American brewed Dark Milds

Your missing that colloquial gem must be a whole 'nuther story. I heard Chris Matthews say it, so it must've edged up towards Philly. Also, even though its alcohol percentage disqualifies it as a dark mild, Ipswich Dark Ale is a damned good and unique brew.
I forgot, Chris Matthews did go to UNC and was thus possibly dialectically infected!

 

From a 'bad' Bourbon Barrel!?!

Cheers!

 

Or had a mis-spent youth.

 

What do you think I was doing during my sick days!?!

Cheers!

 

Mild Winter is the name. Not a bad tip but at 5.6% it pushes out of the realm of a mild.

 

There's a brewery called Logboat from Columbia, MO that makes Mamoot Mild which is one of my favorite beers of 2016.

 

yeah I agree, it's probably more like an English brown, but I mentioned it because some of our UK members above pointed out significant variability in the English dark mild style (even up to 6% ABV ), so it seems there is some overlap/flexibility in the style. Plus, in the US it can be slim pickings for any good darker English style beers, so I hate to be too picky with the few available , which, as I said above...

 

As for the Yards taproom, they rotate: "You can always find one of our ales on the beer engine!"
http://yardsbrewing.com/visit/whats-on-tap

Yards also has a cask beer festival each year:
http://www.phillyvoice.com/drink-cask-ale-at-the-annual-yards-real-ale-invitational-2016/

 

I have attended the Yards cask festival for the past 5 years. I always have a good time; plenty of quality beers on cask.

This past year I was a bit surprised on how many atypical beers were available on cask. Below is something I posted in the past for this latest event:

Last Sunday (5/1/16) I attended the 9th Annual Philadelphia Real Ale Invitational which occurred at Yards Brewing Company. I have attended most of these beer festivals (I would guess 7 of them) and this was the biggest event so far with 67 different beers available in Firkens (gravity pours). Needless to say but there is no way I could drink samples of all of these beers!! My personal strategy is to go for the traditional beers first and then enjoy some of the non-traditional beers (beers you don’t normally associate with being served on cask).

Some of the traditional beers they had going that I enjoyed: Wells & Young Eagle IPA, Greene King IPA, Ruddles County IPA, Tributary ESB, Saint Benjamin Foul Weather Jack English Mild, Sly Fox Chester County Bitter, Yards Brawler, …. The first three beers in this list were what I would classify as Bitter Ales despite the IPA label.

There were a large number of beer styles that you would not normally associate with beers served via cask: Triple IPAs, Sours, West Coast style IPAs,…

What I found to be so remarkable about this year’s event was the number of beers with ‘stuff’ in it: fruits of varying kinds, spices, etc.

Some examples of the beers that were fruited:

· Weyerbacher Last Chance IPA w/ passion fruit (all I tasted in this beer was the passion fruit)

· Yards Philadelphia Pale Ale with Grapefruit (I did not taste this beer)

· Stoudts Double IPA with Orange (I did not taste this beer)

· Round Guys Kiss Off IPA with Grapefruit (I thought this beer was OK)

· Rock Bottom Sub Zero IPA with Tangerine zest (I did not taste this beer)

· Liquid Hero Irregardless IPA with Mango (I did not taste this beer)

· Heavy Seas Cross Bones IPA with Orange Peel (I did not taste this beer)

· Free Will Sour Pale Ale with Passion Fruit (I did not taste this beer)

· Etc.

 

I've had a few really memorable fruit/adjunct infused milds. Lends itself quite well. A plum dark mild is one of my beers of the year.

 

I think Goose Island's Mild Winter and Winter Ale are two different beers. The mild (Mild Winter) is long gone. Winter Ale is a brown.

Back in the day in England, mild could get to double digit ABV. Brewers just don't aim for that anymore unless a brewer is marketing it as an old recipe - like Evil Twin and Beavertown's 9.5 ABV mild (which is bizarrely listed here as an ESB ).

I'll always try a dark mild when I catch one on tap... but I get really happy when I bump into a pale mild.

 

Nah, I'm not going mad. Pub crawling in Cambridge today and every mild I've seen has been over 4%.

 

If you're in the Philly area and English ales are your thing.... make time for a side trip to Forest and Main in Ambler (a very easy train ride from Philly). See above for discussions @JackHorzempa and I had about Forest and Main.

And if you're feeling adventurous the Ship Inn in Milford, NJ (just across the PA/NJ border) could be up your alley. The Ship Inn is NJ's oldest brew pub, they only brew English beer styles and maintain casks. Decent food and they are in neat historic building if you're into that. http://www.shipinn.com/#home-section From Philly you would have to drive, but you could make a day of it as there are other things to see and do out that way.

 

It appears you are correct. Currently on Goose Island's website, these are the brewer's notes/recipe.

BREWER'S NOTES
Layered with rich, nutty chocolate notes and malty, roasted caramel flavors, our brown ale gives you plenty to contemplate on long winter nights.

RECIPE INFORMATION
Style: Winter Ale
ABV: 5.3%
IBU: 25
Color: Umber
Hops: Fuggle
Malts: 2-Row, Caramel-60, Dark Chocolate, Victory, Wheat

According to this post from homebrewtalk.com, this person posted the notes/recipe from Goose Island's Mild Winter Ale.

Brewmasters Notes:
Toffee brown, medium-bodied, with a creamy head and an aroma of raisins and freshly baked dark bread. Mild Winter’s rich caramel malt and spicy rye flavors are sure to take the bite out of whatever Old Man Winter brews up for you this year.

Recipe Information:
Style: American Mild Ale
Alcohol by Volume: 5.6%
International Bitterness Units: 28
Color: Toffee
Hops: Willamette, Tettnang
Malts: 2-Row, Carapils, Dark Chocolate, Roast Barley, Rye Flake

Although to be honest, the current Winter Ale seems more like an English Mild to me, using Fuggles and being the lower of the two in ABV. The addition of rye to malt profile of Mild Winter seems odd to me, unless that's a common ingredient in a dark mild that I'm unaware of.

Again, you are correct. Pretty Things brewed a historical beer called Once Upon A Time 1832 XXXX Mild Ale which was an English Pale Mild (close enough), weighing in at 10.5% ABV.

They also brewed another historical beer, two of them in fact. It's an interesting story, the beer has the same name, from the same brewery, brewed 107 years apart. Yet the two beers are vastly different. The beer from 1838 is listed as an English Dark Mild here on Beeradvocate, the one from 1945 an English Strong Ale. The entire story is in the beer description(s) for each beer, linked below.

X Ale, 22nd February 1945

and

X Ale, 22nd November 1838

 

For me, American versions of Dark Mild never taste right because they get their colour from dark malt. The signature flavour of most British Dark Milds is No. 3 invert sugar. It's impossible to get the right flavour profile with just malt.