TheGerman
Member
Hello fellow brewers of the HBT community,
I have been an avid reader here these past years and have learned a lot from reading through the forums however I now have stumbled across something that I could not find thus prompting a new thread.
Everyone knows that a California Common needs to have a lager yeast fermented at ale temperatures (preferably San Fran or Cali Lager yeast), an amber color, and the use of Northern Brewer hops....... but why Northern Brewer?
I understand that the only remaining steam brewery (Anchor Steam) uses these hops but Northern Brewer hops originated in 1932, much later than steam beer was first created in California, somewhere around the mid 1800s.
Anchor Steam also doesn't make any claims to actually be historically accurate with their beer which makes me believe that maybe everyone is cloning a beer style that may be inaccurately categorized (the category is simply based on purely Anchor Steam's beer).
After doing some research, I determined that Cluster is the oldest hop variety documented in America, and that is is an English variety most likely wildly crossed with US wild hops. Most of the steam beer brewed on the northern coast of California were created using hops grown along the Russia River. This growing region was however sadly wiped out due to mildew in the 1950s.
So making a long story short, if I wanted to brew a REAL (or as close to real as possible) historical west coast steam beer, would I need to use Cluster instead of Northern Brewer?
Would be really interested in your input and/or thoughts.
Greetings from Germany,
Cheers,
Chris
I have been an avid reader here these past years and have learned a lot from reading through the forums however I now have stumbled across something that I could not find thus prompting a new thread.
Everyone knows that a California Common needs to have a lager yeast fermented at ale temperatures (preferably San Fran or Cali Lager yeast), an amber color, and the use of Northern Brewer hops....... but why Northern Brewer?
I understand that the only remaining steam brewery (Anchor Steam) uses these hops but Northern Brewer hops originated in 1932, much later than steam beer was first created in California, somewhere around the mid 1800s.
Anchor Steam also doesn't make any claims to actually be historically accurate with their beer which makes me believe that maybe everyone is cloning a beer style that may be inaccurately categorized (the category is simply based on purely Anchor Steam's beer).
After doing some research, I determined that Cluster is the oldest hop variety documented in America, and that is is an English variety most likely wildly crossed with US wild hops. Most of the steam beer brewed on the northern coast of California were created using hops grown along the Russia River. This growing region was however sadly wiped out due to mildew in the 1950s.
So making a long story short, if I wanted to brew a REAL (or as close to real as possible) historical west coast steam beer, would I need to use Cluster instead of Northern Brewer?
Would be really interested in your input and/or thoughts.
Greetings from Germany,
Cheers,
Chris