Just cracked my first bottle of this one.
I ended up using the Challenger and First Gold to 56 IBU, because they are both '06 vintage pellets. I used 30 gr fresh Fuggels pellets at flameout.
The beer is beautifully balanced, with still lovely hop flavour and aroma, with smooth maltiness. WY1968 leaves me with a brilliantly clear beer, even after only 2½ weeks post bottling.
The bitterness is probably more like 40 to 45 IBU because of the age of the pellets, but they were stored sealed in the freezer.
I'm really happy with this beer.
Bottled a hoppy (Pacifica) as hell Kellerbier (nz pils, bit of melanoidin, yeast 34/70) yesterday which is tasting awesome and brewed a smooth Franconian Dunkel to follow it using the yeast cake - that was with an all Munich type II base, bit of carared, touch of carafa. the late spring is going to be great out on the back lawn once daylight savings have started.
next up a koelsch (straight pils malt) and two altbiers (favourite style, one all munich with carared, the other half munich, half pils with carared and touch of carafa) with the 2575 yeast that was the wyeast special last time out.
umm, the kellerbier i did went from 1050 to 1008 which I found remarkable actually. the mash was probably bang on 150F/65.6C so perhaps on the low side. only used 10g of the 34/70 as well and it took ages to get going, but once it did it fermented out in a week, though i was fermenting on the warm end of the lager range - 14C.
NHBC is only nine weeks away, so setting up some stock for that. My brewing schedule for the next four weeks is looking hectic, and maturation tank space is at a premium. May have to utilise my stock of "rented" 30 litre kegs for aging the beers....