Solid As a Rock! (Nottingham Rock Mild)

Member Name: tange

Product:	Nottingham Rock Mild
Date:	23/05/07 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good solid example of a Mild

Disadvantages: Not as tasty as some beer styles and not easy to find outside Nottingham

As May is officially designated Mild Month in CAMRA (CAMpaign for Real Ale) circles, as a dedicated member I am spending the month sampling new Mild ales (and also revisiting old ones). For this reason I found myself trying a Mild I hadn’t had in a while, during a trip to the Plough Inn at Radford (near Nottingham). This Mild was Rock Mild, brewed by Nottingham Brewery.

~~~THE BREWERY.

Nottingham Brewery was set up in October 2001 by Niven Balfour and Phil Darby. It is based behind the Plough pub in Radford and can be found in the outbuildings. Although the brewery is popular and successful they aim to stay a small local micro-brewery and only sell their products in a limited number of places – they can be found in some pubs nationwide and also at beer festivals. The majority of pubs that sell their beers are in and around Nottingham, enforcing the local image that the brewery is trying to promote.

Among the beer range currently produced by Nottingham Brewery you will find Rock Bitter (a pale session bitter at 3.8% ABV), Sooty Oatmeal Stout (a black full bodied stout at 4.8% ABV) and Nottingham Supreme (a strong light and hoppy beer at 5.2% ABV).

~~~THE BEER.

***A Bit of Background***

Rock Mild was brewed to compliment Rock Bitter – it is also identical in strength. Where the bitter is pale and bitter, the Mild is dark and sweet. It is brewed as a Mild Ale. This style of beers is one of the oldest in the world. Milds originate in the Middle Ages – the first written reference comes in a song, written by William Stevenson in 1551. This song says “I stuff my skyn so full within, Of jolly good milde and olde”. Milds used to be really popular and were actually the most popular beer style until after the Second World War. Recently (due to lots of campaigning and pushing) more breweries are including a Mild in their brewing range – now over 100 Milds are brewed and the style is increasing in popularity once more. Generally Mild Ales are lower in gravity than Bitters and also tend to be sweeter too. I say generally because in actual fact Milds come in a variety of colours, strengths and tastes – some are low strength and dark (such as Batemans Dark Mild at 3.0% ABV), some are strong and dark (like Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby at 6.0% ABV) and some are lighter in colour (for example Timothy Taylor Golden Best at 3.5% ABV).

***Vital Statistics***

Rock Mild weighs in at 3.8% ABV and is a lower strength Dark Mild.

***Look, Aroma & Texture***

To look at, Rock Mild is dark ruby red/brown coloured Mild with a lasting (but small) bubbly head. The aroma is fruity, with dark fruit (blackberry mainly) predominant. There is also a scent of floral hops in a base of roasted malt (giving it a slight aroma of biscuits and toast), and a little sweetness. Texture is quite smooth, rather than the wateriness I would normally beer of this style, but also a little on the thin side compared to a lot of other beers.

***Tange’s Taste Test***

Taste wise, Rock Mild’s flavour almost repeats the elements present in the aroma. It starts of quite sweet, as the dark fruit and sweet flowery hops come to the fore. As you drink it becomes increasingly bitter, leading to a dry and bitter finish and aftertaste. There is also quite a lot of roasty malt and towards the end you will find flavours of dark treacle and slightly burnt toffee. It is surprisingly complex and quite well balanced too.

~~~WHAT I THOUGHT.

For a beer that is only 3.8% ABV Rock Mild is a tasty beer with a good mix of flavour layers. As a Mild it is a little unconventional because it is hoppier than I would normally expect. It is a good way though to introduce Milds to the uninitiated because it is a little more like a bitter than Milds normally are and therefore less “different” and daunting for the non-Mild fan. The colour is a little darker than a standard bitter, but it isn’t jet black and thick like a stout would be, so this also gives it the edge in terms of tryability (I just made that word up I think!). It isn’t light enough to appeal to the lager drinking market though, so I’m not sure if you could convince them to try it.

I enjoy drinking Rock Mild and always choose to have a pint whenever we visit the Plough at Radford. It isn’t too strong so is a good daytime beer, or a good beer to start off with because you can still taste other beers afterwards. The strength makes it a good session beer, but to be honest I do prefer to just have a couple and move up a notch to something a little more robust and with slightly more character and taste. It is a good well balanced beer but is a little more delicate than a lot of other beer styles and it is easy to lose interest a little if you have more than two or three in a night.

Unfortunately my drinking of Rock Mild, and other Nottingham Brewery beers, is usually confined to The Plough and to beer festivals because it is rarely seen in any of my local Derbyshire pubs. It is often found in pubs around Nottingham, but it is usually the Rock Bitter that licensees choose to stock – another example of the image that Mild can have. Mind you, a good reason to drink Rock Mild at The Plough is that the location next to the brewery means the beer is invariably cheaper than in most other establishments. This is not only because of lack of transport costs (delivery isn’t difficult from the building next door), but also because they are using the pub (pubs that showcase the beers of a brewery are usually known as the Brewery Tap) to present their full range of beers to drinkers and other licensees. Beer then comes well under the magic £2.00 a pint mark – the Mild is the cheapest beer due to the strength and rests around £1.80 a pint (bear in mind beers can cost well over two quid a pint these days).

I thoroughly recommend that you give Mild a chance and keep drinking it even when May has been and gone. It is part of the brewing heritage of this country and is undervalued and often ignored by drinkers everywhere. Ask your landlord to include one on their bar (there are more to choose from than you would think) and, if possible, recommend Rock Mild from Nottingham Brewery as a good one for them to start stocking. It is easy to drink, pretty tasty and consistent in flavour and quality.
…go on…you know it makes sense!

~~~BREWERY DETAILS.

NOTTINGHAM BREWERY
17 St. Peters Street
Radford
Nottingham
NG7 3EN
0115 942 2649

http://www.nottinghambrewery.com/index.html

Summary: A good introduction to an undervalued style of beer!