Mild is top of the hops at Harp pub

Mild Ale is top of the agenda in May at the award-winning Harp pub in London’s Charing Cross area, close to Trafalgar Square. Paul Sims, manager of the Fuller’s pub, has teamed up with Dark Star brewery in Sussex to make an exclusive dark mild, which will feature many other milds during May.

Paul Sims says: “Mild May is a really popular month at the Harp and we’ve made it even more exciting this year with our very own Mild. The conversation started with Dark Star on Twitter about brewing a collaborative mild and a date was booked to head down to Partridge Green.

“Dark Star’s Hophead is extremely popular at the Harp so it was a logical partnership for brewing this very special mild – the pub’s first own beer.”

Into the Mild is 3.5 per cent and is brewed with seven malts, including oats and wheat. The two hops are East Kent Goldings and Warrior. The beer has a flaring ruby colour with rich dark grain and burnt fruit on the aroma. Creamy malt, dark fruit, spicy hops and notes of chocolate and caramel fill the mouth while the finish is dry, with spicy hops, dark grain, burnt fruit, chocolate and caramel.

Also on the bar is Grafted Ruby Mild from Canopy Brewing in Herne Hill. At 4.3 per cent, this is strong for a modern mild. As the name suggests, it has a bright ruby colour with dark grains, caramel and spicy hops on the nose followed by a dry palate with caramel and vanilla notes, dark grain and spicy hops. The dry finish has continuing notes of dark grain, spicy hops and caramel.

There will be a rolling programme of milds at the Harp during May but Paul Sims says Dark Star will have a permanent pump on the bar for mild.  Only 35 firkins of Into the Mild were brewed and a limited number of other Fuller’s managed pubs will have the beer in May. Ten per cent of the sales of the beer will go the Dark Star Foundation.

•Harp, 47 Chandos Place, WC2. The pub was CAMRA’s National Pub of the Year in 2010 and is the current West London CAMRA branch’s Pub of the Year. It has also been named best London pub by the Evening Standard.