TOPIC:

"irish_goat":3a6y1uty wrote: I'll have bottles of mild at Alfie's on Saturday if anyone wants a taste.[/quote:3a6y1uty]
Sounds like a plan <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

Mixed reviews for my mild on Saturday! Reuben, Andrew and Richard all had a taste and it was also in the competition. It scored a 34, which I think is a fair reflection on it. The general feedback from the judges was that it was fine but quite one dimensional and needed more speciality malts. My Whitbread yeast was 5 months old when it arrived and there was no life in it after 36 hours so I pitched some dry notty as it was the only other I had. I think this caused it to attenuate a bit more so the beer was a bit drier than I'd have liked. I'd like to rebrew, maybe use a bit more crystal and brown malts and get some fresher yeast but...

My overall thinking though is that even if we produce a decent mild it won't be a showstopper. I happily sup away at pints of cask mild in Wetherspoons but it's rare I find one that's particularly noteworthy. I can't imagine people will be rushing to look up Beoir after having a pint of mild.

A suggestion that did come up though was to stick with mild but jazz it up in someway e.g. with a fruit addition or more bitterness. Raison and peach mild anyone? I can think of a guy in Wexford who would probably be up for brewing that anyway. <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

Thomas' mild was nice, but much paler than I'd expect, and could do with a bit more punch. Lashing in the chocolate malt, in my experience, sorts both of those issues.

I agree that many dark milds wouldn't excite your average punter, but there's a wide enough range in the style that if we picked something on the darker end - think session porter - then it could work.

My entry from Saturday also scored a 34 (though one of the judge wrote that dark mild is "not the most exciting of styles"!) but I'm glad to share bottles and recipes if there's interest.

Bumping this because if we need to get something ready for the ICBF then we need to be thinking about kicking something off in the next couple of weeks. I will give Seamus/Carlow a prod and see if they are up for it, otherwise I think we need to think about another brewer- I have a few offers from other breweries that are really biting at the bit to do a brew with us.

St Mel's really want to do something. I brought it up with Liam and Eoin at Killarney. Eoin was an archaeologist by trade, I figured some sort of gruit type thing. The local interesting fauna around Longford are apparently Bilberries. Don't think that would be ready for September as it would require some tinkering first but it's one for the list.

There's lots of elderflower about <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->