Gonna brew up the NB Mild Ale kit soon and even though I love the Yorkshire Ale yeast I just used in my Innkeeper batch, I had some 1728 Scottish Ale yeast I thought might go great. It has a nice silky-ness to it.
Also, the Mild Ale has an OG of 1.032 which I guess would make it around 3%abv. What might help me bump it up closer to 4% withought changing the flavor?
I think 1728 would be just fine for a mild, though I’ve used the yeast only a couple of times. I’d recommend fermenting a bit cooler than you would ferment with a british yeast. As for bumping up the gravity, I’d use plain ole table sugar.
J
I have a ton of corn sugar. 1/2 lb. would do it?
Another option is to make a smaller batch of beer if you’d rather not use sugar. Five gallons of 1032 Mild should make something like four gallons of 1040 Mild. I use Scottish Ale yeast all the time in winter; the house isn’t warm enough for most English yeasts. Works great!
Smaller batch?! I’m going to pretend I didn’t read that. 
The sugar idea seems easy enough. Any other thoughts on how much and would table sugar be different amount than corn?
Adding sugar sounds like a poor idea. Such a low OG mild is going to be quite thin right from the start, adding sugar is only going to thin it out more. I would increase the fermentables and hops by 25% to increase the OG to 1.040, while still keeping the flavor profile and bitterness ratio intact.
Will you be making the Extract or All Grain version?
All-grain. The grain bill is pretty similar to the Innkeeper, but no sugar and only 1 hop instead of 3, and Maris Otter (main grain) instead of 2 row. So I’ve picked this kit because I haven’t really used the Maris Otter and this continues to help me learn the ‘nuts & bolts’ of the processes. I guess basically you’re saying to add more grain then vs. sugar.
Anyone else have a comment/advice?
Yep more grain and hops, you want to keep everything balance, here is the modified recipe
.
OG 1.040
7.5 Lbs. Crisp Maris Otter
5.0 oz. Crisp Amber Malt
5.0 oz. Crisp Brown Malt
2.5 oz. Simpson’s Chocolate Malt
1.25 oz. Fuggles @ 60 minutes
Mash @ 153F for 60 minutes
I’ll concede that using sugar to go from 1.032 to 1.040 is a bit much, but using sugar in a mild is not a terrible thing.
From BYO:
J
Well, as it turned out, I brewed last Sat. Didn’t use any sugar after all. I added 1/3 lb. of some 2 row I had. After all said and done my OG came out to 1.038 Just fine by me. Took the suggestion of fermenting in cooler conditions. I have it in the coldest room of the house with the registers closed off. (Beer is around 63) That’s the best I can do. Into the 4th day and the yeast foam on top has all but fallin already. Never had it fall so fast. What should I be looking for on my FG? 1.011?
