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Wild About Mild
What is mild? It is a beer which has tastes and textures all its own. Basically, it is a beer that has fewer hops in it compared to a normal bitter.
The darkness of dark milds, such as Greene King XX, comes from the use of darker malts and/or roasted barley which are used to compensate for the loss of hop character. "chocolate", "fruity", "nutty" and "burnt" are all tastes to be found in the complexity of milds.
However, not all milds are dark. Yorkshire brewed Timothy Taylor's Golden Best is one of the best examples of a light coloured mild, as is Banks's Original, the name changed from Mild to try to give it a more modern image. In Scotland, 60/- (Sixty Shilling) ale is similar to mild (Belhaven’s being a good example).
Milds today tend to have an ABV in the 3% to 3.5% range with, of course, some notable exceptions. Gale's produce Festival Mild at 4.8%, there is Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby at 6%, brewed to an original early 20th century recipe, and we have seen others from micros up and down the country, including Norfolk's own Chalk Hill Brewery Flintknapper's Mild at 5.0%.
Why not get your local pub to try some – and give this distinctive, tasty beer the new lease of life it deserves.
Check out the CAMRA national website's information about mild.
Norfolk pubs that usually sell a cask-conditioned mild:
Norwich
Alexandra Tavern - Chalk Hill Flintknapper's Mild
Coach & Horses (Thorpe Road) - Chalk Hill Flintknapper's Mild
Fat Cat - Choice varies
Freemasons Arms - Choice varies
King's Arms - Batemans DM
King's Head - Choice varies
Reindeer - Elgoods Black Dog
Ribs of Beef -
Trafford Arms - Woodforde's Mardlers/Tetley Mild
Outside Norwich
Earsham, Queen's Head - Waveney East Coast Mild
Fakenham, Bull - Elgoods Black Dog
Hockering, Victoria - Choice varies
Little Walsingham, Black Lion - Choice varies
Swanton Morley, Darbys - Theakstons Mild
Trunch, Crown - Batemans DM
Woodbastwick, Fur & Feather - Woodforde's Mardlers
If you know of any Norfolk pub not listed here that regularly stocks a cask mild, please let us know (email norwichcamra [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk).
Updated April 29th, 2006
© Norwich and Norfolk Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale.
URL: http://www.norwichcamra.org.uk/misc/mild.htm
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Landlords – download this poster to promote mild in your pub
(64kb PDF file,
right click on the
picture above and
"Save Target As" or
"Save Link As"
to download the file
to your computer)
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