Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Long live Mild. Let it be.


It's worth noting that for all of NABC's ups and downs over the years, Community Dark has remained the best-selling house beer in our own two New Albany locations.

Granted, the ingredients are North American, but the outcome is session-strength, traditional, English-style Mild. I've had Milds in the UK, and ours matches well, without toning down the color or adapting with Citra, as suggested (perhaps impishly) in the otherwise excellent overview here. Mild hits the spot with pizza, too, and at the 3.7% abv of Community Dark, it puts the lie to frequent assertions that flavor and strength must cohabit.

You can have a few. To me, that remains important.

CAN MILD ALE MAKE IT IN AMERICA?, by Jeff Alworth (All About Beer Magazine)

Alistair Reece is a peripatetic Scot currently living in Virginia, and a bit of a contrarian. “My dad used to tell me as a kid that ‘if it’s easy, it’s not worth it,’ and anyone can advocate for super hoppy strong ales when they are 10 a penny.” So of course he’s championing mild ale, a style so obscure many Americans have never encountered it in the wild. Each year, the United Kingdom’s Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) promotes mild ale in May, and Reece decided to launch American Mild Month to run concurrently on this side of the Atlantic. “Mild is such a rare beast that I wanted to give it it’s own moment in the spotlight.”

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