Batch 317, Wow! Another delicious pale ale!

 Sometimes known as "pail ail", but not today. Pretty much the same as the previous recipes, a bit more grain this time.

10 gallon batch

22 lb 2-row

13 oz Special B

2 oz crystal 60, because it was there and that's all there is

I've been tracking water temp versus mash temp, and today kind of threw me. I've been getting a drop of about 10 - 15F, but today I got a 20F drop. I was aiming for low 150's, so mashed in with 168F and got 148F. Surprise! I'll take it. I bumped up the Special B for a little added sweetness, but the 148F will make it a little drier than last time. Adjusted pH to 5.3. As usual, recirculation for 15 minutes before both sparges. This really seems to help reduce the amount of trub I end up with in the fermenter.

All Chinook this time:

1 oz at FWH, 60 min, and 15 min, plus 2 tsp Irish Moss at 15.

2 oz at flameout

Same process as last time for chilling, except I put a block of ice in the bucket. This got the temp down to 155F pretty quickly. I've noticed my beer has been very clear during these simple pale ale batches, I think it's partly due to the recirculation during the mash and I'm recirculating again during the chilling. The whole hops make a pretty solid bed in the bottom of the boil kettle, which catches a lot of the trub that could otherwise end up in the fermenter.

I have a water problem at the moment, the water system here is undergoing some upgrades, so I was out of running water to clean up. That's a challenge, for sure! I really need to do a deep clean when the water is back on.

2 jars of yeast from last batch, pitched the following day.