Common Cleveland Steamer

The homebrew bug hit yet again, mainly to get through these final extract-based recipes to start to dive head first into "all-grain" brewing. Basically, as a metaphor, instead of making brownies from a boxed mix, I would add the flour, cocoa, etc. myself. All-grain is a more "from scratch" version of brewing and one where you have more control over every aspect of the recipe and final product.

So anyway, next on the docket was a California Common, alternately known in the beer world by Anchor Brewing's trademarked flagship Steam Beer: basically, a lager yeast strain used at a warmer ale yeast temperature to bring about more fruitiness. So, being from Cleveland, and as a childish play on words, I titled my homebrew "Common Cleveland Steamer". Insert your eye-rolling and groaning [here].

Here's the recipe I had:

8oz. Munton's Dark Crystal

6.6 lb. Light liquid malt extract (LME)

2 oz. UK Pilgrim Gold hops 11% alpha acid @ 60 minutes

1 oz. UK First Gold hops 7% AA @ 1 minute

Saflager S-23 dry lager yeast

And now it rests in the kitchen sink next to the British Bitter with my markedly non-electronic temperature control method: wet t-shirt in water bath. Time to rinse dirty dishes in the half-bath sink for a few more days!