As I’ll be hosting next month’s “Session” on Cuatro de Mayo, or May 4, it’s time to unveil the theme for our third round. The theme will be “The Mysterious Misunderstood Mild” to coincide with CAMRA‘s May promotion Mild Month. Saturday the 5th will also be National Mild Day on the other side of the pond. For those of us here in the colonies, we may have a harder time finding a mild to review. But several craft brewers do make one, even if they don’t always call it a mild. So you may have to do a little detective work to find one, but that should prove to be half the fun. See you in the merry month.
Mild? Mild! Seriously?
I would have thought Maibock would have been more appropriate for next months Session. Mild maybe in the mild of Summer, but if I had my choice would have been go bold go Maibock.
*ignoring the fact I am a total Germanophil*
So Mild huh.
Fabulous choice, Jay. I may have forgotten to highlight the passing of the torch but will so tonight on the beer blog. By the wya, this is a really hard choice to find in Canada. I may be forced to resort to the 3.5%-ish dark I made yesterday but as that has yeast stolen from Fantome it should be at least interesting.
Appropriate, schmopriate. There was a short debate a while back where several people made the point that milds are relatively unkown here in the states so I felt it would be a worthwhile opportunnity to highlight this mysterious and misunderstood type of beer. Plus, Maibocks just seemed too easy and obvious. Double Plus, CAMRA designates the month of May to celebrate milds. You can host next May and by all means choose Maibocks.
Jay: Shaun had a wonderful mild from 21A at the Slow Food tasting at Fort Mason a few weekends back. Hoppy little puppy too. Just under 4% abv. I suggested that he take on the challange of making an Extream Mild. He liked the idea.
Tom
Jay, I have to admit when I saw the theme of May, a sense of trepidation came over me, but only for a minute. The feeling came from not knowing a whole bunch about Mild’s, and not knowing if I was going to be able to obtain one. Then the feeling went away and I became rather excited at the prospect at trying a beer I am not familiar with, by a brewer that I may not know. Which is what this whole Session should be about in my mind. Opening us all up to new tastes and new discoveries.
Jay, thank you so much for choosing mild as May’s theme for the Session. As you know, I think it’s the perfect choice. The fact that the style is so rare outside of the UK is all the more reason to give it a push, and as you’ve stated in your article, May is CAMRA’s designated “Mild Month”. I am looking forward to researching for my entry!
Jay:
Nice idea. I think I will need to start my “quest for mild” immediately in order to find one from my North Carolina base.
If people are not able to find a brew labeled “mild” are you thinking of setting an ABV maximum to be included? Say 3.9% abv and below beers qualify? It might be that some have to resort to “session beers” to be included in May.
Good luck with your hosting duties.
Rick
Some milds are considerably stronger than 3.9%. Examples over here in the UK include Gales Festival Mild (now brewed by Fullers), which comes in at about 4.9%abv, I believe, and Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild which is a whopping 6%abv.
My understanding is that the use of the word “mild” in the beer context was (originally, at least) derived from the old-fashioned use of the word – meaning “young”. Having said that, in a modern context the archetypal mild will be low in alcohol, lightly hopped and, more often than not, dark in colour.
My personal favourite is St Peter’s Mild, which is certainly the beer I drink the most of. I don’t believe they bottle the stuff, so apart from at The Jerusalem Tavern, or the odd free house/beer festival, you won’t see it.