BADRAG Mild Time

BADRAG ran a Mild Ale Promotion Campaign from Wednesday 20 to Sunday 24 November 2019called Mild Time, giving scope to expand the duration in future years.

While encouraging the local trade to support CAMRA's National Mild Month in May, we discovered from them that as soon as the sun comes out they find it difficult to sell dark beers, hence our own local Mild Time campaign. See the Branch Diary for Mild Time Events.

After a successful Mild Time 2019, the dates 4th-15th November 2020 have been provisionally booked for a repeat performance!

Mild Ale is a rare style of ale once very common in the UK including the South West, it is low in bitterness, often malty, nutty and very easy drinking. There is a myth that it always has a low ABV, but low ABVs were introduced in the Victorian era to avoid factory workers returning from lunch a bit tipsy. Stronger mild ales, such as Sarah Hughes Ruby 6% ABV, sell very well and often the word Mild is omitted from the name on the pump clip, so ask the bar staff which is the Mild Ale if it is not obvious to you, or look out for the CAMRA Mild pump crowner.

Local breweries that expressed an interest in offering a Mild Ale for Mild Time include Dawkins, Epic/Pitchfork, Glede, Incredible, and King Street Brewhouse. We have compiled a contacts list of mild suppliers and brewers.

You may be lucky during Mild Time to find these Mild category winners of the Campaign for Real Ale's prestigious Champion Beer of Britain competition, awarded at the Great British Beer Festival 2019:

• Gold: Gravediggers, Church End Brewery,
• Silver: Malt Shovel Mild, Fernandes Brewery
• Bronze: Maggs Magnificent Mild, West Berkshire Brewery

Church End and West Berks are well known breweries. Fernandes Brewery is a micro-brewery at their Tap Bar in Wakefield. Ossett Brewery purchased Fernandes Brewery in 2007 but continues to brew Malt Shovel Mild and many of their other beers, see ossett-brewery.co.uk.

Participating pubs (by area) include: