Kentucky Common

I'm a babe in the woods here, having only brewed one beer, and that from a pre-arranged kit (They provided the yeast, hops, and grain all premeasured, crushed, etc...). But now I'm wanting to set out a little and try and follow a recipe I found online for a Kentucky Common:

1908 Kentucky Common
by Mike Dixon

5 gallon recipe


6 lb. Marris Otter (Sour 20%, see below)
13 oz. American crystal 120L
3.5 oz. American chocolate
2 lb. Gelatinized grits (see below)

158° F for 1 hour
170° F for 10 min.

90 minute boil

0.5 oz. Cluster (6.5% AA, 65 min.)
0.5 oz. Cluster (6.5% AA, 30 min.)
0.5 oz. Cluster (6.5% AA, 2 min.)

Neutral yeast. (I used Danstar Nottingham.)

OG 1.048

FG 1.016-1.018

IBU 24

SRM 18

Sour 20% of the Marris Otter for 2 1/2 days using yogurt culture or raw grain. Mash first at 158°F and after 170°F mashout reduce to 90-105°F and add yogurt or raw grain. Combine sour mash with main mash before sparge.

Gelatinize grits by boiling for 30 minutes. I found it took about 1 gallon water per pound of grits to keep them runny.


There were two versions given in the different editions of Wahl and Henius. The specs for each were:

1902 Edition – OG 1.040-1.044, ~20 IBU, 30% corn

1908 Edition – OG 1.040-1.050, 20-30 IBU, 25-35% corn, slight lactic sourness​

Now, while I hope to expand in the future, right now I'm only set up to brew one gallon at a time. I figure that until I'm a bit more practiced, I'll be glad I don't have to drink 5 gallons of the stuff I turn out...

But my question is, can I take this 5 gallon recipe and divide the amount of every single ingredient by 5? Or is there some give and take where you still need x amount of yeast, or y amount of grain regardless of how small a batch you make?

I apologize if I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Are you setup to do all-grain brewing? Did your first recipe include malt extract, either dry or liquid?

I assume that what I did was all grain brewing. Apologies for my ignorance terminology-wise, hopefully a few days on the board will help remedy that!

But the kit I was given was two different types of grain that I crushed up, then cooked, strained, boiled with hops, mixed with maple syrup, fermented with yeast (First with a tube going into a cup of water, then with an airlock for 2 weeks) then bottled for a couple more weeks. So I think I'm all set...?

Kentucky Common??? Is that when you "blend" two beers from the same style "family"?

macabra11 said:

Kentucky Common??? Is that when you "blend" two beers from the same style "family"?

Click to expand...

No, it's a forgotten beer style. I made one last fall and it was pretty popular, that recipe looks pretty good. If I try it again I would probably use the same recipe with a 50% 2 day sour mash.

Alright, well, based on everything I'm finding, it doesn't seem like there's any reason I can't split the recipe (Dividing everything by 5) and since this is my first crack at souring (Which seems like potentially risky business) I don't want to upgrade to 5 gallons for it.

So I got my ingredients ordered and look forward to giving it the ol' college try once my jug (Which just started secondary fermenting a Chocolate Maple Porter) is free. I'll be sure to share the results!

I just brewed my take on a KY Common. I mashed normally (all the grains), and let it sit for a day to sour, however, I let it vent and it ended up with some mold and nastiness on the top. I scraped that off and everything seems just fine. Tasted and smelled good. I ended up getting 93% efficiency when my recipe was for 75%, so it's about .01 higher than it should be. Hopefully it turns out well. I used California Ale from White Labs. I'm going to keep brewing this until I perfect it. Post up how that one turns out.

Yes you can divide it out to make one gallon batches

macabra11 said:

Kentucky Common??? Is that when you "blend" two beers from the same style "family"?

Click to expand...

lmao!!! too bad no one else got that this was a joke!

I was too outraged by the gross generalization to acknowledge it.

Especially since everyone knows that's West Virginians...

Thought I might share my experience thus far, as I didn't find much online in terms of a step by step walk-through of souring.

I'm only set up to make a gallon at a time, so the 5-gallon recipe above I divided by 5 across the board.

Since the general consensus seemed to be that more than the suggested 20% ought to be soured (But not wanting to go crazy on my first try) I decided to try souring about 30%.

