Mild.........watering down the wort?

[babalu87]

Morning (afternoon) fellas, been a while nice to be back.

I want to brew a nice Mild and some thoughts/theories/ramblings are that a low efficiency is better for the flavor of the beer.

My thought, I am in the low-mid 80s for efficiency on most beers but once I get around 1.075 to 1.080+ my efficiency drops into the 70's.

Rather than do a partigyle Why not just mash for a big batch of Old Ale, run off and boil as an Old Ale but then take a few gallons of that wort and mix it with water to achieve an OG for a Mild.

Thoughts, feel free to bash me too.

[Rookie]

Morning (afternoon) fellas, been a while nice to be back.

I want to brew a nice Mild and some thoughts/theories/ramblings are that a low efficiency is better for the flavor of the beer.

My thought, I am in the low-mid 80s for efficiency on most beers but once I get around 1.075 to 1.080+ my efficiency drops into the 70's.

Rather than do a partigyle Why not just mash for a big batch of Old Ale, run off and boil as an Old Ale but then take a few gallons of that wort and mix it with water to achieve an OG for a Mild.

Thoughts, feel free to bash me too.

A lot of small breweies do that to increase output when they don't have room to put in larger equipment.

[leigh1919]

For the above - Mixing old ale with another - I think that sounds cool to me - You'll end up with something drinkable, anyway.

[trucker5774]

As I recall "mild" is not a reference to the strength of the beer...............simply that it is not so bitter

[OldSpeckledBadger]

As I recall "mild" is not a reference to the strength of the beer...............simply that it is not so bitter

That's right. It's been like that for probably 100 years or so. Originally though it referred to beer which hadn't been aged (think of mild as in mild cheese). Historically beer was aged for many months which obviously incurred a cost for the brewers as they had to finance huge stocks of beer sitting there for months. Un-aged beer, mild, would therefore have been cheaper than aged beer (which I think was referred to as stale).

[oblivious]

Rather than do a partigyle Why not just mash for a big batch of Old Ale, run off and boil as an Old Ale but then take a few gallons of that wort and mix it with water to achieve an OG for a Mild..

highgate brewery mild is gyle version of their old ale

[oblivious]

As I recall "mild" is not a reference to the strength of the beer...............simply that it is not so bitter

original not aged or stale, but could be highly hopped and high in alcohol, and it could be any beer there where mild porter and pale ales. A more modern version i.e 1940's+ are low alcohol and low hops

[babalu87]

Rather than do a partigyle Why not just mash for a big batch of Old Ale, run off and boil as an Old Ale but then take a few gallons of that wort and mix it with water to achieve an OG for a Mild..

highgate brewery mild is gyle version of their old ale

Yes and this is what I did

Decided to get two beers out of one brew session.

Used the Highgate Mild recipe from Graham Real Ale book

6 gallons First runnings are fermenting with 1469 cask yeast (watered that down from 1.123!!!!!!!!!!!!)

10 gallons at 1.038 are the second runnings and I had enough to run through 3 gallons at 1.025 for starter wort

Was a very productive day

[mysterio]

Nice, be interested to hear how they turn out

[babalu87]

Nice, be interested to hear how they turn out

Me too, brewed the Highgate recipe as a straing clone before and we were very pleased.

My only concern is that yeast getting to attenuate far enough

Fast Ferment test shows it should get to 1.027, I would be happy with that.

If I have to pitch an active starter of US-05 I certainly would but I'll give the old 1469 a go.

[Bribie]

I regularly make milds and get the rich body and 'chewiness' by mashing at 70 degrees until an iodine test shows no more starch left, and promptly mashout at that point even if it's only been 50 minutes for example. Then a 60 min boil and about 500g of sugar into the FV to provide a tad more alcohol, and a low attenuating yeast such as Wyeast Ringwood.

However, on topic, I brewed a yorkshire 'blonde' bitter for a competition and it came out at around 4.3% ABV and really needed to come down to about 3.7% so on bottling I watered it down at that point, using bottles of ALDI sparkling springwater as I didn't want any oxygen in the water. Turned out fine and thankfully there was enough hops in the original beer to translate it to a 'modern Summer Ale' style.