Against The Grain Tickle the Tuba

A California Common, or “steam” beer is the only style of beer indigenous to the United States. This lager has a deep copper color and a caramel malt flavor, with assertive American hop bitterness. Then to keep with the steam beer tradition we fermented with lager yeast at a warmer than normal temperature. The name “steam” came from the fact that turn of the century West coast breweries had no way to effectively chill the boiling wort using traditional means. So they pumped the hot wort up to large, shallow, open-top bins on the roof of the brewery so that it would be rapidly chilled by the cool air blowing in off the Pacific Ocean. Thus while brewing, the brewery had a distinct cloud of steam around the roof let off by the wort as it cooled, hence the name.