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Steam beer
Steam beer, also known as California common beer, is made by fermenting lager yeast at a higher than normal temperature.
Historically steam beer came from Bavaria, Germany, and is associated with San Francisco and the West Coast of the United States. It was an improvised process, originating out of necessity, and was considered a cheap, low-quality beer, as shown by references to it in literature of the 1890s and 1900s.
Modern steam beer originated with the Anchor Brewing Company, which trademarked the term in 1981 (and ceased operations in 2023). Although the modern company had corporate continuity with a small brewery which made beer since the 1890s, Anchor Steam was a modern craft-brewed lager. The company did not claim any close similarity between its present-day product and turn-of-the-20th-century steam beer.[citation needed]
There have been various explanations for the use of the name "steam beer". According to Anchor Brewing, the name "steam" came from the fact that the brewery had no way to effectively chill the boiling wort using traditional means. So they pumped the hot wort up to large, shallow, open-top bins on the roof of the brewery so that it would be rapidly chilled by the cool air blowing in off the Pacific Ocean. Thus while brewing, the brewery had a distinct cloud of steam around the roof let off by the wort as it cooled, hence the name. Another explanation is that the carbon dioxide pressure produced by the 19th-century steam-beer-making process was very high, and that it may have been necessary as part of the process to let off "steam" before attempting to dispense the beer. It is also possible that the name or brewing process derive from Dampfbier (literally steam beer), a traditional German beer that was also fermented at unusually high temperatures and that may have been known to 19th-century American brewers, many of whom were of German descent; Dampfbier is an ale, however, not a lager.
In 19th-century California, brewers found a strain of lager yeast which would ferment at higher temperatures.
The flavor of beer is influenced by the strain of yeast and the fermentation temperature. Lager yeast is best used at temperatures from 48 to 58 °F (9 to 14 °C). Classic lagering of beers takes place over a period of time from weeks to many months at a temperature of 37 °F (3 °C). Conversely, ale yeast is best used at temperatures from 55 to 75 °F (13 to 24 °C). Fermentation by ale yeasts produces a beer that has a more distinct flavor. Steam Beer uses bottom fermenting lager yeasts at ale temperatures, which results in a very distinctive flavor profile that includes both ale and lager characteristics.
While steam beer is considered a specialty microbrew style of beer today, it was originally a cheap beer made for blue collar workers. Wahl and Heinus's American Handy Book of Brewing and Malting (1902) describes California Steam Beer as “a very clear, refreshing drink, much consumed by the laboring classes", and while most modern California common beers are all-barley malt, adjuncts were often used in the early days. Malt, grits, or raw cereals of any kind, and sugars, especially glucose, were added in the kettle and roasted malt or sugar coloring used to give the amber color of Munich beer.
Jack London refers to steam beer in his "alcoholic memoir", John Barleycorn, in a passage explaining how he started drinking in late-1880s San Francisco:
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Steam beer
Steam beer, also known as California common beer, is made by fermenting lager yeast at a higher than normal temperature.
Historically steam beer came from Bavaria, Germany, and is associated with San Francisco and the West Coast of the United States. It was an improvised process, originating out of necessity, and was considered a cheap, low-quality beer, as shown by references to it in literature of the 1890s and 1900s.
Modern steam beer originated with the Anchor Brewing Company, which trademarked the term in 1981 (and ceased operations in 2023). Although the modern company had corporate continuity with a small brewery which made beer since the 1890s, Anchor Steam was a modern craft-brewed lager. The company did not claim any close similarity between its present-day product and turn-of-the-20th-century steam beer.[citation needed]
There have been various explanations for the use of the name "steam beer". According to Anchor Brewing, the name "steam" came from the fact that the brewery had no way to effectively chill the boiling wort using traditional means. So they pumped the hot wort up to large, shallow, open-top bins on the roof of the brewery so that it would be rapidly chilled by the cool air blowing in off the Pacific Ocean. Thus while brewing, the brewery had a distinct cloud of steam around the roof let off by the wort as it cooled, hence the name. Another explanation is that the carbon dioxide pressure produced by the 19th-century steam-beer-making process was very high, and that it may have been necessary as part of the process to let off "steam" before attempting to dispense the beer. It is also possible that the name or brewing process derive from Dampfbier (literally steam beer), a traditional German beer that was also fermented at unusually high temperatures and that may have been known to 19th-century American brewers, many of whom were of German descent; Dampfbier is an ale, however, not a lager.
In 19th-century California, brewers found a strain of lager yeast which would ferment at higher temperatures.
The flavor of beer is influenced by the strain of yeast and the fermentation temperature. Lager yeast is best used at temperatures from 48 to 58 °F (9 to 14 °C). Classic lagering of beers takes place over a period of time from weeks to many months at a temperature of 37 °F (3 °C). Conversely, ale yeast is best used at temperatures from 55 to 75 °F (13 to 24 °C). Fermentation by ale yeasts produces a beer that has a more distinct flavor. Steam Beer uses bottom fermenting lager yeasts at ale temperatures, which results in a very distinctive flavor profile that includes both ale and lager characteristics.
While steam beer is considered a specialty microbrew style of beer today, it was originally a cheap beer made for blue collar workers. Wahl and Heinus's American Handy Book of Brewing and Malting (1902) describes California Steam Beer as “a very clear, refreshing drink, much consumed by the laboring classes", and while most modern California common beers are all-barley malt, adjuncts were often used in the early days. Malt, grits, or raw cereals of any kind, and sugars, especially glucose, were added in the kettle and roasted malt or sugar coloring used to give the amber color of Munich beer.
Jack London refers to steam beer in his "alcoholic memoir", John Barleycorn, in a passage explaining how he started drinking in late-1880s San Francisco: