Boggart Dark Mild

Brewed by Boggart Hole Clough
Style: Mild Ale
Manchester, England

Cask-conditioned at the Bag ONails, Bristol 28/10/08. Near black with reddish undertones and a slight tan head. Dark fruit and sweetish malt aroma. Sweetish flavour, with more fruit and a dry finish. Ok.

Cask at The Brewery Tap, Wimbledon Village. Reddish brown appearance with a tan head. Aroma and flavour dominated by malt and noticeably more bitter and sharp than most milds. Interesting but I’m not wholly convinced.

A Mes rate: Gravicask @ Reading Beer Festival. Red brown colour. Alcoholic nose with tobacco and dark malt. Very malty in the flavour and plenty of biscuit notes. Missing most of what makes a mild enjoyable.

Cask (gravity dispense) at London Drinker Beer Festival 2007. Dark reddish colour, but not that dark for a mild. A touch stronger than the average mild but also rather more bitter, with a distinctly sharp edge. Rather tin, watery mouthfeel. Certainly not a full, roasty mild. Although there’s a fair bit of moist, doughy malt in the aroma. A bit odd and not entirely appealing.

Hand pulled at the Wellington, Birmingham. Purple hued dark Mild, with virtually no head. Thick, syruppy mouthfeel, and a menacing winey aroma. This certainly tasted stronger than the abv, with a sweet, vinuous quality and a tartness on the finish which made me wince slighty. Similar in a way to H&H Cursed Galleon which I tried recently, and I’m a little unsure, for the same reasons. Perhaps too much hop and not enough smooth roast.