Mild with USA hops?

[AdamR]

So, I'm thinking of brewing a nice flavoursome session ale.
Generally, I like to go a little rogue on my beer recipes and I love me some American hops.
A while back I brewed a nice Cascadian Dark Ale, to my tastebuds it was a little like lime marmalade on burned toast; fruity roasty deliciousness!
The plan is to brew a milder version of that with a bit more malt complexity.

My provisional recipe;
Pale Malt 3940g
Crystal Malt 100g
Munich Malt 100g
Chocolate Malt 75g
Black Malt 75g

Columbus 15%aa 14g 60mins
Columbus 15%aa 14g 0mins
Something like 23IBUs

I'm shooting for 4% ABV though I wouldn't be upset if it were a little lower.

Any opinions/guidance would be welcome.
Maybe a little more crystal or munich to balance with the dark malts?

*edited for hop amounts*

[Rookie]

The grain bill looks pretty good. I'm not sure that I'd use columbus, but if you like it go right ahead.

[Clibit]

I really like American hops in these kind of beers. For me whatever works goes. Columbus should he great, simcoe, centennial etc.

[Piscator]

Looks a good recipe to me, you could push the crystal up a little but I don't think it "needs" it with the munich as well.

Only thing I'd say about hops is that whenever I've used high alpha hops for a low IBU brew I get a lot more trub into the fermenter as the filter bed is far less deep. It's not a problem as such because you can run off slower to hopefully reduce the impact if you are aware of it.

I'm interested to know how you get on - I plan a mild in the new year and something like this might be fun.

Cheers
Steve

[AdamR]

I really like American hops in these kind of beers. For me whatever works goes. Columbus should he great, simcoe, centennial etc.

The grain bill looks pretty good. I'm not sure that I'd use columbus, but if you like it go right ahead.

I have Cascade in the freezer too, I might use Columbus for bittering and Cascade for the flame out hop addition.

Looks a good recipe to me, you could push the crystal up a little but I don't think it "needs" it with the munich as well.

Only thing I'd say about hops is that whenever I've used high alpha hops for a low IBU brew I get a lot more trub into the fermenter as the filter bed is far less deep. It's not a problem as such because you can run off slower to hopefully reduce the impact if you are aware of it.

I'm interested to know how you get on - I plan a mild in the new year and something like this might be fun.

Cheers
Steve

Thanks for the input; I'm hoping the munich and crystal will work together to gain a little complexity and balance against the astringency of the dark grains.
If anything, I would be tempted to up the crystal and black malt a little, but I don't want to totally overpower what hops are there.
I think I'll go for it, I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Piscator]

That level of choc and black is about right for a modern mild, I wouldn't cut them back any further myself. They shouldn't be astringent either if your alkalinity isn't too low for the grist.

Have fun with it.
Cheers
Steve

[Rookie]

Thanks for the input; I'm hoping the munich and crystal will work together to gain a little complexity and balance against the astringency of the dark grains.
If anything, I would be tempted to up the crystal and black malt a little, but I don't want to totally overpower what hops are there.
I think I'll go for it, I'll let you know how it turns out.

You'll get less astringency by adding the dark grains just before you start the sparge.

[AdamR]

You'll get less astringency by adding the dark grains just before you start the sparge.

Maybe I could have worded it better; I want a power struggle with astringency of the dark grains and the sweetness of the crystal.
If anything, I want the astringency to win that fight, but not by much.

It's been fermenting for 3 days now and the krausen has died off.
I racked to secondary (which I don't usually do) and took a sample (broke my hyrdometer though).
It tastes good! Still sweet, but I'm hoping it will dry out in the next week or so.

[6470zzy]

What did you go with as your hop schedule? My preference would have been the Columbus at flameout, but that is just me

[AdamR]

I went with Cascade in the end, sticking with what I know best.

[AdamR]

I just kegged this just 9 days after getting it in the fermenter, I dry hopped it with 10g of cascade.
Even if I do say so myself, it's delicious! And it's not carbonated yet.
The hops and dark malts combine to make a gorgeous balanced black treacle/liquourice like flavour with just a hint of a citrus aftertaste.
I will be brewing this recipe again.

[Piscator]

Sounds great, did you keep to the original grain bill or were there any tweaks?

I've got a black IPA in the fermenter which is currently dry hopping with 50g of Cascade and smells fantastic, hopefully I'll find time to bottle it at the weekend and be supping it for Christmas.

Cheers
Steve

[AdamR]

Grains as 1st post, but 14g cascade @0mins and 10g cascade dry hop.
IMHO, 'black IPA' is a contradiction in terms, also IPA is an overused term (ever tasted how bland Greene KIng IPA is?).
I prefer to call it a Cascadian Dark Ale, I periodically brew a hoppy dark ale with west coast American hops and it works so well.

[RatsoRizzo]

Nice. I've played around with the idea of an American mild as well. As much as I love Cascade I've preferred the versions I've brewed with Centennial and even Ahtunum is good with the darker malts. Like the looks of your grain bill though so will give your recipe a try sometime; what's the brew length?

[AdamR]

Like the looks of your grain bill though so will give your recipe a try sometime; what's the brew length?

Was meant to be 23litres, ended up less than that...