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Goes brown and awfully dark inside mugs (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tankards

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'mugs' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'goes brown and awfully dark inside' is the wordplay.
'goes brown' becomes 'tas' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and').
'awfully' indicates anagramming the letters.
'inside' indicates putting letters inside.
'dark' with letters rearranged gives 'kard'.
'n'+'kard'='nkard'
'tas' placed around 'nkard' is 'TANKARDS'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tankards that I've seen before include "One-handled beer mugs" , "Large one-handled drinking mugs" , "Large one-handled drinking vessels" , "Large beer mugs" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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