Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild

[Benjy Edwards]

I have been working on a clone of Sarah Hughes' venerable Dark Ruby. After many different versions, I was thinking of trying this next:

38-40L batch
OG 1.060
FG 1.014
6% ABV

18 lbs./8.2 kg Maris Otter (65.5%)
3.25 lbs./1.5kg dark crystal (120L)(11.8%)
3 lbs./1.3kg Special B (147L)(10.8%)
1 lb./454g brown malt (70L)(3.6%)
.25 lb./114g pale chocolate malt (200L)(.9%)
2 lbs./900g black treacle (7.3%) at 5 mins. left in boil

Mash at 158F for 1 hour. The former brewer Guy Perry told me many years ago that they mashed in at 158F (70C) and by the end of the hour the mash was 149F (65C).

2 oz./56g Fuggle @ 60 mins.
2 oz./56g EKG @ 60 mins.
2 oz./56g EKG @ 15 mins.

Yeast: WLP002 English Ale

Thoughts? Any tweaks you would suggest? I know Graham Wheeler's recipe calls for 75% pale malt and 25% crystal, but I've seen many views that more malt complexity is needed to achieve the flavour of DRM.

[mozza]

Looks tasty!

[RichardG]

... but I've seen many views that more malt complexity is needed to achieve the flavour of DRM.

In which case I'd say give it a whirl and let us know how it turns out.

[FUBAR]

I will be interested to see how this recipe turns out G.W's recipe for Dark Ruby is one of my favourites and I have replaced 10% of the Crystal with extra dark Crystal Malt in a couple of brews and that certainly gave a lot more of a Malty body.