Pale Ale in primary

I did not have class on Martin Luther King Day, so I decided to brew a batch of beer. I wanted to make a beer to keg. I wanted to make what I call a "house beer" for the keg. I consider a "house beer" to be a beer that I can drink at at any point of the year. It goes with most any food or occasion.

I was starting the beer late in the day, so I decided to buy a Listermann extract kit instead of doing an all-grain. I bought the American Pale Ale. Initially I was excited because I was told at the store that it would have Cascade hops, which are very difficult to find this year. Unfortunately when I opened up the kit I found Galena hops. I looked up Galena and found that they are bittering hops, not typically used for flavoring, aroma, or dry hopping. No chart on the web, or in my books, recommend Galena as a substitute. The only connection I can find is that both have a citrus like characteristic. I know we are in a hop crisis, and perhaps this was the best substitute available, but I was not comfortable using the Galena hops, so I pulled some of my secret Cascade hops out of storage and used it for flavoring and with the Galena for aroma. I will probably dry hop with the Galena and save the rest of the Cascade for another recipe.

The brew went well. It was a cold day, so the propane burner helped warm up the garage. As always the neighbors walked by the garage door wondering what I was doing with a 9 gallon pot on a turkey fryer burner, with the strange smells lingering in the air.