Banks’s Chocolate Mild

Brewed by Banks’s (Marstons plc)
Style: Mild Ale
Wolverhampton, England

Serve in English pint, Shaker

Tasted this mild in The Esquire House, Glasgow (JDW) in June 2006. Cask, handpump dispense. Ruby black in colour with a thin buff head. Drinking chocolate powder evident in the short aroma. Thin mouthfeel and good lacing. Dark malts give a strong fruit element alongside the chocolate malt. Slight hint of treacle toffee with red grapes. A brief nod to bitter hop resins in the brief aftertaste but vineous notes continue into the sweet finish. Excellent session mild.

UPDATED: APR 10, 2008 Page 37 of Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide. Unfortunately I had this from a nitro can in Stratford on Avon. Maybe I just don’t milds but this just seemed like a weak North American brown ale. Only 179 of MJ’s 500 Classic Brews to go.

Cask (handpump) at The Knights Templar (JDW), Chancery Lane, London, May 2006. I’m not usually a great fan of W & D beers, but I thought this one was pretty good. Far better than the Banks’s Original light mild. Relatively strong for a mild. Very dark brown, almost opaque with a reddish tinge. Lasting beige head. Roasty malt aroma with the chocolate character coming through strongly on the palate. There’s a touch of light bitterness, so the chocolate is of the dark cooking variety. Held the interest to the bottom of the glass. I’d certainly drink this one again.

A Sim rate: Cask at the Gatehouse JDW. Full chocolate / coffee flavour. Creamy aroma. Tastes exactly like double cream. Like the coffees my dad used to make when the regular milk ran out.

(Cask) Hand pump into a pint, Wellington Arms, Southwark, London. Almost opaque murky reddish brown in the glass with 3/16” light taupe head of disparate bubble size of the medium to small variety. Full of flavor for such a lack of body. Sweet at first, chocolate is subtle in the middle, lacy and delicate throughout. This had a very interesting feel at first, both light and diffident at the same time, like a quasi-liquid Play Dough pushing back against a tasting tongue, but not “thick” at all. Hard to describe, not sure if I like it. The initial flavor is like weak pear/apple juice that’s been hopped lightly with earthy hops that add just enough bitter to keep this from being non-acidic cider. The finish is dry-ish with echoes of the dusty, earthy bitterness, and retaining some sweetness (like malted milk and chocolate, but faint). In the end, imagine a combo of 2 parts Alpha Klaus (if it were made with Kent-Goldings), 1 part Strongbow, and 5 parts water.

[cask from JDW] Aroma of roasted coffee, dark bitter chocolate and a little fruit. medium body, dry roasted finish.

Cask Conditioned at The Falcon (JDW), High Wycombe. Black with a loose tan head. A beefy mild with some dryness and some marmite/twiglet yeast character, cocoa, roast malt and an odd winey sourness to finish. Interesting flavours that don’t go together too well.

Half pint pulled at JDW Railway in Putney (London), black with a broth frothy head. A light chocolate aroma with just a hint of fruit. A light mouthfeel with a touch of tartness. An overall roasted malt is the more dominant flavour, though there is bitter chocolate in the aftertaste.