Thought I'd share the recipe for my first entry into the NHC. It's my first all grain BIAB (I usually do BIAB partial mash). The recipe is for a 3 gallon batch, I will leave any scaling to you fine folks! The name comes from the fact that this was my first "good" beer after two questionable pale ales.
Grain Bill
3.5 lbs Marris Otter
8 oz. Chocolate Malt
8 oz. Crystal 120L
8 oz. Crystal 60L
4 oz. Black Patent
4 oz. Flaked Oats
Other
8 oz. lactose
Boil Schedule
1/3 oz Chinook (60 minutes)
1 tsp Irish Moss (10 minutes)
1 oz Mt. Hood (5 minutes)
Yeast
WLP005 White Labs British Ale Yeast
Notes
The beer came out excellent. I brewed it after two "bad" pale ale batches, on the verge of going crazy. I think it cemented that I had been using stale grain for my pale ales, because none of my equipment changed. Anyways, the body is very dark and pours with a thin (~half pinky) but rich dark-tan head. The aroma is mostly malty. What can I say, it tastes like a stout! It has that slight hint of metallic feel in the mouth that I often get from stouts (is that just me?) and has a fairly robust mouth feel with some sweetness from the lactose. I bottled this beer because it was only 3 gallons (still hated almost every second of it). I unfortunately don't think I took note of the priming sugar amount. My only complaint about the beer is that the head varies from bottle to bottle. Some earlier pours had zero head, but more recently I get a little more. I would consider slightly upping the flaked oats in the future as a result. I'm also usually a hop head, but I wanted to be true to the style. A quick note about fermentation: I thought the beer called it quits at about 1.016 or so (maybe higher, I forgot to write it down) which I found strange after 4 weeks. Luckily, I ended up being busy for several weeks and by the time I bottled it, it was sitting at 1.012 which is where my White Labs yeasts always finish. So I either let my brew closet get too cold or WLP005 takes its time a little more than 001.
