Northdown&Challenger Best

[coatesg]

Lining up a best for tomorow (more trying to use hops up from the freezer...) - here's the recipe I'm plumping for:

Maris Otter 4.4kg
Crystal 400g
Chocolate 50g

Northdown 7.9% 30g 75min
Northdown 12g 15min
Challenger 7.1% 12g 15min
Northdown 15g 0min

Water is all ready to go in the morning - hoping for a reasonably early start to crack on with it. I'll be fermenting with Hopback yeast - I have some from a 1.5l starter ready to go in the fridge.

[coatesg]

Mashing away nicely - may go back to bed and have a doze

[Scooby]

Wake up it's gone midday

I'm getting things together for a brew tomorrow, a quick bitter that I hope to be drinking at an end of the month BBQ
low gravity at 1.036ish and using Nottingham, the first time for ages.

[coatesg]

I did have a bt of a doze, but the mash was only a bit over 2hrs long as a result

Didn't have time to update this one earlier (had a pressing engagement with a pint or three and lunch down the local )

Got 23L in the fermenter at 1046 so a shade over expected. Had to chop back the late Northdown additions as I had less left than I thought. The hops turned out to be:

N/down: 30g 90min
Challenger: 15g 10min
N/down: 10g 10min
N/down: 10g aroma steep

Yeast pitched and all appears to be kicking off as far as I can see - there's the first sign of bubbles from the yeast. Expecting the thick yeasty mes from hell in the morning knowing the HopBack strain...