California Common Recipe Critique PM

I have never made a Cali Common. I love Anchor steam and especially the sierra nevada CC. I know that traditionally the CC are just 2-row and crystal. I am trying to give it a little more character, with a nice malty taste. Does this recipe sound about right, or because of the additional grain bill would I not be in the style.

3lbs. Light Dry Malt Extract
1.5 lbs American Two-row Pale
1lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
1lb Munich Malt
0.5lb Victory Malt

Nothern brewer 8.5 Hops @
0.75oz @60min
1.5oz @15min
1.0oz @ flame out for arouma

Yeast Wyeast 2112 California Lager
OG(calculated 1.050)
IBU (40.1)

Any advice, or comments are greatly welcome.

Scott

I really like California common. I have two recipes posted, one of which is my own and one is adapted from Jamil Zainasheff's recipe in "Brewing Classic Styles". Both have won awards in competitions.

I really like "toasty" flavors in a steam beer. The victory malt will provide that. I like it in the grainbill. An ounce and a half at 15 minutes might be a bit much, but if you really like the flavor of northern brewer hops you might really like it. One of my recipes uses .5 ounces at 15 minutes, and one uses the 1.5 ounces. My preference would be in the middle- one ounce.

3 pounds of extract seems awfully light in malt to me- what are you thinking the OG will be? I'd like to see it at 1.055-1.058 or so.

Right now the calculated OG would be around 1.050. Would 1 more pound of LDME seem better take it to 4lbs total

I would also recommend adjusting your hop schedule.

I usually put 1 oz at 60 minutes, 0.5 oz at 10, 0.5 oz at 5, and an 1 oz at flame out. I also use Northern Brewer for bittering and a mix of northern brewer and cascade for aroma/flavor. Its done quite well at competition. Also, I strongly recommend you consider dry hopping - usually an oz of northern brewer is fine.

trojandux said:

Right now the calculated OG would be around 1.050. Would 1 more pound of LDME seem better take it to 4lbs total

Click to expand...

1.050 is good. That just surprises me with only 3 pounds of DME. I think you'd get more like 1.045 or so, unless your mash efficiency is higher than most. I'd probably go ahead and plan on another pound of DME.

Ok so after everyones advice, and reading Daniel's Designing great beer. This is what I have come up with. How does this sound I am super excited to start making this.

Partial Mash California Common.
4lbs. Light Dry Malt Extract
1.0 lbs American Two-row Pale
1.0lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
12oz Munich Malt
6oz Victory Malt

Nothern brewer 8.5 Hops @
0.75oz @60min
1.25oz @15min
1.0oz @ flame out for arouma

Yeast Wyeast 2112 California Lager
OG(calculated 1.051)
IBU (36.7)

Using Beer Calculus.

Again, I would strongly recommend dry hopping 1 - 2 oz of Northern Brewer.

Well I did what I posted and got an actual OG of 1.054. Taste good and smells amazing cant wait for it to ferment.

yooper,

After Primary, should you move to a secondary and if so what temp? Also if I was to move it to a secondary and place it at 38 degress for a few weeks would this ruin the brew?

Thanks for your expertise.