The Uncommon California Common

Originally published February 3, 2010

Unless you’re a hard-core beer geek, it’s likely you’ve never heard of the beer style known as “California Common.” But it’s a safe bet that you have heard of its most famous example, Anchor Steam Beer, made by one of the Bay Area’s best-known breweries.

In a few short days, the second annual SF Beer Week kicks off and for 10 days it will shine a golden spotlight on Northern California’s craft beer and its heritage. And that brings us back to California Common.

After the Gold Rush that began at Sutter’s Mill back in 1848, San Francisco’s population soared. Thousands poured into the city, most of them thirsty. As a result, dozens of breweries sprang up in the years that followed. But they all faced one glaring problem: a lack of refrigeration. Ice was prohibitively expensive and the weather simply wasn’t cool enough for brewing lagers, then — as now — the darlings of the beer world.

So San Francisco brewers came up with a resourceful solution, and in the process created one of America’s few original beer styles in the process. Until the recent microbrewery revolution, almost all beer styles came from much older traditions in countries such as England, Germany and Belgium.
Lagers are traditionally brewed at colder temperatures, because the bottom-fermenting yeast works best when chilled. As that wasn’t always possible in sunny California, they instead used coolships, which are big, shallow open fermenters. Coolships also can compensate for not having ice or refrigeration to a certain extent. In addition, they found — or developed — a lager strain of yeast that worked well at a slightly warmer temperature, cool rather than cold, which worked in San Francisco’s unique conditions.

Beer made in this way was called “steam beer” because, it’s thought, its warmer brewing temperatures also produced excessive carbonation, which caused a newly tapped keg to spray foam, simulating both the sound and appearance of escaping steam. Whether that tale is true or apocryphal, the name stuck, at least until Prohibition.

After Prohibition was repealed, Anchor Brewery was the only former steam beer brewery to reopen. They struggled to stay open for several decades until in 1965, recent Stanford graduate Fritz Maytag bought the company and eventually transformed American brewing. During Prohibition, many records were lost and the actual recipe and process of making steam beer had to be figured out from the few documents that could be unearthed. After much research and experimentation, Anchor became the first brewer to make steam beer since Prohibition when they debuted their flagship Steam Beer bottles in 1971.

From Steam to Common

As no one else in the world was brewing steam beer, Anchor shrewdly trademarked the name in 1981. By the time the craft beer scene caught up and breweries wanted to make their own versions of Steam Beer, a generic term had to be coined, and so “California Common” was born.
The style is now made by many other breweries, including several local ones. Linden Street Brewery in Oakland, for example, makes Urban People’s Common Lager, Russian River brews Beer Esteem, and Sierra Nevada has Nothin’ In Common, all available in draft only. Farther afield, Schooner’s brews a California Lager.

California Commons are typified by light amber to copper color and are usually bright and clear. Flavors generally include malty sweet character, more like toasted bread or caramel, with fruity esters and assertive hopping, although it’s rarely citrus hops, but milder varieties that are used.

Bay Area legacy celebrated

So that brings us full circle, to SF Beer Week, which begins Feb. 5 with an Opening Gala at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Tickets are $55 and can be purchased online by following the link at http://sfbeerweek.org. The Opening Gala will feature rare and special beers from nearly 30 Bay Area breweries, along with food by 4505 Meats and Tacolicious. Again, I should disclose that I’m an SF Beer Week founder, sponsor, volunteer and big supporter. I absolutely love the idea of 200-plus events showcasing the best that the Bay Area has to offer in craft beer. And without the legacy of Anchor Brewery — literally saving one of America’s few authentic beer styles — SF Beer Week might not even be here at all.