So--6 lbs of Marris Otter divided by 5 equals 1.2lbs. 30% of that (For souring) gets you .36 pounds. I don't have a scale, and very rough estimates I found online seemed to indicate a pound of grain is about three cups. So I went with 1 cup Marris Otter and (General sentiment of water-to-grain ratio apparently being 1.25qt per 1lb) a little less than half a quart (As math suggests .45qt) water. I know the specificity is a bit over the top here, but hoped it might be useful for future absolute amateurs wanting a walk through, and really permit people to point out any given aspect that was done incorrectly/questionably!

So, got the water up to about 160 degrees and dumped in the grain. Cooked and stirred it at about 155 for a couple minutes, until it acheived an oatmeal-like consistency. Seemed a bit too runny, could probably have stood to use less water!

Then cooked at about 158 for an hour, stirring every ten minutes or so.

After an hour, cranked it to 170 and stirred constantly for ten minutes.

Opted not to use yogurt culture (As some suggest) but just sour using raw grain. So took about 1/8th a cup of raw grain (Have absolutely no basis for this measurement. Just seemed like enough without being too much...?) and dumped it into an empty, sanitized George Dickel Bottle (To inspire the mash to greatness...). Once the mash cooled to 100 degrees, I funnelled it into the bottle over the raw grain. I funnelled in grain and all, did not strain it. This is something I wondered about, as I couldn't find much clarity on whether the mash ought to have been strained or sparged or anything before mixing with the raw grain.

Let it all sit in there with some air for a half hour, figuring air would be needed to let it get appropriately funky in the next couple days. Then put saran wrap over the top with a rubber band.

So there's the walkthrough of my first attempt at souring!

Please feel free to rip it to shreds! Critiques, personal experience, suggestions... Thought this might be a good starting point for a conversation on a process that seems a little lacking in direction from what I've been able to find online!

I did this yesterday afternoon. All day, the liquid in the bottle floated on top of the grain. Then when I checked it out this morning, the liquid had settled on the bottom, with the grain floating on top of it. Interesting...

I was right there with you on souring, I just kinda tried one way. Like I said before, I mashed normally for an hour, then took the lid off and set it upside down for 24hrs and it ended up getting nasty and slightly moldy, but underneath it seemed fine. However, someone else on another board brewed a KY Common and mashed normally and let it sit for about 36hrs, but had the lid on the whole time. They said it tasted good and had a little bit of sourness to it. I will be doing that next time. I will be kegging mine in a couple days or so. Hopefully it turns out well. Good luck with yours!

Seems like you should have sparged it.

ODaniel said:

I was right there with you on souring, I just kinda tried one way. Like I said before, I mashed normally for an hour, then took the lid off and set it upside down for 24hrs and it ended up getting nasty and slightly moldy, but underneath it seemed fine. However, someone else on another board brewed a KY Common and mashed normally and let it sit for about 36hrs, but had the lid on the whole time. They said it tasted good and had a little bit of sourness to it. I will be doing that next time. I will be kegging mine in a couple days or so. Hopefully it turns out well. Good luck with yours!

Click to expand...

Well seeing as you're in Lexington, I supposed you do have some authority on the matter!

I revisited your earlier comment. That's interesting that you soured the whole thing, rather than just a portion of the Marris Otter... I wonder what the difference would be having some chocolate and crystal in to sour as well.

Duster72 said:

Seems like you should have sparged it.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that was the thing I really felt most unsure about. But ultimately I figured that the liquid alone from the portion I sour might not really have that much impact on the wort. Whereas if when I sparge the whole thing together, maybe the grains from the sour batch, having the hot water steep through them, will be able to seep more sourness in. If that makes sense. But I just don't know! Maybe on the second batch I'll have to try sparge the mash before souring.

I haven't done a sour mash on purpose, but I have left spent grains in my mash tun overnight and was unpleasantly surprised the next day. Of course this was 14lb of grain gone sour so the effect was a bit stronger I'd imagine. If I was to do a Kentucky Common I would leave the sour liquor with the grains and not sparge. The grains are what will be the most sour and you should mix them with the regular mash once the souring is done.

Sounds like an interesting beer. I wonder if the same effect could be gained by using aciduated malt?

