First batch · 20 litres · all grain
Dark Mild
Three per cent alcohol and more flavour than beers at twice the strength: caramel, light chocolate and a soft, rounded finish. The best flavour-to-alcohol ratio in brewing and almost nobody brews it.
Original gravity
1.034
at 72% efficiency
Final gravity
1.010
70% apparent attenuation
Alcohol
3.2%
by volume
Bitterness
13 IBU
Tinseth
Colour
14.7 SRM
29 EBC, Morey
Grain bill
3.18 kg
0.16 kg per litre
Brewed to Dark Mild, and all five computed figures land inside the published ranges for it.
OG inFG inABV inIBU inSRM inWhat decides this beer
Mashing high and picking a low-attenuating yeast. Everything about this recipe is arranged to leave body behind, because at 3.2% there is nothing else holding it up.
Fermentables
| Malt | Weight | Colour | Extract | Of grist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maris Otter | 2.40 kg | 3 L | 37 ppg | 75% |
| Crystal 60L | 0.40 kg | 60 L | 34 ppg | 13% |
| Pale chocolate malt | 0.18 kg | 200 L | 30 ppg | 6% |
| Flaked barley Body, which a 3% beer badly needs. | 0.20 kg | 2 L | 32 ppg | 6% |
Colour and extract are read from the malt reference, not typed into this recipe, so they are the same figures every other page on the site uses.
Crushing your ownGrain mill$92.90Hop schedule
| Hop | Weight | Alpha | Time | Contributes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fuggle | 22 g | 4.5% | 60 min | 13.1 IBU |
Alpha acid varies by crop year and lot, which is why it lives on the recipe rather than on the variety. Brew to the figure printed on your packet and the bitterness will move; the IBU calculator will tell you by how much.
Method
- 01Mash at 68C for 60 minutes. The high mash is the whole technique.
- 02One hop addition, and no more. This is a malt beer.
- 03Ferment at 19C.
- 04Package at 1.8 volumes and drink it fresh, ideally from a cask if you have one.
Numbers for the day
- Mash
- 68 C for 60 min
- Strike water at 3 L/kg
- 74.6 C
- Strike volume
- 9.5 L
- Boil
- 60 min
- Ferment
- 18-20 C
- Carbonate to
- 1.8 volumes
- Priming dextrose
- 73 g
- Yeast
- English AleSafAle S-04
Strike temperature assumes grain at 20C and priming assumes the beer peaked at 20C after fermentation. Recompute both for your own kitchen on the strike and priming calculators.
For the mashDigital thermometer$12.31
For the fermentTemperature controller$36.00Before you package
Take a gravity reading two days apart and only package when it has not moved. A beer bottled while still fermenting keeps fermenting in the bottle, and the sugar you prime with lands on top of whatever was left. At 1.8 volumes this one needs about 73 g of dextrose for the batch.
To know it has finishedHydrometer and trial jar$21.99