PM Pale Ale

So yesterday I brewed a beer after work, another Pale Ale, the PM brew sessions are weird.

The brew night itself was rather uneventful, no stuck mashes, no low OG, no nothin’ that made me upset. But after a full day of work a full brew schedule is a little tiring. Fortunately I got out of work about a half hour early which let me get started early. I was mashing in by 6PM and had all the janitorial done before 11PM.

At the same time I brewed this beer, I also transfered the Cream Ale to secondary and the California Red to a keg. The Cream Ale went like this – sanitize secondary carboy with Iodophor, transfer Iodophor to primary carboy for PM Pale Ale, then to bucket for brew day equipment. Transfer Cream Ale to secondary, rinse, clean primary carboy from Cream Ale.

The California Red was more like this – clean keg with PBW, transfer PBW to primary carboy of Cream Ale to clean. Sanitize keg with Star San, transfer Star San to bottling bucket to sanitize transfer equipment and bucket. Transfer California Red from secondary carboy to bottling bucket to keg, pressurize keg. Rinse and clean California Red secondary carboy and bottling bucket. Why the extra step with the bottling bucket? Well, this is the first beer I’ve brewed with pellet hops as the dry hops since I was running into all those stuck keg issues from hop debris. So, my thinking was, besides being extra careful on the transfer, I would rack to the bucket first and theoretically any debris would settle below the spigot on the bucket before transferring to the keg thus removing the hop debris from the equation of the clogged keg. Do I think it worked? Eh, sure, why not.

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