LD Carlson Kits (Steam Beer)

[rsmith179]

Hello all... just wanted to get your opinions about a kit I just bought a brewed on a whim two days ago. Didn't want to wait around for my ingredients to come in for the Centennial Blonde, so I went up and bought a "Brewers Best" kit for Cali Common Beer. Ingredients looked fresh and all was good.

While listening to Jamil's show on Cali Common beers, I noticed that I was using an incorrect hop for the style I was brewing. He said that really you should only be using Northern Brewer hops for this type of beer. Unfortunately, LD Carlson decided to put some Cascade hops in the kit. Don't get me wrong, Cascade hops are probably my favorite all time hops, but the recipe doesn't fit the use of these hops. Anyone else notice that some extract kits don't really conform to "standard" recipes?

 

[DeathBrewer]

You can make a California Common without Northern Brewer...it just won't be as much "to style" (as in "more like anchor steam.")

Maybe LD Carlson doesn't carry Northern Brewer?

NB is one of my favorite hops. I love it in my steam beer and it is a signature hop in many of my other brews. I'd suggest obtaining some if you can...it will taste distinctly different with Cascade. Not bad, I'm sure...just not as good IMO.

 

[SumnerH]

Hello all... just wanted to get your opinions about a kit I just bought a brewed on a whim two days ago. Didn't want to wait around for my ingredients to come in for the Centennial Blonde, so I went up and bought a "Brewers Best" kit for Cali Common Beer. Ingredients looked fresh and all was good.

While listening to Jamil's show on Cali Common beers, I noticed that I was using an incorrect hop for the style I was brewing. He said that really you should only be using Northern Brewer hops for this type of beer.

BJCP has a bizarre definition of what California common means, and unlike any other style it's essentially written to be a clone of one commercial beer (Anchor steam)--the description even says "This style is narrowly defined around the prototypical Anchor Steam example". If that's what you mean, then you should go with Northern Brewer.

Almost everyone else in the rest of the world (from beer reviewer style listings to wikipedia) thinks that California common/steam beer means "a beer made using lager yeast at ale or near-ale temperatures". If that's what you mean, then you can use whatever other ingredients you want in devising your California common.

 

[McKBrew]

I have a CC in primary right now. Looking forward to it getting done as I've never had the style (even Anchor). The hydro sample I pulled last week was pretty damn good.

This was the beer that I had issues with dip tube clogging etc, so I had to dig around with sanitized hands and ended up pouring into my fermenter from my keggle. Lots of splashing, but it doesn't seem like there will be issues.

 

[DeathBrewer]

ooh...never stick your hands in the wort. Just pour that sucker in. You want aeration at that point anyway. Hope it turns out fine. We had a bottling bucket pop the spigot once and had to stuff our hands in there to get it back together. We called it "Hairy Hands Hefeweizen." It didn't get infected, but it was never very good.

 

[rsmith179]

Thanks for the heads up guys. I couldn't get my hands on any Northern Brewer hops and went with the Cascade hops. I'll let you know how it turns out... My have to try a little blind taste test to get a good feel of the difference between the Cascade and N. Brewer hops.

 

[DeathBrewer]

In my experience...

Cascade: Citrusy, Floral, Grassy

Northern Brewer: Woody, Spicy, Earthy