I tried the best mild beer at the Wolverhampton Beer Festival and discovered a range of tastes and flavours
The art of tasting and objectively marking how good a beer looks, smells and tastes is one that only a few people can do well, but is a skill I've always wanted to master.
I've been a fan of real ale since I was a student at Sunderland University and tried Vaux Samson and Newcastle Brown Ale for the first time, as well as different beers on nights out with friends.
In the intervening 22 years since I graduated from university, I've been able to try different beers, from dark and chocolatey stouts to light and hoppy ales and IPA's full of mango, lemon, orange and pineapple flavour, attending beer festivals and trying new beers in different pubs up and down the land.
One style of beer that I've never got to grips with is Mild, which is one of the earliest forms of ale brewed in Britain, and shares its heritage with porters, stouts and brown ales.
Typically, milds are darker in colour, but can vary from a light caramel colour to a deep ruby and have been a staple of the beer scene across the Black Country for decades, with Banks's Mild a particular favourite.
Despite the decision to stop brewing Banks's Mild for cask and a general decline in milds over the last few years, there is still a demand for it and plenty of breweries are busy brewing up fine milds for consumption at pubs and beer festivals.
Which one is the best is a matter for debate and judgement, such is the choice out there, but the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is busy with finding out what is the best from a panel of judges at different beer festivals across the country.
The Wolverhampton Beer Festival is no exception, with the stage of the outdoor marquee at the Wolverhampton Arts Centre the setting for a day of judging different beers by category for the West Midlands and West Central area, an area stretching down as far as Oxfordshire.
I was invited by the organisers of the festival to be part of the judging panel for the Mild category for the first day of the festival on Thursday (July 24) so made my way to the centre and met up with my fellow judges, including Richard Wilkes from the Vine Inn in Wednesfield, Louise Clive from the Keg & Comfort in Oxley, a member of Wolverhampton CAMRA and a brewer from Banks's Brewery.
