Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild WHS

what a day!

Had some spare time today so decided to try and get this brew on, looked at the weather forcast and it said mainly cloudy.. no reports for rain .. so its on

i had purchased a [FONT=&quot]Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild kit from the worstershire hop store last week...

[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [FONT=&quot]Pale Malt (maris Otter) (grams) 5110[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Crystal Malt (grams) 900[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Start of Boil[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Fuggle Hops (grams) 33[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Golding Hops (grams) 30[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Last Ten Minutes of Boil[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Fuggle Hops (grams) 20[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1 pack of Safale 04 yeast.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Alcohol content [/FONT][FONT=&quot](ABV) 5.7%


[/FONT]the kit came well packaged and promtly, but it had no intructions at all.. nothing.. zip, i checked out there website and the hop timings/instructions was actually on the page listing for the kit .. but other than that there is little to help you



[/FONT]this being my 2nd all grain brew i was a little more prepared than last time and have moved the brick plinth i stand my boiler on, and rigged up a piece of timber to hang the grain bag on for sparging/squeezing





All went well to start with no problems.. strike water set at 73c with the grain bag in then i added the grains and wrapped her up






well next thing was mother nature decided i was doing far to well.. and it started to drizzle.. no probs i thought wheres my golf brolly!




mashed for 60 mins.. no problem at all, temp stayed around 67c so spot on.. so i turned the boiler back on and lifted the grain bag out and hung it on the timber ready to sparge and squeeze, i used about 4 litres of water doing the sparge and squeezed the bag well, i could of got more out of it but mother nature was against me now as the weather was turning worse ( typical aint it! )




anyway lid on the boiler and wait till it got up to boil then add the first hops
but the weather really was **** now, last time i trust a weather report!.. now we need 2 umbrellas! :lol:



so apart from the dreadfull weather making what i had planned to be an easier job than last time a bit of a pain in the ****.. the boil was good and i added the wort chiller with 20 mins to go, the whirlfloc with 15 mins to go, and the last hops with 10 mins to go.. the wort took about 40 mins to cool down to about 25c and i drained it into a sanitised fv



i noticed there was alot more trub in this compared to my last brew ( oregon stout ) its a strange affect in the bucket and looks like its seperates from the liquid.. if i had known and the weather was not so **** i may of left it a bit longer to completely settle at the bottom of the boiler.. but it was getting dark and i was getting wet.. :whistle:

so the brew was over apart from the cleaning up.. so i brought the fv in the house and measured the gravity.. it was at about 1.055 but i wanted it a bit less so i topped up the fv from 23 to about 25 litres (roughly!) so i ended up with a og of 1.050 i added the yeast and left it for 10 mins then gave it a stir



so there we go.. its never bloody dull is it!.. it was a good day today.. the weather made it hard.. but i felt i had it under control, then next time i brew "should" be a piece of cake!.. now just the long wait till it can be bottled and drunk

cheers geoff

impressive ....especially the big hook...wasn't expecting that :clap:

It's a round of applause from me too. Dedication to All Grain. :clap:

LOL legendary!

I've got this planned for over the Christmas break, exactly the same recipe, but milled myself. An all time great beer

love it. propped up on bricks. a collander taped to a spoon. hook on a beam. And it probably tastes amazing.

that's what I think I would miss with a grainfather! the fact I make BIAB AG in my garage, with a fan propped up on a cardboard box blowing the steam out the doors, or keeping the lid open during the boil with an offcut of wood, somehow makes it all better!

Toffee said:

love it. propped up on bricks. a collander taped to a spoon. hook on a beam.

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Its How i roll! :lol:

Toffee said:

That's what I think I would miss with a grainfather! the fact I make BIAB AG in my garage, with a fan propped up on a cardboard box blowing the steam out the doors, or keeping the lid open during the boil with an offcut of wood, somehow makes it all better!

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i think its almost as much fun as drinking it, ive always been the same though... ive got to have a project.. building/making something, it keeps me ticking

anyway... she's bubbling away nicely.. yahoo! :party:

aye. I am the same to be honest. always something to tinker with.

bottled this today.. baught a nice new bench capper, much easier than the hand held... sg was 1.050 and fg was 1.013 so i think its about 4.8%,

it was not as dark as i thought it would be for a mild.. but i guess thats why its called a dark ruby.. has a nice red hint to it

just 2 more weeks to wait, will i be able to resist it..... :-(

Looks nice and clear. Milds vary in colour, you would need a darker roast malt to get it much darker, milds often have choc or black malt. But you even get pale milds, or at least you did.

That's the colour of Sarah Hughes. As clibit says you would need a roasted malt to make it darker.

It remains one of my all time favourite beers (I've got quite a few)......the brewery is only a few miles from me - The Beacon Hotel in Sedgley

clibit said:

Looks nice and clear. Milds vary in colour, you would need a darker roast malt to get it much darker, milds often have choc or black malt. But you even get pale milds, or at least you did.

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i was surprised how clear this was.. i dont know if ive just been cleaner with the racking off during the brew or this has just alot less sediment than olgas stout.. the stout had 1/2 inch of sediment in the bottle the day after bottling

ive only ever had what i would call traditional dark pub mild before.. or in the old 2 litres bottles you used to get back in the day.. i have to say this looks like its going to be fantastic, had a taste of the dregs after bottling and even flat and warm it was nice..

jeg3 said:

That's the colour of Sarah Hughes. As clibit says you would need a roasted malt to make it darker.

It remains one of my all time favourite beers (I've got quite a few)......the brewery is only a few miles from me - The Beacon Hotel in Sedgley

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thats really good to know.. ive never had it myself... really looking forward to this