A beer that has long intrigued me, because I had never sampled in its original form, was the English Mild. Not that I expected it to be a great beer – the name “Mild” is the name for a reason – but since it seemed to be a very pleasant style, low in alcohol, that can be consumed in quantity without ill effects, and one that was once very popular in England, though it has mostly disappeared.
From Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion published in the early 1990s, the self-same legendary beer writer described Mild as such:
“The designation refers to mildness of hop character. A mild is gentle, sweetish, certainly not bitter. Some milds are pale in color…, but more are tawny or dark…. The darker milds are sometimes seen as a draft version of a brown ale, and the style may trace its lineage to the lesser porters. Most, but not all, milds are low in alcohol, at a little over 3% by volume. Mild is an ale intended to be consumed in quantity, more as a restorative than a refresher. It was once a harvest-time drink, a reward for farmworkers…. The style was also popular in areas of thirst-making industry, and has retained its strongest loyalties in the West Midlands towns of Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Dudley [about 125 miles northwest of London], and to a lesser extent the Manchester area. Mild came to be seen as an old-fashioned style….”
I was very surprised to find a six-pack of Mild from the Robert Cains Brewery in Liverpool on the shelves of the main Spec’s on Smith Street the other day. I don’t remember ever seeing it at local stores before. I was unfamiliar with the brewery, but I had to purchase the last six-pack.
It did not last long in the refrigerator before I sampled one of the tall 14.9 ounce (440 ml) cans. The beer was maybe medium-bodied, slightly malty, a little yeasty – a slightly tinny taste – and, well, mild; but, easy-to-drink and pleasurable. After I finished the first, it seemed like a no-brainer to open a second, though I had no intention of doing so when I opened the initial. It was not an overly flavorful beer, but an enjoyable one. And, it would be nice to see a locally brewed version of a Mild.
As Michael Jackson described, Mild makes for possibly “the perfect lunchtime pint” and one that works well when you are going to have more than one (far better than Schaefer ever did).
Comments