Life On Mars

No, this subject is not the David Bowie song. It's the name I've chosen for my third brew in my finally active again Leaky Spicket home brewery (and the impetus for the name of the URL of this blog). The first two brews, my 80/- and my Scottish Pale Ale are very good given its been since June 2010 that I last brewed. These two brews have also been very elusive for me as well. I have brewed and tweaked and brewed and tweaked and brewed these two recipes more than any others that I've done in the last fourteen years of my all-grain homebrewing career. Anyone familiar with Scottish cask-conditioned beer can probably guess what two beers these are modeled after. I started homebrewing, afterall, because I fell in love with beers like these in Scotland and could not get them here. So, I had no choice but to try to brew them myself. And far be it from me to do anything half-way.

But, that's not what we're here to talk about. Rather, its the third brew, "Life On Mars Mild Ale". Two questions possibly come to mind. One, why a Mild Ale and two, what is this Life On Mars thing all about? Let's deal with the latter first, if you will. "Life On Mars" was a great series on BBC television in the UK a couple of years ago that was thankfully re-played here in America on BBCAmerica. I was so hooked on it that I had to buy the UK DVDs for both series (yes, thanks to my friend Nigel Allison I have a PAL player). I've actually been re-watching them over the last week. This has to be one of the best series ever done, in my humble opinion. The main character in the show, Sam Tyler, is a modern day DCI who is involved in an automobile accident, goes into a coma, and while in it lives a life as a DC (yes, demoted one rank) in 1973 Manchester, England. Awesome! The soundtrack is great too; really makes the show. There was a US version too that was no where near as good but was actually quite OK until the ridiculous ending (not only it did it not match the original, it was a total farce).

OK, now, why a Mild Ale, and, come to think of it, what on earth is a Mild Ale? This time, let's cover the former first. That's an easy one, because on the Campaign For Real Ale's (CAMRA) calendar May is Mild Month. I've tried to sync up with this for a number of years now and never seem to manage it. This year, no excuses and hopefully that will be the case going forward. For those not familiar with CAMRA I'd invite you to check out their website and also their role in cask-conditioned, or real, ale in the UK as described in What Is Real Ale? on my website. I've been a member of CAMRA almost as long as I've been homebrewing (about fourteen years). The more difficult question is the latter, what is a Mild Ale? As with all British beer styles, I turn to Martyn Cornell and his excellent book Amber Gold & Black, in particular (Martyn's other books are well worth having too). I would turn to Ron Pattinson's book, Mild Ale, as well but I don't yet have a copy of it - my fault. You can glean what great British beer historians these guys are by visiting Martyn's Zythophile blog, and Ron's Shut Up About Barclay Perkins blog.

As Martyn says, "Mild is Britain's most misunderstood beer" - notice, he does not say 'beer style', more on this in a bit. As Martyn describes, there was only one requirement for a beer to be referred to as "mild" and that was that it should be fresh, not more than a couple of weeks old. It would have been only matured for four to ten days after being racked to cask and then delivered to the pub. All other beers at the time, the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, would have been matured at least twenty-one days, most more, before being delivered to the pub. Without going into a lengthy dissertation on my part, in general, the majority of Mild Ales in Britain were sweeter and often of lower gravity and hence, strength of alcohol (but keep in mind, the strength is in relation to the strength of beers at any given period meaning that many were still high in alcohol by modern expectations). The increased sweetness was due to the lesser use of hops and also the increased amount of dextrins left in the beer due to the shorter maturation time. Both of these were an outcome of the fact that Mild Ale was meant to be a beer of rapid turnover and therefore didn't need the additional preservative qualities that higher hopping and alcohol rates provide. That is not to say that all Mild Ales were lesser in strength. Additionally, in the twentieth century, especially the latter part, most beers sold as Mild were darker than standard Pale Ales due to the addition of more highly roasted malts such as Chocolate Malt and Black Malt. These malts contributed more body and character to the beers to compensate somewhat for the lower alcohol and to give them a fuller flavor. In summary, I like how Martyn argues that "...mild was originally a description rather than a style..." and highlights that "...it was possible to find mild or freshly brewed, immature versions of any sort of beer..." These included mild bitters, mild porters and mild stouts. I do find it somewhat curious that the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Style Guidelines put "Mild" as a sub-category of "English Brown Ale". I've never understood this and it certainly flies in the face of Martyn's argument about Mild being a description of the condition of a beer rather than being a style of beer as we think of styles.

Unfortunately, Mild Ales eventually began a rapid decline when Bitter took over in Britain as the beer of choice and by the 1970s there were only a few breweries still brewing beers labeled as Mild Ales. This decline in popularity was due in part to dubious practices by publicans. Mild Ales were delivered to the pub already bright (well attenuated) and contained little to no yeast. Bitters and Pale Ales, however, did contain yeast in the cask and needed to be conditioned further in the pub until they dropped bright and were ready to serve. The dubiousness comes from a practice some publicans indulged in by reintroducing the 'slop' beer back into the cask. If this 'slop' was added to a cask of Bitter it would again become cloudy due to disturbing the yeast; therefore, they added it to the Mild instead. This is not the only reason for Mild's decline, much is simply due to the changing tastes and palates of beer drinkers.

So where does this leave us? Well, I know where it leaves me - time to watch more episodes of "Life On Mars" and eagerly await the arrival in a couple of weeks' time of 'Life On Mars Mild Ale' on the Leaky Spicket taps. This is one beer 'description' that I certainly intend to explore further as a homebrewer and a beer drinker. I think it is well worth the effort.

As a postlude, what is the connection between "Life On Mars", the TV series and Life On Mars Mild Ale? Well, none really. Mild starts with "M" and I was simply thinking of "M" sounding titles for my Mild Ale. The two came together quite happily, at least in my mind.

Yours Aye!
Neil