Let’s celebrate ‘Mild May’ Take the time to enjoy beer style that is making a comeback

Coffee Break

EVERY May CAMRA branches across the country celebrate ‘Mild May’, a campaign to increase the awareness of the beer style mild, which was until fairly recently under threat of extinction.

Mild used to be very popular, but sales declined from the 1960s onwards.

Fortunately the style hasn’t disappeared altogether and, although mild is still fairly uncommon, some of the new small brewers have produced their own versions and it is making something of a comeback.

Early milds were much stronger than modern versions, which mostly fall into the 3% to 3.5% category.

To help revive the mild beer style, CAMRA branches usually encourage local pubs to have at least one mild on the handpumps during the month of May, and in pre-pandemic days some have organised trips to pubs and breweries that support this beer style.

Mild was developed in the late 18th and 19th centuries as drinkers started to demand a slightly sweeter and less aggressively hopped beer than porter.

Industrial workers often wanted a lighter strength beer to slake their thirst after long, hard shifts.

Mild is usually dark brown in colour, due to the use of wellroasted malts or roasted barley. Look for a rich malty aroma and flavour, with hints of dark fruit, chocolate, coffee and caramel, with a gentle underpinning of hop bitterness.

While there are a few lightercoloured milds, what they all have in common - as the name suggests - is a flavour that isn’t overwhelming, and may well provide a welcome relief to drinkers who want a change from the extreme dry, citrussy characteristics of some modern pale and golden ales.

As our pubs reopen during the easing of pandemic restrictions, the choices of real ales available is likely to be more limited than usual.

Many people are still wary about going out, while others are waiting for their turn to receive the vaccine, and custom to our pubs, bars and clubs will consequently take some time to build up.

This may cause mild to be slightly harder to track down than usual, but it’s worth noting that in the last ten years alone, three different milds have won CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain title, beating all other styles to the crown. Worth checking out, perhaps?

Visit our CAMRA websites at https://camra.org.uk/ for all the latest information, or your local CAMRA website https://www. southport.camra.org.uk/ covering Southport, Merseyside and Ormskirk, West Lancashire.