As a part of his West Yorkshire Ale yeast adventure, Mike dug up another English Ale recipe to brew again with the strain he has come to enjoy very much. This time around, it is an English Dark Mild ale recipe. Take a look at this video as we discuss the recipe, the brew day, and the tasting notes:

English Dark Mild Recipe

Ingredients

For a 6.5 US gallon post boil batch:

6 pounds (2.72 kg) of English Maris Otter Malt – 78.7% of grain bill
8 ounces (227 g) of CaraRed Malt – 6.6% of grain bill
8 ounces (227 g) of Wheat Malt – 6.6% of grain bill
4 ounces (113 g) of Pale Chocolate Malt – 3.3% of grain bill
4 ounces (113 g) of Special Roast Malt – 3.3% of grain bill
2 ounces (57 g) of Midnight Wheat Malt – 1.6% of grain bill

1 ounce (28g) of Willamette hops – boiled for 60 minutes

1 packet of Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale Yeast

Water profile: 67% Reverse Osmosis water – 33% Tap water with 10 grams of Gypsum and 5 grams of Calcium Chloride

Water Chemistry:

100 PPM of Calcium
125 PPM Sulfate (SO4)
141 PPM Chloride (Cl)

Instructions and Outcomes

Mashed for 1 hour at 152° F (67° C)
Fermented at 65° F (18° C) for about 2 weeks
Warmed beer to 75° F (24°C) for a few days for a diacetyl rest

Original Gravity: 1.036
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV: 3.6%

English Dark Mild Tasting Notes

The aroma of this beer had a solid Graham cracker note. There was no hop aroma present – very malt forward.

The color was a deep brown color with some red notes.

The flavor fulfilled the promise of the aroma with caramel malt notes – not roast. With the light alcohol content, this beer was very easy to drink. Mike equated it to dirty water.

The body wasn’t as full as Mike wanted it to be. Plus, his additions of brewing salts brought a mineral characteristic to the beer that he felt could be reduced for next time.

Lastly, with this grain bill, he felt the flavor needed more specialty malt flavor. He needs to figure out how to increase the amounts of one or two specialty malts to bring more flavor to the beer.

Please let us know about your Mild ale brewing experience.

BREW ON!