Brew Session: Calico Common

Many beer drinkers on the west coast have heard of Anchor Steam Beer but most don't know that this style of beer is distinctly American invention. The name Steam Beer was widely used for the lagers being brewed in California around the time of the gold rush (1848-1855). Just prior to this time, lager had started seeing widespread distribution in Europe due to several advances in brewing technology which made producing this cold fermented beer cost effective. Soon, German brewers migrated to America and followed the flood of fortune seekers to the California Gold Rush.
The important thing to know about lager yeast is that it makes a very clean tasting beer when fermented at cold temperatures but at warm temperatures ferment pretty funky. Now, the brewers in California needed to make this beer fast and cheap and in the California heat so they didn't bother with the cold fermentation, probably because they had no other choice.
The result was a beer brewed with a lager yeast at warm temperatures called Steam Beer. It would most likely be unpalatable to a current day beer drinker. It was considered a cheap , poorly made beer for blue-collar working men of the time.
It was quite popular into the 1900s but soon died out when refrigeration became widespread and lager could be brewed at cold temperatures anywhere. Anchor Brewing Company makes a product called Steam Beer today and have trademarked the name (brewers call the style California Common now). It is debatable whether it is similar to the original.
I find the whole story to be quite American, a low quality, barely drinkable beer created to milk the most profit from an clientele that has no choice or doesn't know better then later on a enterprising brewer tries to capitalize on the kitsch value of the name.
The home brewed version is much better than the original as the California lager yeast has evolved since then to ferment very clean at the warmer temperatures. So, after all that dry history I present my Calico California Common recipe which uses Willamette hops I grew in my own yard and random hops from my freezer that were left over from other batches.

Calico Common

Recipe for 5.5 gallons
8.75 lbs Pale 2 Row Malt
1.00 lbs Munich Malt
5 oz Vienna Malt
3 oz Chocolate Malt
6 oz Willamette Hops at 60 minutes (these are from my yard and very low acid)
2 oz Saaz (3.0%) at 30 minutes
1 oz Strisselspalt (3.3%) at 10 minutes

I made a 3 quart starter using California Lager yeast and fermented at 60F for 2 weeks. Now I am just waiting for the bottle conditioning to finish, but the green beer tasted delicious.

I have no pictures of the brew session so you will have to satisfy yourself with this picture of an old miner.