Mild

Great piece from Sir Quinno on this “mild” fad sweeping the nation.

Mine's A Pint - Reading & Mid-Berks CAMRA

Mild: isn’t that what grandad used to drink? A beer without much, if any, in the way of hops that’s gone the way of the dodo?

Up until a few months ago, most people who fancied themselves knowledgeable about beer and brewing would have given you a caveated yes to that question. But things are stirring for this oft-neglected (and mocked) style in 2022.

While a small handful of traditional cask breweries have kept a mild on their portfolio this century, often as a seasonal beer, the style itself has had little traction in the mainstream, or any real interest from the emerging craft beer sector. But that seems to be changing.

We should begin with a potted history of the stuff.

Mild can trace its roots back to the 1700s. But the mild of then and the mild of now are different beasts. Often, it was nothing to do…

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

9 thoughts on “Mild”

  2. One of the best pints I’ve ever had was a pint of Batham’s Mild in the Church Inn, Ludlow. (Before it was done up, or done in, depending on your point of view)

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  3. There were sixteen Milds on in Stafford last Saturday with the Sarah Hughes, Holdens, Burton Bridge, Banks’s and Titanic drinking weller than the Hobsons.

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    1. My first ever pint in a pub was Border Mild in the Hand, Holt Rd, Wrexham, when I was 15. Chosen because it was the cheapest. Not bad though. The Hand’s closed now, of course.

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      1. Bill,
        My first ever pint in a pub was M&B Mild in the Wandering Minstrel, central Birmingham when I was sixteen. Chosen because it was the cheapest. Not bad though I had nothing to compare it with. The Wandering Minstrel’s closed now, of course.
        Then I had no idea how rare Mild would become in my lifetime.
        Last Saturday though – and, with only three hours in the pubs as unusually I had a ‘phone call to make at 4pm, only really a lunchtime rather than a Proper Day Out – was a nice reminder of how good the style can be despite some nowadays dismissing subtle beers as “uninspiring”.

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      2. Stafford Mudgie, when I started going to pubs in Wrexham in the late-ish 70s, every pub had mild. I went to university in Bristol in 1980 and down there mild was unknown. Went back to live in Wrexham for just under a year and mild had disappeared in most pubs. In just three years.

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      3. Bill,
        Yes, thirty pubs in the Stafford and Stone area with cask Mild in 1977, only about the ten with Banks’s Mild by the mid ’80s and all but gone now.

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      1. Dick,
        May 2041 should be when it next happens in Stafford as each of the West Midlands branches takes turns at hosting it, or probably a few years earlier with some of them not bothering.
        May 2023 will be Wolverhampton for the Mild Ale Trail. . .

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