Beerometric

Mild today is  a low ABV, low bitterness, malt forward dark ale, and some examples can almost seem like a weaker porter.  The term mild originally meant fresh, as in unaged beer.  In those days before any real understanding of microorganism, beer tended to go off, or sour, pretty quickly.  Eventually, “mild” evolved into what we know today, with the real tipping point being the introduction of the British Beer Tax in 1931, which taxed according to ABV,  hence compressing beer gravities across the board.   Milds are usually brewed with a dextrinous pale malt along with dark malts, some crystal malts, and often dark sugar or brewers caramel. As yeasts have a difficult time breaking apart these longer chain saccharides, it prevents the beer from feeling rather thin.   English ale yeast can help to boost the character, while hopping is very subtle to almost unnoticeable.  

This beer pours dark brown or mohogany, but some paler versions can lean towards coppery.  Generally unfiltered but reasonably clear, look for a low and fleeting head of a sort of off-white colour.  As the glass approaches the nose, some low to mid malt aroma should be immediately evident with caramel, toffee, plum, light roast or toast, maybe some chocolate or nuttyness, a light fruitiness from the yeast, virtually no hop aroma, and perhaps some low buttery diacetyl.  Into the mouth.  The body here is light to medium, but can often feel fuller than the ABV would suggest, thanks to some of the dextrins. Carbonation here is pretty low.  The flavour is going to be a layer of sweet malt, caramel, toffee, chocolate, fruit like plums, or raisins, maybe a bit of licorice, all over top a toasty bready foundation. There is enough bitterness here to support the malt, but it is not the life of the party.  You might get some fruit off the yeast, maybe a bit of hop character, with the typical floral herbal flavours, but it is generally absent.  As per aroma, a little bit of buttery diacetyl may be present.  

This is a  fairly difficult beer to find in Ontario, and in fact tends to be isolated to the Midlands and Northern part of England, and most often found on draft.  Volo in Toronto makes a tasty one called “Piccola”, and Henderson’s Brewing produced “Night Wanderers” a few months back which I found quite pleasant.