Wild about mild

Sally Toms declares herself unfashionable and bemoans about uninformed bar staff

On a recent holiday to the South West of England with my other half, I could not resist popping in to a brewery (and he did not resist).

At St Austell Brewery in Cornwall we were greeted by the affable and hugely knowledgeable Roger Ryman, brewing director. After a tour of the brewery, a delightful mix of old and new, we kicked back in the sampling room and supped on some of Cornwall’s best beers: Tribute, Proper Job, IPA, HSD, Admiral’s Ale etc, whereupon I discovered a new favourite.

Black Prince is a sweet and super tasty ‘dark’ mild, so dark it looks like a porter.

Precious few barrels of this beer are produced. It is not bottled, nor was it on offer in the brewery tap. But you can find it at the St Austell Brewery Celtic Beer Festival, held in December every year and definitely worth going to.

The fact that Black Prince is so hard to get hold of is a sad reflection of this British beer style’s spiral of decline. Once sold in every pub, mild has been slipping down the popularity stakes since the 1960s (though maintains a few strongholds in the midlands and the north of the United Kingdom). Why?

Simply because it isn’t attracting new drinkers. Let’s be honest, it’s not as attractive as some other beers (fashionable golden ales, for example), and the name itself, once an indicator of the relatively low ABV, implies that the beer is ‘soft’ or ‘wimpish’. Real men will ask for a stout or bitter.

But if people believe you are what you drink then maybe I’m mild, because flavour-wise it is a sweet and easy drinking style, which makes it a great beer for ‘beginners’ if only they could only get past the stigma.

I’m a beer beginner myself, and this discovery has kick-started my own love of this particular drink. Luckily my return from Cornwall coincided with the Norwich Campaign for Real Ale festival.

CAMRA has been a tireless campaigner for the revival of mild, and this festival was a great opportunity to try what was on offer. Some of the best being: Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby; Potbelly Beijing Black; Waveney Brewing East Coast Mild; Woodforde’s Norfolk Nog (strictly speaking an ‘old ale’).

Alas, if only all beer venues in Norwich were as rewarding... There’s a bar near BotW towers (which will remain nameless to protect the ignorant) recently visited by yours truly. It’s a trendy sort of place frequented by local footballers’ wives. A quick glance along the pumps suggested it was unlikely to have anything out of the ordinary. A pint of Guinness for me, then. A pretty safe bet, and I’ve always been partial to a pint of the black stuff. I was dutifully informed by the staff that “they don’t have Guinness, they have Tetley’s instead.” I stood frozen, mouth open, gawking like I’d asked for a haircut and been given an onion. Not because a place exists where they don’t serve Guinness, but because this barman thought Tetley’s (though a fine drink) was a likely substitute. The drinks buyer for this place once made a conscious decision to only include two standard lagers and a bitter.

Why, if you’re trying to sell alcohol to people, would you not at least try to cover all your bases?

It’s the sole reason why there aren’t more takers for interesting beers in pubs the world over – they’re not being sold anywhere. And bar staff can’t tell their Guinness from their Tetley’s anway.

By Sally Toms

Section : From the Editor

Page number : 5