Mild month of May to drive ale sales

People will be drinking a bit more mild this May than they did in April or will in June. That’s because the tub-thumbing traditionalists at the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has declared May as “mild” month.

It does it every year in a valiant attempt to keep mild fresh in people’s minds. Pubs and bars are being encouraged to whack a mild on the bar or in the fridge and there’s all kind of general sabre-rattling on its behalf. And why not? It’s lovely stuff, it’s British and it’s perfectly positioned for the new less is more days that we drink in.

mild is arguably Britain’s most traditional beer. It gets its name not from its strength but from its malty sweetness and, in comparison with hoppier ales, its lack of bitterness. Darker, roasted malts tend to give mild its characteristic chocolate, burnt and nutty flavour. It used to be a strong beer but following the First World War, malt rationing and the finger-wagging temperance movement saw a reduction in strength.

This made it ideal for slaking the thirst of workers and it was mild, more than another beer style, that oiled the wheels of industry. However, when heavy industry hit the buffers so did mild and sales collapsed like a dodgy smokestack.

Today, mild is rarer than a sooty-faced chimneysweep, struggling to thrive in a desperately trendy nation where more people work in PR than manufacturing, where the heat of the furnace has been replaced by “hot desking” and where the only thing people try to hit at work is a meaningless deadline.

It’d be a mighty shame for mild to become nothing but a memory so, next month, if you can, make it a mild in your pub. Here’s five to be getting on with:

1) Moorhouse’s Black Cat. 3.4% ABV

From Burnley in Lancashire comes this archetypal northern mild. Its luscious chocolate and raisin flavours earned it CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain in 2000.

2) Cains Dark Mild. 3.2%

With a greater hop hit than most milds, this Liverpudlian liquid almost treads on the toes of stout with its rich roasted malt flavours and creamy head. Available in cans, keg and cask.  

3) Batemans Dark Mild. 3%

Cask milds don’t come much better than Bateman’s. It’s seriously dark appearance belies a rather astringent after-taste. Slightly spicy, wonderfully fruity and not as sweet as one would imagine.

4) West Berkshire Maggs’ Magnificent Mild. 3.8%

Incredible flavour for such subdued strength, it whips up a whirlwind of spicy chocolate, dark fruit, port and mocha flavours. Magnificent indeed.

5) Timothy Taylor’s Golden Best. 3.5%

Not all mild is dark. This deliciously drinkable and tangy amber coloured beer is a wonderful example of a light mild.  

Ben McFarland, 16.04.2010