Mild (St Peter)

You don't see many milds these days. Once a ubiquitous ale class in working clubs and pubs, it was the traditional epitome of a fresh young malty low-strength session ale.

St Peter, that fine Bungay brewery known for the odd traditional flourish, sells this in their standard dark green medicine bottle.

It pours with a fluffy head and sits a dark woody brown in the glass. A vague aura of ruby. The smell is a hint of chocolate malt laced with dark fruit.

It tastes like a kind of porter-echo, much front-end chocolate maltiness laced with shadows of vanilla and a smidgen of nuts. The taste never really rolls forward and rears up, but then this is mild so that would as expected as spotting David Cameron breakdancing.

A gripe might be the relatively thin consistency and the lack of much oomph, but then that's like complaining that air isn't coloured enough. This is a good, wholesome session pint, a substantive fillip for malt-heads looking to stay on their feet. It's 3.7% ABV, and jolly nice.

7/10 - A fine traditional brown pint. Gentle, malty, solid beer.

- The Broadside