Malt & Grain

What barley goes into English mild? The backbone of many British ales is the winter barley Maris Otter, bred in 1965 or 1966 at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge. It yields a full-bodied, slightly nutty base malt considered a classic for bitter and mild throughout Manchester and all of England.

Malting barley involves moistening it until it germinates, then stopping germination with hot air. This drying stage is called kilning, and the hotter and longer it runs, the darker and more aromatic the malt becomes. Pale malt tastes of biscuit, caramel malt of toffee, and roasted malt of coffee and bitter chocolate.

A dark mild gets its color from such dark specialty malts. According to the BJCP style guidelines, it falls between 28 and 49 EBC, a color scale on which a pale pilsner sits at 4 to 8. For Thwaites's Nutty Black, the brewery describes a deep ruby-red mild with nutty, roasted, bittersweet flavors, twice named Champion Beer of Britain.

The German Reinheitsgebot purity law doesn't apply in England. Breweries may use sugar or other ingredients, and many beers add oats or wheat alongside barley. Anyone reading the label will find different ingredient lists than on German beers, and the result isn't a lesser beer, just a differently conceived one.

For hazy IPAs, as brewed by the city's craft scene, brewers often add oats and wheat. The protein content of these grains makes the beer fuller and contributes to that soft, almost milky mouthfeel.