X-Ale and was often party-gyled with it. When government restrictions on brewing were abolished, Government Ale didn't disappear. Most breweries continued to brew a beer of around 1030º, usually called just Ale. It finally vanished only when the gravity of X Ale dropped to around 1027-1030º at the end of WW II.

Oct. 1 1917: Prices fixed at 4d. per pint under 1036º, 5d. per pint under 1042º.
April 1 1918: Prices fixed at 4d. per pint below 1030º, and 5d. per pint for 1030º to 1034º.

Whitbread dropped their X Mild in 1917 and replaced it with a GA . They brewed versions in both the price bands, one at 1034º the other at 1042º. In 1918, these were replaced by MA, which came in three different versions: 1038º, 1023º and 1011º. Surprisingly, the strongest had a higher gravity in 1918 than PA, which was just 1036º. Whitbread were only able to maintain a decent-strength Mild by brewing large quantities of MA at the weakest gavity, 1011º, something which could scarcely be described as beer. It was barely 1% ABV.

This popular song of the day shows just how popular these Government Ales were with drinkers:

Lloyd George's Beer
Sung By Ernie Mayne

We shall win the war, we shall win the war,
As I've said before, we shall win the war,
The Kaiser's in a dreadful fury,
Now he knows were making it in every brewery.
Have you read of it? Seen what's said of it?
In "The Mirror" and "The Mail"
It's a substitute and a pubstitute,
And it's known as "Government Ale". Or otherwise.

Chorus

Lloyd George's beer, Lloyd George's beer,
At the brewery, there's nothing doing,
All the water-works are brewing,
Lloyd George's beer, it isn't dear
Oh they say it is a terrible war, Oh Lor'
And there never was a war like this before
But the worst thing that ever happened in this war
Is Lloyd George's beer.

Love the word "pubstitute". I'll have to start using that.


Let's start with a beer that could still actually get you pissed.





This is a simplified bversion of the same recipe:



This one would be more of a struggle to get wobbly on. But it's far from being the weakest Whitbread wartime Mild.




And finally a Mild that definitely wasn't going to make you accidentally blow up the munitions factory. I've seen "non-alcoholic" beers that were stronger.



Kristen's notes
TWO recipes for the price of one....we'll I guess its more like 1.5 recipes. The GA is one of the first Government ales. I won't go into any depth of the 'style' as Ron has done a great job of discussing them in the past. This GA is more unique than most as the gravity is still reasonable and its 100% malt which is very uncommon. It still has a good amount of fresher hops in it.

The MA is the lowest of the low of the mild ales. Complete and utter 'nothing' added. The gravity is not a mistake as it was that low. The quality of the ingredients were horrible, most were old to VERY old and the sugar is through the roof at +20%...plain old glucose. As vanilla as a sugar can get. They included hops that were 5 years old or so. Both recipes are very pale compared to older milds which doesn't make them less of a 'mild'...just different.