California Common California Common (Anchor Steam Clone) Extract and AG

My OG was 1.045 and I've had it in my conical for about two weeks. I pitched a 1,600 Litter starter and right now, I have a stuck fermentation (not sure why) at 1.025 for the past four days.

Here's my question: should I repitch the same WLP 810 (San Francisco) yeast or will it be okay to use just a generic powder yeast (ale)? Since in theory the 810 yeast is a lager hybrid.

lhd7osc said:

My OG was 1.045 and I've had it in my conical for about two weeks. I pitched a 1,600 Litter starter and right now, I have a stuck fermentation (not sure why) at 1.025 for the past four days.

Here's my question: should I repitch the same WLP 810 (San Francisco) yeast or will it be okay to use just a generic powder yeast (ale)? Since in theory the 810 yeast is a lager hybrid.

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Wow- it's so unusual to have a stuck fermentation with that yeast. Are you 100% sure that it's 1.025? You doubled checked your hydrometer, and didn't use a refractometer? It's very weird.

I would probably just pitch ale yeast at this point, something that is neutral and can ferment cool.

Yooper said:

Wow- it's so unusual to have a stuck fermentation with that yeast. Are you 100% sure that it's 1.025? You doubled checked your hydrometer, and didn't use a refractometer? It's very weird.

I would probably just pitch ale yeast at this point, something that is neutral and can ferment cool.

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Ha ha....OOOO....SNAP! I am using a refractometer which = 1.005!!!

Okay, now for dacteyl rest. You ROCK :rockin:

Hi All, I have a two-part question about this recipe;

First, I am looking for this to be my first brew. Is this a good one for a first timer? I do have a degree in mechanical engineering and plenty of experience in lab setting so I am comfortable with the sanitizing, glassware, cooking, measuring etc. But, it is my first time so I'm sure I don't know what I don't know if you know what I mean ... if this isn't a good first time brew using extract recipe kit from my local HB supply store please let me know what you think would be. I'm going for a "neutral beer" in order to woo my not-as-excited-as-I-am fiancee over that me brewing beer is a great idea! So this or a Corona or something 'relatively bland' would be something she would also be able to enjoy and I can start working on my APA clones next for me and the guys.

Secondly, I have a storage room that I have observed to be at or just below 60*F for a variety of times across the day and night for the past week. The recipe is calling for 55*F fermenting temperatures, would the +5*F affect the brew significantly? If so I think I can wrap the carboy in wet towels to get evaporative cooling effect, possibly using a fan if required; my question then becomes is there such a thing as 'too low' for this recipe and can I cause just as much damage that way? I don't expect the wet bulb to be below 45 and depending on how effective of a towel swamp cooler I make I doubt I could approach that.. but who knows I like effective heat exchangers

Thanks in advance,
Michael

The temperature sounds fine for this beer. I'm not sure how "hard" this would be to do as a first brew, but I think it's pretty straightforward and easy to follow.

Brew is going well today so far, thanks for keeping this thread active! I went through everything to date last night when I woke up at 2 am and couldn't go back to sleep in anticipation!

OK it's in the primary let's hope I didn't do anything un-sanitary... wort tastes good, sweet and a little bitter kind of like honey in tea? looks and smells caramelly.

I ended up hitting 1.060 on my version of cali common. I added a couple bottles of water to hopefully drop it down to 1.059. Will this be too strong for the style?

i just brewed this up yesterday and i missed my target by 10 points .. lucky enough i had some dme around to get those 10 points back.. thanks for the reciepe

did i screw up? i swear that after only three days i had hit 75%. and pulled out for d rest.. now should i of waited an extra day? 3 days seems to short? right?

My 3rd batch of this is cooling down right now. Added an extra half oz at flame out just because I had the hops and wasnt sure what else to do with them. Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe Yooper!

Bottled this yesterday, ended up at 1.015 f.g. Tastes great, is really clear and has nice amber color. Can't wait for it to prime and rest in the bottle for 2-3 weeks to give it a try. :fro:

Long thread for this recipe! Adding this to my queue.... I really want to try this one next, but I need to stop being selfish with my recipe choices and brew something for my wife or a party or something.

What would the ideal fermentation profile for this beer be?
Just got my BrewPi fridge set up and thinking of brewing this to take advantage of the fine grained control I've now got.

MongooseMan said:

What would the ideal fermentation profile for this beer be?
Just got my BrewPi fridge set up and thinking of brewing this to take advantage of the fine grained control I've now got.

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If you use Wyeast 2112, it's really great at 58-60 degrees for fermentation. That strain is my favorite for this beer. Using White Lab's California lager yeast (810), the temperature range is about the same but the flavor is a bit different.

Yooper said:

If you use Wyeast 2112, it's really great at 58-60 degrees for fermentation. That strain is my favorite for this beer. Using White Lab's California lager yeast (810), the temperature range is about the same but the flavor is a bit different.

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Here in South Africa we're pretty much limited to dry yeast, unfortunately.
So my choices are Saflager W34/70 or Saflager S23.

Any thoughts on those?

MongooseMan said:

Here in South Africa we're pretty much limited to dry yeast, unfortunately.
So my choices are Saflager W34/70 or Saflager S23.

Any thoughts on those?

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I've never used either of those strains, so I just don't know. Sorry!

Hi all,

I plan on brewing this next week, and I must admit I am confused by the mash schedule as written (it's been a while since my last brew!):

Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 13.75 qt of water at 170.1 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 7.70 qt of water at 198.5 F 168.0 F

Is this to be read as: Mash at 154 for 60 mins, drain, then add sparge water at 168 for 10, then drain?

Many thanks!

ElRocko said:

Hi all,

I plan on brewing this next week, and I must admit I am confused by the mash schedule as written (it's been a while since my last brew!):

Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 13.75 qt of water at 170.1 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 7.70 qt of water at 198.5 F 168.0 F

Is this to be read as: Mash at 154 for 60 mins, drain, then add sparge water at 168 for 10, then drain?

Many thanks!

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Read an earlier post which largely answers my questions!

First runnings wont yield 5.36 gallons; some of the water is still tied up in the grist. Youll still need to sparge with enough water (~3.5gallons @ ~190°F) to reach a preboil of 7 gallons. I think the extra 7.7qts is just to raise the temp to 168°F to stop conversion. Typically on an 1.050 beer, youll use about 9 gallons total with 1.5-2gallons still tied up in the wet grist, leaving 7 gallons in the kettle to boil down to 5.5 gallons.

I just got a fermentation freezer, so this is my first attempt at doing anything other than an Ale.

Brewed it yesterday and hit 1.051 on the nose. It took all night to get it down to 55 degs in my fermenter after getting it below 80 degrees with my copper chiller. I pitched the yeast this morning and am looking forward to tasting this stuff in a month.

Thanks for the recipe!

just brewed tonight subbed .7 oz magnum at 60 min and us fuggel at 0 min should be a good

I brewed this on Friday, pitched the WLP810 on Friday afternoon. Wort was at 70*, aerated before pitching. 40 hours later and no signs of visible fermentation. No krausen, no airlock activity, no temperature increase over ambient. I'm a little worried that I got a bad vial of yeast and don't know how long to wait before re-pitching. Has anyone experienced a slow take off with the beer/yeast strain. I'm afraid with the holiday next week I may not be able to get my hands on more yeast if I need it and I'm planning to leave town next Friday.

Should I just let it ride and hope for the best, or re-pitch ASAP and hope for the best?

Thanks!

abledsoe said:

I brewed this on Friday, pitched the WLP810 on Friday afternoon. Wort was at 70*, aerated before pitching. 40 hours later and no signs of visible fermentation. No krausen, no airlock activity, no temperature increase over ambient. I'm a little worried that I got a bad vial of yeast and don't know how long to wait before re-pitching. Has anyone experienced a slow take off with the beer/yeast strain. I'm afraid with the holiday next week I may not be able to get my hands on more yeast if I need it and I'm planning to leave town next Friday.



Should I just let it ride and hope for the best, or re-pitch ASAP and hope for the best?



Thanks!

