Straightforward · 20 litres · all grain
California Common
Steam beer: a lager yeast fermented warm, which is what San Francisco did before it had refrigeration. Woody Northern Brewer hops and a firm, dry, mineral finish.
Original gravity
1.048
at 72% efficiency
Final gravity
1.014
72% apparent attenuation
Alcohol
4.6%
by volume
Bitterness
38 IBU
Tinseth
Colour
10.2 SRM
20 EBC, Morey
Grain bill
4.40 kg
0.22 kg per litre
Brewed to California Common, and all five computed figures land inside the published ranges for it.
OG inFG inABV inIBU inSRM inWhat decides this beer
Using an actual lager strain at ale temperature. Substituting an ale yeast makes a perfectly good amber ale that is not this beer. The 64C mash is what pushes this strain to the top of its published attenuation range, which the style's own final gravity band demands.
Fermentables
| Malt | Weight | Colour | Extract | Of grist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pale two-row malt | 3.75 kg | 2 L | 37 ppg | 85% |
| Crystal 40L | 0.35 kg | 40 L | 34 ppg | 8% |
| Crystal 60L | 0.30 kg | 60 L | 34 ppg | 7% |
Colour and extract are read from the malt reference, not typed into this recipe, so they are the same figures every other page on the site uses.
Crushing your ownGrain mill$92.90Hop schedule
| Hop | Weight | Alpha | Time | Contributes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perle Northern Brewer is traditional; Perle is its closest widely stocked relative. | 30 g | 8% | 60 min | 28.1 IBU |
| Perle | 20 g | 8% | 15 min | 9.3 IBU |
| Perle | 20 g | 8% | 1 min | 0.8 IBU |
Alpha acid varies by crop year and lot, which is why it lives on the recipe rather than on the variety. Brew to the figure printed on your packet and the bitterness will move; the IBU calculator will tell you by how much.
Method
- 01Mash at 64C for 60 minutes. Low, because this strain is not naturally attenuative and the style finishes drier than it wants to.
- 02Boil 60 minutes on the schedule above.
- 03Ferment at 17C, which is warm for a lager strain and the entire point of the style.
- 04Cold condition two weeks, then package at 2.5 volumes.
Numbers for the day
- Mash
- 64 C for 60 min
- Strike water at 3 L/kg
- 70.0 C
- Strike volume
- 13.2 L
- Boil
- 60 min
- Ferment
- 16-18 C
- Carbonate to
- 2.5 volumes
- Priming dextrose
- 128 g
- Yeast
- California LagerWyeast 2112
Strike temperature assumes grain at 20C and priming assumes the beer peaked at 20C after fermentation. Recompute both for your own kitchen on the strike and priming calculators.
For the mashDigital thermometer$12.31
For the fermentTemperature controller$36.00Before you package
Take a gravity reading two days apart and only package when it has not moved. A beer bottled while still fermenting keeps fermenting in the bottle, and the sugar you prime with lands on top of whatever was left. At 2.5 volumes this one needs about 128 g of dextrose for the batch.
To know it has finishedHydrometer and trial jar$21.99