Ruby Mild
Rudgate Brewery Limited

 

 

 

 

On cask at Bishops Arms.

Pours a dark reddish brown with light, soapy head.

Smell is malty and roasty with some floral hints. Notes of plums, leather and brown bread.

Taste is softly malty with some sweetness. Notes of leather, brown bread, citrus, plums and some floral hints. Soft bitterness with a hint of rye on the finish.

Mouthfeel is medium and smooth.

Overall, a very nice dark mild, probaby better on cask than from a bottle.

 

The colour is deep red brown, the liquid is clear. The two-finger head is beige and compact; it sinks slowly leaving some lacing on the glass.

The smell is malty, rich, and roasted with nuts, coffee, and prunes. Hints of metal, red berries, and tobacco.

The taste starts with a hint of salt and beef stock. Roasted malt makes me think of pumpernickel and rye crispbread. Light body. The aftertaste brings a hint of smoke, more rye bread, liquorice, and prunes. Hints of black pepper and treacle in the dry finish.

The carbonation is medium strong, the few big bubbles are fresh and short-lived. The liquid is mid-smooth and dry.

A dry and deep mild. I had hoped for some more body/sweetness. Likable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hand drawn.
Deep chestnut brown Thick but light frothy head.
Light caramel malt smell.
Sweet toffee and dried fruit taste. Mild bitter.
Smooth and easy drinking beer.

 

 

 

Served cool from 500ml bottle into pint mug.

A) Dark ruby (ha) brown, opaque, thin whitish film on top. Little to no carbonation visible.

S) Not a lot; fruity malts if you take a good sniff close up.

T) Quite watery really, with a slight fruity introduction and a pleasant roasty bitterness at the back. If the beer had a bit more of that second flavour, it would be quite a distinct and flavourful beer.

M) Quite watery and low carbonation does not help with that.

O) I would like the brewers to try a stronger version of this, playing up the roasted flavour that is lurking at the back of the mouth in this one.

 

 

Half pint at 'spoons Crystal Palace in Glasgow. Ruby red coloured beer with sligthly offhwite head. The nose is fruity, with pear, caramel and some hint of berry. It starts as per the nose (a soapy, pearlike fruitiness) before delivering a peppery, spicy finish. Very pleasant indeed. More please!

 

Cask conditioned and served via handpump at the CAMRA Stockport beer and cider festival at the county ground
though I have drank this from a bottle conditioned too nice dark fruit tasting beer

On cask at the Belfast Beer Festival, 2013.

Beige film over garnet-brown body.
Raspberry brownie nose with bits of earth and leaf.
Acidic brown malts, carob, dried cranberry and chocolatey ending.
Pomegranate finish and dried leaf linger.
Lt-med, clingy, dry.

Biting, clean and easy. More brown than black, and the 4.4% is hidden. Definite chocolate raisin thing, though autumnal as well.

Deserves the plaudits.

 

500ml Bottle: best before the end of August 2012, poured into an Abbot Ale glass tankard on the last day of July 2012, one month before it's BBD.

Good looking brew: dark brown body with a full, deep tan coloured head on top.

Coffee in the nose along with some roasted malty molasses (but without the sweetness). Chocolate notes arrived as the beer warmed.

The taste was all malt with a hop bitterness always there in the mix. Fruit cake with chocolate and nutty hints: add a malt loaf and you've almost got the flavours I found.

Smooth rather than creamy in the mouthfeel, a pleasant Mild all round.

Poured from a 500ml bottle into a pint glass. It's a boiling hot day so it's been refrigerated.

Pours a very dark red/black colour with a faintly off white head that settles down to a small layer and some very nice lacing.

Smells lovely and malty, bordering on burnt. Quite strong as well compared to other beers i've had recently.

Tastes surprisingly light and thirst quenching. It;s cold so the hops come out more, though still very faint compared with big sweet and burnt malts. Very smooth feel to it, hardly any fizzy carbonation at all.

Overall a perfick pint on a summers eve.

 

Nice tawny coloured mild. Very thin tan coloured head that leaves floaty bits wandering about the glass.

Rich smell - very prominent fresh-baked bread crust character to it. A little hint of chocolate and toffee hides behind this. The hops are very tame and hardly noticeable.

A little bit of a burnt taste, but this isn't too bad and this is still a delicious beer. Very nice mouthfeel and even though the ABV might be a little bit high for a mild, this is something to sit down with and enjoy a pint or three.

(Notes of Oct. 2007) The 4th beer tasted at the 2007 Sheffield Beer Festival, by a half-pint with a gravity pour.

A: dark mahogany in colour, great clarity, coming with low carbonation and a cob-web like loosely-foamy head.
S: caramely malty, sweet nutty, with a touch of roasted malts and grass jelly. An earthy touch of hops runs underneath.
T: sour-sweet caramel malts and caramelised sugar abound, on a par with raisin-y dried fruits plus a little sour nuttiness. A flow of fragrant bitterness and caramely-sugary aroma deepens, as a quiet undercurrent of peppery and woody bitterness as well as roast nuttiness sustains in the end.
M&D: as fresh as it should be for a fresh cask ale, med-bodied, going lighter sip by sip following a rich start. A quaffable and pleasantly sour-sweet Mild overall.

Presentation: Having arrived back in England on Friday 18th April for my annual 2 week vacation only hours earlier, I was back in my beloved Wakefield Labour Club (the Red Shed) at lunchtime. After my first Pint of Ossett Brewery Pale Gold, and a Pint of White Gold and then White Scimitar from Durham Brewery - with a taste firmly for Cask Ale I headed for the 4th of four Real Ales available; Rudgate Ruby Mild at a (not so-mild like) 4.4% ABV.

Appearance: Dark bodied brew, black on the bar, but dark ruby color when held to the light. Tan colored creamy head that was quite thick yet soon dispersed. Solid conditioning throughout but it suffered from low carbonation levels.

Nose: Brooding, initially sulking in the glass, yet it soon wakes up and releases dark malts and a thin but strong dark mild character with some alcohol. A very feint hint of sourness came through in the end of this one, the cask was 3 days old, must have been getting to the end of its life.

Taste: Rich tastes in this decidedly un-Mild like brew. Malty start which has a raisin & plum laden hazelnut middle. Brown nutty ale finish mixed with more dark malts and a short lived dark chocolate bitter twang in the end.

Mouthfeel: Feels above average in the initial drink, but it twist & turns, it can lend a thin feel towards the end and swallow, yet this too changes again once the nutty aftertaste works its way through. Creamy at times.

Drinkability: A tad unbalanced for me, the “high” strength for a Mild detracts from the Drinkability, whilst the dark malty nutty tastes are poorly supported by the thin wavering mouthfeel. A bit up and down at times.

Overall: A dark premium mild that won a Silver medal at the CAMRA Winter Beer Festival in 2002. Tasty stuff, above average, but not a favorite of mine.