Screwy's California Steamin' Common Ale

[ScrewyBrewer]

Thirteen wasted years wasted.

[jimjohson]

Worse than wasted, look at all the local breweries it cost us.

[Kealia]

Lookie what I had last night!


I traded a few beers with Screwy recently and I finally got around to drinking this last night. It was a 22oz bottle so I had to break out the BIG Sammy glass to hold it all in one pour. You can see from the glass that there's some condensation on the glass from the beer being cold but check out the creamy head on this bad boy!

The aroma on this was less hop and more estery from the yeast. Slight notes of bread and caramel. In short, exactly what I expected from this style of beer.

I knew the temp was a bit colder than I wanted to drink this beer at so I left it alone for 10 minutes to warm up - and guess what? The head hadn't fallen at all



The taste was smooth and easy. It finishes with just a hint of the hops. It's not as bitter as Anchor Steam (and I know it wasn't supposed to be a clone so I just use that as a reference point). As it warmed up nearing the bottom of the glass the hops are caramel presented themselves a bit more and gave it a somewhat rich, yet light and crisp feel. Good stuff.

The bottom line here is that this is a damn fine beer, crystal-clear and tasty. Perfectly carbed. Very well brewed and very refreshing.

I can see why this went quickly.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Thanks for the positive feedback Ron and thank you for introducing me to bottle swapping too! Up until I received your 'Marilyn' and 'Big n' Juicy' to enjoy I had never received or shipped home brew across the country before, or even across the street for that matter. I'm very happy to see that you liked the Common Ale as much as I do. Kudos to you for the way you were able to put into words, what I think are a very accurate description of the sample I sent you. I also was impressed by the quality of the beers you sent me I felt they were both delicious and perfect examples of what a well brewed beer should taste like.

I'm down to my last three bombers now and I'm trying real hard to make them last until my next family dinner, I wish I had brewed a bigger batch. Since brewing the Irish Stout and Common Ale recipes I've brewed an awesome Belgian WitBier and an outrageous Irish Red Ale to go along with them. We're looking forward to enjoying a nice homebrew themed holiday dinner here this year, thank you again for your kind words of encouragement and over all good cheer.

[Kealia]

It was my pleasure, and likely not the last time I reach out for some trades either! I just need to get brewing again.

[Banjo-guy]

R

[ScrewyBrewer]

The overnight temperatures have been in the 50's here and its time to brew up another of my perennial favorites, California Steamin' Common Ale. Last night I made a starter using White Labs WLP810 - San Francisco Lager Yeast™ and this morning I woke up to see a solid inch of krauzen had already developed. I'm planning to take advantage of the cooler weather and brew this batch on Saturday. Thanks to Ron for sharing such a very concise review of my previous batch I'll be adding more Northern Brewer hops and get the BU:GU ratio (0.735) to lean a bit more towards the bitter range.

Its been a little over a year since I last brewed this style but I am so looking forward to having it in the pipeline again.

[Kealia]

I'm sure you are - and you should be. I think I'm going to go find some Anchor Steam on tap soon just to scratch that itch myself. I have a recipe for a CC so maybe I'll brew that up once (and IF) we ever cool down out here!

[ScrewyBrewer]

I was fortunate to get to do a side-by-side comparison of two very fine examples of the California Common Beer style earlier this week. One was brewed by Dawg LB Steve and the other by yours truly. As soon as I tasted Dawg's beer I knew that I loved it, I'm glad you sent it to me Steve! In fact I would gladly drink 10 gallons of this beer with no problem at all. When both beers were poured in identical beer glasses they looked exactly like identical twins would look, if beer had identical twins.

Cali-Compare-1a-sml.jpg (109.21 KiB) Viewed 1132 times

Dawg's version is shown on the left and my version is shown on the right.

Right off the bat I noticed that the color of both beers were perfect and that they both looked very clear and bright. Taking the first sip was a pleasure. The aroma of Dawg's beer was spot on and tasted exactly how I would have expected this style to taste. As an added bonus the flavors lingered long after swallowing each sip, which just made me want to take another sip.

Cali-Compare-3a-sml.jpg (118.07 KiB) Viewed 1132 times

Dawg's Pictured On Left Screwy's Pictured On Right

The only noticeable differences between both brews in fact was that my beer had a bit fuller mouthfeel and longer lasting head retention. This is not necessarily a bad thing, I recall Anchor Steam Beer being a bit thinner than my most recent attempt too. I know Steve is entering his version in a competition tomorrow and I expect that he will do very well there. Based on my own rating of his beer I don't know how a better example of the Cali' Common could be brewed.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Thanks Vince!! WOW the color of both are just about identical. It did attenuate a little more than expected, finished @ 1.008 and I do like how the hop profile is just there in the background. I am hoping it does pretty good tomorrow, I got a big grin and thumbs up from a BJCP judge at a meeting a couple weeks ago when we passed our examples around for tasting. Of the 4 that day mine was perceived to be the closest to the commercial standard for Cali-Common. Can't wait to get the side by side with yours next week.

[Kealia]

That last picture is great. It really shows how clear both beers are. And having had them both myself I can vouch for the taste of each of them!

[mashani]

I had Steve's version too. It was fantastic. I could also easily drink 10 gallons of it. The only thing I noted was that it actually seemed smoother and more lager like then the famous commercial variety.

That said I didn't have the famed commercial variety on hand to try side by side. But my recollection of said commercial beer is that it is rougher edged - as in it has a more mineral vibe (slight salt and sulfur), a more astringent woodyness from the hops, some slight fruity/bubblegum esters, and has a bit more of a rough mouth feel due to high carb levels and thin body.

I would not use any of those things to describe Steve's beer, his beer was smooth and very easy to drink in every way possible. Easier to drink then said commercial kind.

So, I think I like Steves version better then the said commercial beer, but if I was to use the commercial variety as a baseline, then I'd say Steves is too "lager like" if I was trying to describe the difference. Too smooth. Too easy to drink in mass quantities. Too good!

I hope his beer wins awards. It deserves them. But I just wanted to throw my thoughts out here.

But maybe I'm crazy LOL. Or maybe I just had a bad 6 pack of that commercial beer.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Bronze!

[Rebel_B]

Congrats!



Drinking: Trippel
Bottled/Conditioning: Cascade Pale Ale
Fermenting: Evil Twin clone, Trippel

[mashani]

Excellent!