Steam beer - pilsner yeast?

[JabbA]

I'm currently enjoying a bottle of Anchor Steam and have a slope of Brewlabs pilsner yeast in the fridge. You can see where I'm going here Would it work or is WL San Fran the only real yeast choice?

Cheers,
Jamie

[seymour]

Of course it will work, you're onto it. That's what California Common was: lager yeast fermented at ale ambient temperatures. It'll be estery but it's meant to be. Cheers!

[JabbA]

Nice one, cheers Seymour!

I think I'll get stepping it up for next weekend. What kinda pitching rates are we looking at, more like bitter than lager I'm assuming, given the higher fermentation temp?

Cheers,
Jamie

[seymour]

Exactly. The reason we pitch a higher population of yeast cells for lagers is because the environment is so cold and so they don't have to struggle, spend time reproducing, throwing-off esters and phenols, etc. When brewing California Common, we're kinda encouraging all that flavorful inefficiency