Originally published in What’s Brewing May 2004. Note since publication the brewery has been taken over and closed by Fuller’s.
Origin: Horndean, Hampshire, England
ABV: 4.8 per cent
Buy from Specialist stockists, brewery’s pubs
George Gale Festival Mild
Bottle-conditioned mild must be one of Britain’s rarest styles, perhaps because the low strength of most modern milds isn’t thought robust enough. Even milds at more old-fashioned gravities are hard to find.
World classic Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby from the celebrated Beacon brewpub in Sedgeley is currently unavailable in bottled form while the brewer looks for a new bottler. B&T of Shefford are reviving last year’s successful seasonal, Black Dragon Mild, but hadn’t got any bottled in time for a review. Thankfully George Gale, a family-owned independent dating from 1847 and still operating from an 1869 “tower” brewery, was able to help this column mark Mild Month.
Gales are well-known for strong, long-maturing BCAs such as Prize Old Ale and for their well-regarded draught special bitter HSB. Festival Mild is so named because it first appeared in cask form by special request at the Farnham Beer Festival in May 1991.
It was successful enough to retain as a regular brand: although it is still the lowest-selling of the brewery’s draught range, its stability during conditioning makes it viable at low volumes. It’s won multiple awards, most recently best in class and reserve champion at the Winter Beer Festival.
It’s brewed with Maris Otter pale malt, with light crystal and black malt supplied by Simpsons, and hopped with Fuggles, Challenger and Goldings, the latter for aroma as well as bitterness. With enough residual gravity left from conditioning, no priming is used for the bottled version, which was originally aimed at the US market and is presented with a wine-style ‘capsule’.
The beer is a very dark brown colour, near black, and my well-matured bottle poured with almost no head, although there was a pleasantly restrained sparkle in the mouth. The aroma is typical of a good dark mild: restrained and warmly malty, with hints of chocolate, strawberry and straw-like.
The palate is smooth, dark and sweetish, almost like chocolate milk, with lightly acidic black cherry and raisin fruit and some spicy hoppiness that becomes clearly bitter as it develops.
Earthier hops asserts itself on the swallow, leaving a sting of bitterness and powdery dryness in the longish finish that places the beer among the less mild milds, although it’s never overdone. You’re also left with faint roasty-ashy notes and a little more soft fruit.
Overall it’s just what you’d want from a good mild: easily drinkable but with plenty of rich flavour to discover should you choose to linger, and an individual signature from well-judged hopping.
Read more at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/gales-festival-mild/4331/
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