Thought I’d start a thread to document my attempts at coming up with an “American Mild” ale. I want to end up with a sub 4% beer that doesn’t have flavor and mouthfeel comparable to water! I’m basing it on the English Mild, obviously, but with American ingredients. My goal is to come up with a beer with the mouthfeel and flavor impact of a traditional mild, although not the same flavor. I’m guessing this will take at least 3-6 attempts to get to what I have in mind. I’m hoping that the amount of crystal, the high mash temp, and the yeast will give me the body I want, while all the late hops will have a lot of flavor but bitterness in line with the OG. I’m also doing it no sparge, which I haven’t done in a while. Here’s the recipe…
Evaporation Rate: 1.50 Gallons Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 7.00 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.028 SG 7.05 Plato
Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
81.3 6.50 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 1.036 2
12.5 1.00 lbs. Crystal 60L America 1.034 60
6.3 0.50 lbs. Special Roast Malt America 1.033 40
Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.
Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
0.50 oz. Chinook Pellet 12.10 15.5 20 min.
0.50 oz. Simcoe Pellet 15.40 11.8 10 min.
0.50 oz. Centennial Whole 10.20 3.9 5 min.
1.00 oz. Columbus Pellet 15.20 0.0 0 min.
Yeast
Wyeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite
Mash Schedule
Mash Name:
Total Grain Lbs: 8.00
Total Water Qts: 16.00 - Before Additional Infusions
Total Water Gal: 4.00 - Before Additional Infusions
Tun Thermal Mass: 0.13
Grain Temp: 65.00 F
Step Rest Start Stop Heat Infuse Infuse Infuse
Step Name Time Time Temp Temp Type Temp Amount Ratio
sacc 0 60 160 160 Infuse 173 16.00 2.00
Total Water Qts: 16.00 - After Additional Infusions
Total Water Gal: 4.00 - After Additional Infusions
Total Mash Volume Gal: 4.64 - After Additional Infusions
All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.
All infusion amounts are in Quarts.
All infusion ratios are Quarts/Lbs.
Just started the boil. Got 84-87% effieincy from a no sparge! To address some of the comments…
Jim, to fill out the description above, I want a beer that is fairly balanced between hops and malt. It has to have an American hop quality, which is why I went with the “classics” rather than the newer tropical fruit hops…well, that and I hate those!
troybinso, great ideas, some of which I already considered. I don’t find oats to add body, frankly. Maybe it’s something I’m doing wrong, but multiple attempts at using oats to build body haven’t come out with what I expected. Thought about rye, but I don’t want that flavor in there, at least in the first test batches. Considered carapils also, and it may end up in there after I evaluate this attempt. Like I said above, I’m expecting anywhere form 3-6 batches to get it dialled in. Your idea to bump the OG is good, but again it’s something I’ll consider after I evaluate this batch. The last few batches I made used GW pale ale as a base, but I was out of it for this one. But thanks for the idea…something to keep in mind for future revisions.
+1 to a lot of this. My session robust porter starts at 1.047 and finishes at about 1.018. For my non-hoppy session brews, I find that they end up a bit thin unless they finish in the high teens. I like the special roast here, but I’m thinking you might also want one or more of the following to amp up the malt flavor a bit:
Munich
Aromatic
Darker Crystal (to replace some or all of the C-60)
A touch of chocolate malt (maybe?)
I think 12.5% is a good starting point for the Crystal malt.
Yeah, I considered a darker crystal. I’m also thinking about a blend of several crystals to increase the depth of flavor. Munich is a good idea, too, but I wanted to keep this first attempt pretty basic to evaluate the whole concept. Considered chocolate malt, too, for the added flavor but I really want to keep this in the pale mild area. I just feel like that’s closer to the American style I was going for.
Thanks for sharing your process. It’s cool to get to follow along while you work this out. This is why we brew your recipes and not the other way around
That’s very kind of you! I have to admit that I think this is my favorite part of brewing…setting a goal and figuring out how to get there. we all know that you can throw a bunch of stuff together and make beer and it may be pretty good beer. But for me, the thrill is envisioning something and the bringing that vision to a glass!
My 2 cents is that late hops get syrupy fast when combined with low OG. I don’t know how to describe it mathematically but IBU/OG is not the only consideration for balancing a small beer.
I have a 1046 OG pale ale (90% pale malt, 10% crystal 10, 23 IBU) right now with 0.6oz. Citra late and it still tastes like a lot of hops flavor to me. But for some reason I am in to malty beer right now. So maybe it’s just me.
I love the experiment. I want to brew the final version for sure.
