Split Batch Series: English Dark Mild

This is the second beer in my Split English Ale Yeast Experiment. In the Best Bitter Batch, the Fuller's strain was much preferred to the West Yorkshire strain. But it will be tested again, and with a much different beer, Dark Mild.

English Dark Mild is a style I have been working on over the years and I think it is really progressing. It originally started out as Jamil's recipe and has been tweaked every year. The major change from last year's batch was to substitute Chocolate Malt for Brown Malt. And I was a big fan of this change, not only did it make the beer a bit more historically accurate, but it gave the beer a more toasty flavor. This year I made a few slight adjustments again.

• Upped the Crystal Malt from 10% to 14%, but kept the same proportion of light to dark. I wanted a bit more residual sweetness to balance the dryness of the roast and toast of the dark malts
• Added 1 lb of wheat malt to build head retention and seems to be in most historical recipes
• Decided to go with a more balanced dark malt addition, so I used equal parts Brown Malt and Pale Chocolate Malt

Recipe: English Dark Mild 2011
O.G.-1.039               F.G.-1.012                IBU-15
SRM-21                  ABV-43.5%             Batch -10 gal

Grain Bill (77% Efficiency):
10 lb Maris Otter (69%) 
1 lb Carastan Dark - 135L (7%)
1 lb UK Crystal ~77L (7%)

1 lb Wheat Malt (7%)
12 oz Brown Malt (5%) 
12 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (5%)  

Hops:
.85 oz Horizon, 9.1%, pellet, 60 min 14.6 IBU

Yeast:
150 mL of White Labs 002 - no starter 

150 mLl of  Wyeast 1469-PC West Yorkshire Ale Yeast - no starter 

Brew Day:
Brewed: 11/27/11

Water:
San Diego (Alvarado) Tap Water
1 campden tablet per 5 gal.

Mash Details:
H2O/Grain Ratio: 1 qt/lb
Mash Volume: 3.5 gal 
Sacc Rest. Temp/Time: 154F @ 60min

Boil Details:
Boil Volume: 11 gal
Boil Time: 60min
Post Boil Volume: 10 gal

Ferment Details:
O.G.: 1.038
Ferment Temp: Around 68

A side by side taste test will be performed like it was for the Best Bitter.