Can something be a classic if it’s constantly evolving?
That was a thought that ran through my head repeatedly as I spoke with beer historians and brewers about British mild.
On the one hand, we have a style that many—rightly, in my view—see as a benchmark style. If I want to know whether a brewer knows what they’re doing, I’ll taste their mild. Like the perfect freehand circle drawn by the Renaissance artist who is asked to demonstrate their skill, mild is an acid test of recipe design, process control, and ingredient selection.