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California Common (aka steam beer) has an interesting history that boils down to it being a hybrid of sorts. Fermented at ale temps using lager yeast...I’m confident that it came about from equipment constraints that produced beer no one would drink today. All that said, today they are pretty good (Anchor Steam anybody?).

I cheated a little on mine. After perusing the ole brewing blogs, I decided that it may be easier to expect a little less from a super clean ale yeast (fermented at a low temp) than to expect more from a lager yeast (fermented at a high temp). So instead of using the standard California Common yeast, I used a clean ale yeast and fermented at the lowest temp it could work with.

This is the best beer I have made so far. It tastes and looks like I wanted it to.

Here is my recipe

And here are my notes from creating the beer.

I created a lackluster fly sparging system using a pasta strainer and large measuring cup, but I actually think it yielded decent results until the pasta strainer fell in and messed up my beautiful mash bed. In the end I, once again, missed my pre boil gravity target and had to add some DME to get things back on track.

Everything else on brew day went great and my wort looked and tasted amazing -- there was a tragic hydrometer accident, so I had to fly blind on the gravity readings for awhile.I saved samples and took everything once I got my dope ass Anton Paar Easy Dens in the mail.

I fermented at 60 degrees for approximately 2 weeks, increased the temp to 68 degrees for 2 days (my diacetyl rest), and then brought the temp down to 56 degrees for a couple of days. I’m very pleased with this beer. It looks good. It tastes good. My carbonation is on point. It’s a little boozy -- as all my beers are turning out to be.

What was notable about this brew session?
* Amature fly sparging system.
* Sweet new gravity measurement system.
* Look at this fucking wort!!!.

What pleasantly surprised me?
* Worked through brew day issues without letting the brew day get off track.

* Carbonation is good!...and repeatable.

Why can’t I officially call this my first good batch of beer?
* ABV is definitely too high...again -- a little too boozy and you can taste that.

I finally feel like I am getting consistently good at making beers correctly. Progress is being made. It feels good.