Brewed Beverage of Choice: A Pint of Cask Conditioned Stumptown Porter from Lucky Lab
Today as I was riding Tri-Met (Portland’s local PubTrans) to run some errands, I pulled out the Northwest Brewing News from my bag and started reading. I have many guilty pleasures in my life including: Surfing documentaries, Dwell magazine, and reading the Northwest and Great Lakes Brewing News from cover to cover. A thought popped, no leapt into my head while perusing good friend and fellow Timber’s armyman Abe Goldman-Armstong’s article on organic hops and the high demand for such a limited product. The thought is still in its broad jump as I sit here with a late lunch and a pint of Real Porter: With the shortage of hops in the industry, will we see the resurgence of the Mild Ale?
The Mild is one of my favourite brews because, underdog lover that I am, it is completely misunderstood and difficult to find in the hop happy Pacific Northwest. As an historian and a socialist, the Mild also draws me in because of its ties to labour and farmers. In fact, in honour of May Day, the official workingman’s holiday, I brew a Mild ale (called May Day Dark because fickle Americans do not like the term Mild) which I will put into tank this week.
If I have not educated you on the Mild before, let me give you a bit of historical background. The Mild was not originally a style of beer but a whole group of beers. In England in the 17th and 18th centuries, beer was served in two forms: Stock or “stale” and Mild. The term mild was to denote fresh or unaged. These beers were also brewed by country people to be served for their workers. Yep…It is a British Farmhouse of a sort. At least in my opinion. The Mild evolved over the centuries to adapt to public tastes so that by the 20th century we see the Mild as a brown, malty brew with lower alcohol. (It is good to note that brewers often bottle their beer as browns and serve their draught brews as milds.) It is also this beer that found favour with the miners and manual labourers in the West Midlands of England because, as David Sutula notes in his book Mild Ale, they could “quaff great quantities of the low-gravity beers after a hard day in the mine or the factory…” It was a replenisher.
Beer styles and trends are naturally dependent on supplies. Styles such as the Pilsener, the Municher, and English Pale came about partially because of the water that was used in them. The water in those cities creating a specific taste that at the time could not be replicated. We in the Pacific Northwest are hop mad as I have stated earlier because we have hops growing in our backyards…Sometimes literally. So naturally with the shortage of hops on our hands, a style such as Mild should come back from obscurity. And I am taking up the torch by challenging other brewers in the area to brew a batch. It does not have to be a classic Mild. What fun would there be in that? But make a nice, full-flavoured dark session ale. Mild has been ignored for too long! Have a pint!
Prost!
the confucian Mild Ale brewer