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I don't know much about this yeast. But. Fermentation can take anywhere up to 72 hours to start. Lager yeasts tend to take longer. But given this is a hybrid yeast I'd expect a longer lag time.


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abledsoe said:

I brewed this on Friday, pitched the WLP810 on Friday afternoon. Wort was at 70*, aerated before pitching. 40 hours later and no signs of visible fermentation. No krausen, no airlock activity, no temperature increase over ambient. I'm a little worried that I got a bad vial of yeast and don't know how long to wait before re-pitching. Has anyone experienced a slow take off with the beer/yeast strain. I'm afraid with the holiday next week I may not be able to get my hands on more yeast if I need it and I'm planning to leave town next Friday.

Should I just let it ride and hope for the best, or re-pitch ASAP and hope for the best?

Thanks!

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Did you make a starter? If not, it can easily take 72 hours to show signs of activity, unless you pitched about 2 or 3 packages.

What is the temperature of the wort now? I generally start it at about 58 degrees. If you are holding it cold, it might take even longer to get going if you didn't add enough yeast.

No starter this time, it was a last minute brew day. O.G. 1.052. Current ambient temp is 60*, only pitched one vial. Also, it's my first time using a lager yeast so I wasn't totally sure what to expect. I know up to 72 hours can be common, I've just always had quick take offs, even more so since I added an aeration system to my set-up. I'll try to remain calm for another day.

Thanks for the feedback.


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It FINALLY took off, somewhere around the 80 hour mark. Hoping for no ill effects.

Thanks!

Brewed this yesterday. Thanks for the recipe!

I'm looking to make the extract version with the limited supplies available at my LHBS. I need to replace some ingredients.

Is it ok to replace the Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L with CaraMunich III 57°L?

For the yeast I can get the Wyeast 2112, 1056, SAF-05 (actually quite a few Saf or Danstar dry yeast)

I've metricised and rounded the recipe for a 10l trial batch:
1.4kg Light-DME
200g CaraMunich III

10g Northern Brewer 60Min
8g Northern Brewer 30Min
8g Northern Brewer 0min

With White Labs WLP001, my software is telling me:
OG 1.053
FG 1.013
IBU 31
SRM 9

So the numbers look good, but I've never used caramel malts before so I'm not certain what difference this change would make to the final beer. For the yeast I'm just looking for something that produces similar taste, and is happy to sit at 63F ambient for the duration of the brew.

Any advice gratefully received.

You asked a couple of months ago, but I figured I'd answer anyway...

SwissRico said:

Is it ok to replace the Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L with CaraMunich III 57°L?

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Weyermann CaraMunich III *is* a crystal malt, so yes. There are different maltsters (basically the 'manufacturer') of crystal malt. While breweries in California like Anchor brewing probably use an American version, using a German one like you mention will work perfectly fine. There are subtle differences in tastes for malts that are functionally equivalent of course, but that's part of the fun of brewing.

For the yeast I can get the Wyeast 2112, 1056, SAF-05 (actually quite a few Saf or Danstar dry yeast)

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Wyeast 2112 is their California common yeast, likely sourced from Anchor directly. So it's basically the same thing as WLP810. You need to (or should) use one of these two yeasts to make a California common with the light fruitiness from the yeast. Other yeasts (like clean fermenting US-05) will certainly make a tasty beer, but I wouldn't call it a California common.

Kal

Thanks, I've got a Hefeweizen in primary at the moment but will have some space for the common very soon....

Yooper said:

That's possible, I guess. But it's not easy to cool that much wort down to 55 degrees, if that's where you want to ferment. I cool the wort, and then add the appropriate amount of yeast (usually about a 3 liter starter) into the wort.

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Yooper

Raising the dead post here but I'm curious; do you pitch all 3 liters or do you decant and pitch?

Frostbrewer said:

Yooper

Raising the dead post here but I'm curious; do you pitch all 3 liters or do you decant and pitch?

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I always decant a large starter. Sorry I wasn't clear about that.

Thats ok, I assumed as much. Thanks for responding

Speaking of this beer. I pulled a gravity sample today. Only been fermenting 10 days and gravity is at 1.011.
57 degrees for 7 days, 62 for the last 3.
I don't really care if it is done, I don't want it a lot drier than that.

