Marston's Banks's mild

I had a pint of this at the GBBF. Holy cow. Amazing. Anybody got a recipe for something similar? Tasting notes are burnt caramel, chestnuts, 3,5 % ABV, not much in the way of IBUs, caramel/red color. Here’s a pic of us drinking it - I’m the one with the mild.

Site Not Found sounds good – although I don’t have brown malt (or biscuit or amber) - could I use cara red?

personally i wouldn’t skip the brown malt, you need the contrast to the sweet flavors.  any grain that has a bit of a bite to it will work, brown, chocolate, biscuit, amber (very good), etc.  But if you can’t get your hands on a grain like that, toast your own brown malt using pale malt.  fyi,  mild ale malt is good with the maris otter too, but all maris otter is fine.

IMO a touch of black malt is critical to fantastic dark mild ale, it’s been included in every dark mild I’ve ever brewed and I should have included it in my list of “grains with a bit of bite.” I can think of more than one big name home brewers who will state that black malt has no place in a mild ale, history shows otherwise. cheers to brewingrover for posting a recipe that includes black malt.

I’m pretty sure I have a recipe for it somewhere. Give me a few hours and I’ll try and dig it out for you.

Don’t leave me hangin’ man!

Do you know about Jim’s Beer Kit, Phil? Top notch homebrew forum in the UK. I’ve gotten lots of good info from there. No recipe for you, though.

According to a poster there, it’s in Graham Wheeler’s “Brew Your Own British Real Ale” as Banks’s Original
http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=30078&p=325145#p325145

OG 1.036
97.5% Pale Malt
2.5% Black Malt

25 IBU
Bitter with Fuggles, a small amount of Goldings at 10 minutes. No guesses at yeast, which is the biggest drawback of the book.
It does have a bunch of mild recipes so it might be worth looking around for.

Sorry, I got all tied up with kids and organizing a large compeition and didn’t get back on this. That was close to the recipe I was going to dig out, with Wheeler’s book sitting on my knee.

OG 1.035
88.2% Pale Malt
9.9% Medium Crystal
1.9% Black Malt

12.5 IBU Fuggles at start of boil
12.5 IBU Goldings at start of boil

Mash at 153F

Yeast wise, I don’t know, but I’d be tempted to use WLP007 or equivalent for a first try, or ask Brewlabs if they could send you a slant that matches the beer.

Sorry Ali, was just giving you a hard time :slight_smile:

I wonder if chocolate malt can sub for black patent in this recipe? At that L, not gonna get much in the way of enzymatic conversion anyway. What do you think a sub of MO for Pale would give me?

No problem  :wink:

I’d lay money on the Pale being MO in the original. It’s certainly the most common Pale Malt in the UK. Chocolate would probably work as a substitute.

Oh, and I called one of my research contacts, who suggested that WLP023 might be a good place to start with yeast.

What’s the water like in the west midlands? I’ve got some Gypsum, maybe I should throw in about a tsp during the boil?

Severn Trent are the water company. Here’s the latest report for Wolverhampton http://www.stwater.co.uk/upload/pdf/ZSF26%20-%20Wolverhampton%20City.pdf. How close that is to Bank’s water wither now or historically is beyond me.

There’s a link to find hardness and other data at the top of the pages of the pdf. The postcode of the Brewery is WV1 4NY

One more question on this… Since it’s so light, can I do a double batch but keep the water the same, and then dilute in the fermenter? In the kettle?

British brewer’s often dilute in the fermenter to adjust gravity back. One reason they do this is that duty is paid based on the percentage of alcohol in the beer when it leaves the brewery. They refer to the practice as ‘liquoring back’.

So, yes.