HIB 8: California Common

How’m I Brewin’ 8 was a project to explore the California Common style. Participants took good notes on brew day and brought them to the tastings. Also some data was collected via this form. The recipe is from the clone of Anchor Steam given in the December issue of BYO. It is pretty simple, just base malt and some crystal 40. A firm copper hop addition, a flavor addition and some whirlpool hop charges are all of the Northern Brewer variety. Fermented with WLP810.

The first tasting was delayed due to an ice storm, but a good portion of the beers made it to Joe’s house. The general consensus was that our beers were overly clean when compared with Anchor Steam. The origin beer had very nice ester profile that just didn’t show up in anyone’s clone. That being said the beers were very similar to each other. In fact these HIBs were probably closer to each other in flavor and aroma than any previous HIB. A second tasting at the water class also provided a good opportunity to discuss how different brewers approached water for the same recipe.