Should I go ahead and do a diacetyl rest and then lager?

I didn't detect anything buttery. Really just some harsh NB hoppiness that will hopefully mellow

I brewed this according to the original recipe on the day of the blizzard back in January. After several weeks bottle conditioning and a few weeks cold conditioning, it is turning into a very nice beer. I compared it side by side to Anchor Steam and there are some noticeable differences, but both are very good beers. It seems as though the Anchor Steam has some different malts in it that aren't in this version, something biscuity like Munich I am thinking. There is also more hop presence in the Anchor Steam, both in the aroma and the flavor. My beer has a much smoother, almost creamy, thicker mouthfeel (FG on my batch was 1.009 so not sure where the thick smooth mouthfeel is coming from). Mine is also slightly sweeter than Anchor Steam. Maybe this is due to the lack of hop presence in my beer? Both beers have a nearly identical after taste. In terms of appearance, my beer is slightly more clear, and about 1 shade less coppery than Anchor Steam. Anchor Steam had a fluffier, more persistent, and slightly more tan colored head. See photo below (mine is on the left, Anchor Steam is on the right). All in all a very good beer, one I would be satisfied with if it was served to me in a bar, but it is not a 100% clone. It is about a 90% clone.

I'm going to brew 10 gallons of this on Saturday.

I'm also going to brew a double ipa using a Brewdog recipe. My dilemma is the fermentation chamber. I would like to set the temp at the coldest possible for Wyeast American Ale II.


Thanks
Does 62 degrees sound like a happy medium for both the WLP810 and Wyeast1272?

Ended up setting the temp controller at 60. I love the sound of 3 7.9gall fermenters gurgling away.

The double ipa has a blow off hooked up and phew it needed it.

an update for whoever cares...

checked gravity on day 15. DIPA was at 1010 and the Common was at 1008.

Both were clear and tasty. Will dryhop the DIPA for 4 days and coldcrash both for 3 days, i'll keg both and start carbing on day 22.

I was able to ferment both at 60 degrees with what so far are pleasant results.

did anyone actually lager this beer? I'm using Mangrove Jack's California Lager yeast with my own recipe (but this is the most active CC/SA thread) and just wondering if it's worth it

Yooper said:

Well, I'm a fairly rigid person , so I would stick closer to the style guidelines on this one. Actually, I love cascades, but I seem to use them in everything because I'm into that slight grapefruit zest. How about something not citrusy in this one. Maybe like saaz. Or the NB, but in a very small amount at first until you see if it's what you're looking for.

I'm not great with hops, though, so better ask someone who can really give you an idea of what a good aroma/dry hop would be for this recipe.

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Since you do enjoy Cascade hops and prefer to use something around a saaz hop, maybe try using Czech Kazbek hops. It still has the floral and earthy tone that is associated with saaz hops, but with a hint of lemon and or grapefruit notes as well

I'm resurrecting an old post here and I hope Yooper or someone else responds.

I brewed this two years ago using 2112. It was one of my first brews. It took a long time to age where it was drinkable. Definitely my fault as I think I fermented too high. Once it aged, it was a very good beer.

Anyway, looking at brewing this again, this time using an ale yeast, either Notty or S04. I realize this is moving away from the required yeast but I have two brews planned where I want to use the same yeast. Since Notty has a wide range fermentation temp figured I would use it and see how it comes out.

Has anyone brewed a Common using Notty or S04? and if so, how did it turn out? For the more experienced brewers, would using Notty or S04 ruin this beer?

Just wanting something different since I mainly brew pale ales.

Did this recipe back in july as my very first brew...all grain/biab as a 3 gallon batch. Came out fantastic, hit all the numbers, better than the original in a side by side. Definitely smooooother!
Second time, 2 weeks ago as a 5 gallon batch, with a pinch of victory thrown in, i got an OG of 1068, efficiency of over 90%. Didnt change my mill settings or change in process at all. Not sure what a HOT Anchor Steam is going to taste like? Might be Great! Thanks Yooper for a great recipe!