Mild ale recipe

[emnpaul]

G'day fellow brewers.

I was planning on doing a fairly authentic English mild ale, based on Olivers description in Beer Styles.

" Mild Ale One of the great styles of British beer, mild ale originally was a beer that had not been aged, as many were to “sour” them. Today, mild ale means lightly hopped and not bitter, therefore slightly sweet. They are usually dark in color and have a rich grainy character due to large amounts of cereal adjucts. They get their deep copper to dark brown color from caramel and roasted malts. While not particularly bitter, they can be full of flavor. They usually have a light body and are low in alcohol, but it is not always the case. It is a beer able to be drunk in quantity and was popular in industrial areas where a hard-earned thirst was a daily occurence. After almost being lost, mild ale has had somewhat of a revival in Britain. OG is usually 1.030 to 1.040. IBUs are usually 10 to 25. Alcohol 2.5 to 3.5%."

My first time using Brewmate. What do you think about this recipe?

Grain Potential Extract %
1Kg Munich I 1.038 30
1Kg Munich II 1.038 30
850g Pale malt extract 1.037 25
200g dark Creystal 1.033 6
200g Pale crystal 1.034 6
100g Pale chocolate 1.030 3

O.G: 1.032 (predicted)
F.G: 1008 (predicted)

Hops AA% Boil Time IBU
12g Northern Brewer 9.6% AA 60 mins 15.4
10g Fuggles 3.8% AA 20mins 2.4

Total IBU: 17.8
BU:GU Ratio 0.56

Finings
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @10mins


Yeast ???

I was thinking of giving a brewcellar premium ale yeast a go in this one. I am yet to use it but have a starter sitting in the fridge. Smells a bit like a fresh baked fruit loaf, albeit in a much more restrained way. Concerned it might chew away too much of the body though. Do you think that will be a problem with that much crystal in the mix? I can go S-04, but a liquid is out of the question financially.

Is it too much crystal for the IBU?

Does it need more hops/aroma, bearing in mind the style guidelines/restrictions?

I have on hand: 500g dark crystal
500g pale crystal
500g Pale chocolate
1kg Munich I
1Kg Munich II
1Kg Pale extract
1Kg dark extract
500g LDME
1kg Coopers BE2
70g Nelson Sauvin
40g Northern Brewer
50g Fuggles
50g Challenger
50g EKG

I am relatively new at brewing English ales, so any advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Paul

Edit: Added hop quantities.

[drsmurto]

English ales are my passion.....

If you want authentic then a german malt (munich) is not your answer. I can still hear the poms singing (in a pub), 2 world wars and 1 world cup, do dah, do dah......

A good english base malt like maris otter or golden promise is where i would be starting.

I racked a dark mild this evening, no munich in sight. Just MO, crystals, choc and some torrified wheat. All challenger in this case but Fuggles and EKg are a classic english ale combination.

So for your recipe i would replace the munich malts with an english base malt and use Fuggles or EKG to bitter.

As for yeasts, dry english yeasts are average at best but the best of them IMO is S-04.

Once you are prepared to use liquid yeast you will find financially they are no burden. I have finished a run of 3 beers using the same liquid yeast (white labs yorkshire square ale). Cost me $11 to buy and i can still reuse the yeastcake of the stout to brew another stout giving me 4 beers from the 1 yeast.

[emnpaul]

Thankyou Doctor!

Still educating my pallet in an effort to find where my passion lies, and planning a run of English Ales to that end. Just so many colours in the beer rainbow!

I'll see if I can pick up some MO in the morning, if not might have to give the Munich a run and leave the MO for V:2.0.

Will go Fuggles/EKG combo as my NB are also German, as you have probably guessed.

I am very much looking forward to liquid yeasts and understand the harvesting/yeast farming thread (thanks for that post, it's a gem). It's just that I REALLY can't afford the $13 for a vial of whitelabs yeast this week. In fact I probably will use the brewcellar yeast now that I think about it, as I find the S-04 aroma a bit off putting, and the 2kg of Marris Otter will be a stretch in itself.

Would it be worth trying to get some flaked barley to increase the body a bit? Or just mash high, say 68?

Thanks again Doc. I really do appreciate it.

[drsmurto]

Mash high. I wouldn't put flaked barley in anything other than a stout.

[emnpaul]

D'oh!

Couldn't get flaked barley so I put in 100g flaked oats.

Final recipe:
2kg Golden promise. (they were out of MO)
750g LME (200 used in hop mini-boil, 550g in top up boil to reach desired FG of 1032)
200g dark crystal
200g light crystal
100g pale chocolate
100g flaked oats (bugger the haze, its a fairly dark beer anyway)
WLP002 English ale yeast (couldn't afford not to use liquid yeast after going to the trouble of mashing, SWMBO can kill me later)

HOPS
35g fuggles 3.8%AA 90 mins
15g EKG 4.7%AA 10 mins
Hops boiled in 2 litres of 1032 wort. Added to fermenter with wort from grains.

Mashed at 66-68 deg. For 90 mins.

First partial and first liquid yeast. Smelt good, looked good, tastes...I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks and cheers,
Paul

[emnpaul]

Ended up a pretty good beer without being excellent.

The EKG faded pretty quickly, leaving some decidedly tofee-ish overtones. I wasn't particularly stoked with the WLP002 flavour but after it had some time to mellow it wasn't too bad. Probably peaked around the 3 month mark. I'd liken this beer to throwing a handfull of mars bars into the mash and then letting the sugar ferment out to leave the carmelicious-ness behind. Just a bit too much caramel/toffee for my tastes.

In reterospect I probably should have gone with a tried and proven recipe and then adjusted to taste in subsequent batches, but you live and learn.