Nothing extravagant here, the usual starter knocked up ahead of brew day in my large Erlenmeyer flask. 1.5 litres water, 184g dark DME, boiled for 20 minutes along with some Lipohop and yeast nutrients. I added the magnetic stir-bar for the last 5 minutes in order to sterilise it, and it’s amazing how much more foam is generated from there on in – almost enough to overwhelm the Lipohop.

Thanks to some very cold outside temperatures our tap water is more or less freezing, which allowed me to chill the flask down in around 20 minutes. One packet of Mangrove Jack’s M44 was pitched at 20℃ exactly, then it’s off to the stir plate for half a day.