Earl of Brixom

Origin Story

An English Dark Mild Ale with a rich brown color and a tantalizing mocha laced aroma. Named for our British guys who work in Wixom, this is a dark-colored, light bodied, robust-flavored beer. At some point this weekend, we are likely to see the last beer of our experimental English ale pub series go on tap. This series began a while back with our Bellaire pub brewer's homage to an English classic, the Nitrogen infused ESB (The Duke), so it only seems fitting that Ryan not only chose the last true-to-style English beer to feature, but also created the recipe for it. Dubbed The Earl of Brixom, Ryan decide to delve into the world of English Mild Ales particularly focusing on the darker versions of this beer style.On Saturday, we saw the return of Short's first ever English Mild Ale go back on tap at the pub, The Earl of Brixom. Originally a part of an experimental English Ale series done in Bellaire during the spring and summer of 2012, the Earl of Brixom first went on tap on this past June and was even featured at the Michigan Brewer's Guild Summer Beer Fest this past year. Created by Ryan Hale, who also created a Nitrogen infused ESB (The Duke) for this series, this beer was going to focus on the darker version of this true-to-style English Ale. As for the name, Brixom has become the term used to describe the Wixom office branch of Short's, which happens to operated by some of our savvy British members of the Short's management team. (British + Wixom = Brixom) Mild Ales have a pretty cool story when it comes to the role they played throughout English history. Originally developed as the blue collared industrial working man's beer, the focus was on quantity, hence most Mild Ales had an ABV between 3-4%. Although lower in strength, the flavor in Milds were often quite full, offering a comforting "malty meal in a glass" after a hard day's work. In addition to it's easy to drink nature and lower ABV, Mild Ales were typically less expensive to make and therefore a cheaper beer for laborers to afford. At one point in time during the 1930's Mild Ales accounted for more than three quarters of all the beer brewed in England. However, the reputation of Mild Ales being a nice flavorful inexpensive alternative to Bitters and Porters was about to change, due to the governmental restrictions placed on beer in England during both World Wars. Wanting a work force at full strength to help with the war efforts, weaker beers became mandatory during these periods of time. Afterwards, weaker lower strength beer was viewed as a negative and complaints frequently surrounded what were now being referred to as sissy "war beers". Milds took another hit in public opinion when it's once favorable working class image began to be viewed more as "cheap old man's beer". There were still regions in England where Milds popularity continued, but most breweries chose to drop the "mild" from the title in order to disguise the beer's stylistic origin. Today, many North American brewers embrace Milds and tend to view it as one of the first true "session" beers, thanks to their ability to impart plenty of flavor without the alcoholic strength commonly found in many of the other popular beer styles. Ryan's recipe for the Earl of Brixom stays true to many of the defining characteristics surrounding Mild Ales. The final ABV was quite low, coming in at 4%. However, he wanted to embrace their ability to posses wonderful dark colors and full flavors, while maintaining the focus of being a beer designed for larger quantity drinking. By skillfully adding specialty grains* like Chocolate, Black Patent, and two kinds of Caramel malt varieties, he was able to accomplish a richness in flavor and an appealing dark color, while keeping the overall body lighter with a lower alcohol content. Easy to drink, full flavored, inexpensive, and less potent for greater consumption, what's not to love about Mild Ales?