California Common

I'm putting together a California Common:

Two questions:

(1) White Labs lists the temperature tolerance of WLP810 as 58-65F. I can keep it probably around a constant 62. Will that continue to produce lager-like characteristics?

(2) The recipe is all but a copy of the Northern Brewer kit inventory which, when I looked around at other recipes, seemed about par for the course. Any suggestions?

62 is just fine for that yeast. I like to "lager" it a bit after primary, but it's probably not that important.

I've had several different steam beer recipes, but the one I like the best has a "toasty" character from victory or biscuit malt. If you can buy 1/2 pound of victory, that would bring out some "warm" flavors in the beer. I also like some Munich malt in the grain bill, to give the flavor a little more malt richness.

Here's my current favorite (pretty much ripped off of Jamil):

8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 74.42 %
1 lbs 4.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 11.63 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 9.30 %
8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.65 %
0.75 oz Northern Brewer [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 20.7 IBU
1.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.00 %] (15 min) Hops 18.5 IBU
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops

I sometimes check back here on my own recipes, and the dates on which I worked on projects so, for the sake of completeness, here's the recipe I used:


I bottled on January 3, 2010.

I have a gmail account and it has. Great free documents tool where it stores my brew notes online. I can create check or update them from anywhere. Work, my home pc or my laptop while brewing.

I put all my recipies, notes and mistakes as I'm brewing in case its A great mistake and I want to do it again.

It works perfect for me. and I can search for specific recipies I've done in the past in seconds

Northern Brewer hops are crucial to a Cali Common (if your angling for Anchor Steam) as well as that SF Lager yeast WLP 810...

The first batch came out nicely, but the hops were a bit stale. The second batch just got bottled, and it did NOT smell as good. I think I'm going to try Jamil's recipe next.