Terje

Yeah, it's pretty funny because my big worry was that the mash wouldn't sour. But between your story about leaving grain out overnight, and another thread going on in the forum about the dangers of spent grain, it seems clear that my fear is backwards! Now I'll have to worry about the smell waiting to slap me in the face when I get back home tonight...

I read a lot of "2% lactobacillus in the yeast" for KY Commons, but also saw that a full sour mash would be good. So that's what I decided to do. I mashed like normal, sat for 24hrs, then sparged til I got my boil volume. I'm not wanting a really sour beer, I just want a little bit. I had the only commercial take on a KY Common (i think, NABC) and it was very interesting. Their's was pretty sour. They described theirs as a sour brown ale.

ODaniel said:

I read a lot of "2% lactobacillus in the yeast" for KY Commons, but also saw that a full sour mash would be good. So that's what I decided to do. I mashed like normal, sat for 24hrs, then sparged til I got my boil volume. I'm not wanting a really sour beer, I just want a little bit. I had the only commercial take on a KY Common (i think, NABC) and it was very interesting. Their's was pretty sour. They described theirs as a sour brown ale.

Click to expand...

i brewed this and i also soured the whole mash for 36 hours. there was no funkyness or even nasty smell. it had a good amount of sourness and a nice roasted aroma.

Not all West Virginians!! Them's there fightin' words Missy!!!

Wellsir, last night I brewed! The grains I'd had souring in a whiskey bottle for the better part of 4 days wound up smelling pretty lightly sour. Nothing like I'd expected. Almost pleasant--like stale beer or baseball bleachers. Hope it's enough to stand out.

Wort was a real pretty color, and this morning it's really bubbling away! But the grits seemed to sneak through and recongeal as they're swimming around like a snowglobe inside the fermenter... Hope they settle down! Hate to have to serve the beer with a spoon for breakfast.

Plan now is to let this sit in primary for 2-3 days (Until the blow-off cup stops bubbling) and then remove the blow off tube, jam in the airlock and stick it in my closet. Now I've only brewed one other kind of beer before this, and that one's directions called for it to sit with the airlock for 2 weeks, so my plan was to have the same amount of time for this one.

Anyone think it needs more or less time than 2 weeks? Is there anything I should be watching for to know when it's ready for bottling? Trying to slowly make the transition from following directions to actually gaining an understanding of what I'm doing!

2 weeks should be fine, although I would check the gravity for a few days to see if it has indeed stopped fermenting.

My Kentucky Common turned out pretty good. Slightly sour and a little bit of caramel/chocolate/roasty flavors. Very easy drinking. Color is like a deep amber. This is exactly 2 weeks from brewday. I want to do one with no souring, and one with more souring. No idea what I would change with the recipe, if anything. I bet it could be better, but nothing sticks out, and right now it's to style, except it's 6% instead of 4 something. Good luck with yours!

Hmm... guess I'd better actually buy one of those gravity reader dealies then!

That's great to hear that yours turned out so well. Sounds exactly like what I was hoping for. Memorable and unique, but easy drinking. Something that's a good sort of distinctive house brew that even people who aren't into craft beers generally would enjoy. And something that's a real classic American drink!

Are you bottling or kegging? I'm wondering if I'll need to throw in some sugar for bottle carbing (Even though that's still a ways off)...

I just started kegging. It will most likely be done in 2 weeks. Average fermentation is 7-10 days, sometimes more, sometimes less. Hydrometers are a few bucks. When it's done fermenting, siphon it into a bottling bucket, add about 4oz of corn sugar, stir, then bottle.

Just cracked a couple of the bottles last night and shared with a friend, and I sure enjoyed the results! Lovely light gold color with a hint of redness, good head (Man, I wish there was a different term for that...), crisp, drinkable, good depth to the taste, and the "sourness" was almost like a light lemon-tinge up front, very enjoyable.

I really can't understand why this type of beer went out of fashion to such a huge extent!

Glad to hear it turned out great . What was the exact recipe you used? Mine is dark dark red. And yes, I still don't understand how this beer almost became extinct. It's awesome and cheap!

Gents,
Any updates on an exact recipe and % of soured mash? I would like to try this out so please provide detailed recommendations.

Cheers