United States (San Francisco) Steam Beer

[fivetide]

I kicked off another brew tonight which I intend to bottle and ultimately chill for when the weather picks up a bit.

I used two 'Brupaks Beers of the World - United States Steam Beer' kits together. Sometimes sold under the name 'San Francisco Steam Beer', each of these kits makes 10 litres of beer in polypins, so I simply doubled up the liquer and made 20 litres in an FV.

In each kit you get a standard size can of extract, a 12g sachet of yeast, and two large teabags - one of cascade heavy hops and one of chocolate malted barley grains.


After sanitising a lot of jugs and pans, the first job is a matter of steeping, not boiling. The instructions say to stick the bag of grain and the bag of hops in a jug and steep in boiling water for 15 minutes. Obviously I did this twice over...


Once steeped you pour the tea like infusion into the fermenter and top up the jugs again with boiling water for another five minutes steeping. At this stage I noticed the bags were splitting so I boiled up a mussy and used this as a filter when pouring the second round of infused liquer in.


During this time the two extract cans had been softening in a bowl of boiling water. These went in to the fermenter next, then were rinsed out with another litre of boiling water passed between the two cans.


With seven litres of liquer in the fermenter already it was then a matter of topping up with 13 litres of cool water treated with Campden. I took the OG at 1041 without realising this would be the last job my hydrometer would ever perform. I aerated with a paddle for 10 minutes so the wort was now too frothy to test...


...and promptly stood on my poor faithful old hydro!


During preparation of the wort I had rehydrated both sachets of yeast provided. I normally make a starter these days, but this brew was a bit spur of the moment, there seemed plenty of yeast (24g!) and because it's a weird lager concoction I hadn't used before...


...I just followed the instructions on the packet. It seemed to puff up and get creamy okay in 20 minutes or so.


Tested my new hydro in water and with a sample jar of wort. It is 1041 allright.



I pitched the yeast in to the well aerated wort and aerated again for a further five minutes.


All done! I put the fermenter in a 15-18 degree room for a week or so.


This whole batch will go into about 35ish swingtop bottles like these ones from H&G for quaffing later in the year in the garden. Hopefully!

[monk]

Mmmm. That makes me want to brew today. Thanks for the great pics. I live in "Steam" country, but I've still only tasted the Anchor Steam beer. There must be other varieties out there. Good luck with your brew!

[anomalous_result]

Mmmm. That makes me want to brew today. Thanks for the great pics. I live in "Steam" country, but I've still only tasted the Anchor Steam beer. There must be other varieties out there. Good luck with your brew!

This is one area where the BJCP descends into the realm of bonkers for me. Apparently steam beer was originally cheap low quality beer in the 19th century. Then in the 80s Anchor go and rejig it to something other than steam beer so it's now under the BJCP as California Common Beer, even though the label says steam beer and many other similar beers market themselves as steam beers. They even suggest the style (CCB) exists solely because of the 'prototypical' Anchor Brew. Anyway they are of some use as they mention others: Southampton West Coast Steam Beer, Old Dominion Victory Amber, and Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber Lager.

Having said all that, I love Anchor's take on whatever you want to call it (proving I care more about what it tastes like than what the marketing man tells me) so might investigate this kit. Presumably you need loads of yeast as it's not fermenting at ideal lager yeast temperatures?

[steve_flack]

I had some Anchor Steam on draught a couple of weeks ago. It was very nice - I actually thought it was better than it was in bottles.

I think the 'Steam Beer' moniker is trademarked in the US - just like ESB is in the UK

[Iank]

That's a great set of pics!
I didn't realise you could buy those Brubox kits without the polypins as well. I'll be interested in how it turns out.

[fivetide]

Yes, H&G etc... all sell them and I spent a long time staring at the various options when I bought these a few months ago. They're a little pricey but they are wort reductions, there are some really interesting flavours available that you can't find in the bigger kits and they afford a bit of tinkering which is always fun. I think with a hefty citrus dry-hop and bottling these good make nice refreshing sups! Hope so anyway.

[daveyk]

That's a great set of pics!
I didn't realise you could buy those Brubox kits without the polypins as well. I'll be interested in how it turns out.

I think i've seen them in the shop but how does the cost compare to a std sized kit?

Dave

[fivetide]

Pricing doesn't compare well at all. You get just 10 litres (or 20) instead of 23 litres and they cost £10.50 a pop(or £21). However, there are some interesting styles and it's a quality product with grains and hop bags to play with. For £3 less though, you can buy a Fixby Gold or something from the same manufacturer. I just fancied giving it a whirl.

Speaking of which, the fermentation seems to be doing its thing on this one about 18 hours in, and the bubbler is going well. I'm suffering for my art though! I'm having to work at lager yeast temperatures instead of ale yeast temperatures (I work in the same room I ferment!) Brrrrrrr!

[monk]

A_R: I think I'm with you in regards to the BJCP on this one. Anchor Steam doesn't seem much like the description of the original steam beers. The historic ones sound like crappy lagers to me, while Anchor's version is a nice pale ale fermented with lager strain at a higher than normal temp.

I think I'm going to suggest "California Bad Beer" to the BJCP as a beer style.

..."it is a traditional Californian beer style historically brewed from January 2005 through May of the same year, in the town of Cypress. Flavor characteristics include high fusel alcohols and green apple notes, due to the brewer (known as monk) putting his Mr. Beer fermenter on the shelf above his oven and fermenting at approximately
90F".

What do you think?

[anomalous_result]

What do you think?

Lmfao - perfect!

In all seriousness though - good job on the photo documentation (I think I use the same swingtop bottles which are a treat), hope the beer tastes close to style! (whatever it is )

[mysterio]

Good luck with it. I did an ASB clone as one of my early all-grains a while ago using the proper yeast... it turned out nice, but too sweet to be an authentic version. I remember keeping the carboy at a steady 16C in a bucket of water in my room with a meat thermometer in the water, chucking some ice in now and again

[fivetide]

Man alive, I think I'll stick to orange squash or something!

[Redbloke]

Excellent talk through and pics. I'll stick this on my list of to do's.

Sorry to hear about the hydro (RIP)

[fivetide]

Thanks - I'm glad I took advice and had a spare hydro, but I need to replace that now and quickly.

This brew is fermenting very well 48hrs in by the way. I don't know why but I had massive misgivings about the yeast, despite good reviews online and the large payload two sachets provided. The word 'lager' and the rather cheap looking Brewferm branding I guess. However the yeast head is looking great despite my bad attitude and the airlock is bubbling away happily.

The smell is different though, slightly more sulphurous and well, lagery. Is that bleeding obvious, or is it no different at all and I'm imagining things?

[fivetide]

This is 1016 today from 1041 but still very active in the airlock, so a while yet for this one.

Very, very different smell to normal Blighty ale and a drier taste. Clean and wholesome, nothing bad, but more akin to lager in smell if not colour, as I guess the yeast would suggest. Should be interesting as it's had a good steady ferment and I'm really pleased with its progress.