Kentucky common

[Deeks2233]

Gday brewers as the title suggests im brewing a kentucky common in the next few days my recipe is as follows
3.4kgs pils malt
1.7kgs flaked maize
110g of carafa special 3
75g dark crystal 120 lovibond
Cluster hops @60mins to 20 ibu
Yeast: san fransico lager or cream ale yeast
Ive also had sucsess substituting some of the corn with rye malt for a easy drinking amber pseudo lager.
Does anyone else brew this style and have any suggestions cheers!

 

[dmtaylor]

Good historical beer style. Your recipe looks very good, you can brew it as-is and come up with a great product.

My only very minor feedback is that you don't need to restrict yourself to just those yeasts, just because it's a "Common" beer style. This style is much different from California Common, no real commonality. We don't know for sure what kind of yeast was used for Kentucky Common except that it fermented very fast and was ready to drink, grain to glass, after just a few days. Personally this means I would likely reach for M10 / London / S-33. I have used Nottingham in the past but this probably attenuates too much. The low attenuation of other yeasts including your choice of San Fran seems to be more historically accurate for this style.

Enjoy!

 

[An Ankoù]

Well there's a coincidence. Came across California Common in Greg Hughes' book this morning and then got all confused when I saw that my sachets of CML "Kentucky" yeast are recommende(by CML) for Cali. Common. So spent some time trying to find out what the difference is and it seems they're as different as chalk and cheese. The recipe I got (Colby) already contains rye malt, if I remember right, but I still haven't made up my mind about the yeast(s). Only one thing for it and that's to brew a batch of each. Another American style that I'm not familiar with is "cream" ale. Yet another brew I reckon. Was thinking of posting this on homebrewtalk.com but I'd probably get a reading list as long as my arm.
Come to think of it @Deeks2233 , why don't you post the thread on homebrewtalk? They're the boys in the know, being American.

 

[Deeks2233]

Yeah i might give them a ask, probably not a bad idea. i formulated my recipe from this link, its also a good description of the style for those who arent in the know.
Dmtaylor how do you think a clean kviek yeast would perform with this style?

 

[dmtaylor]

Dmtaylor how do you think a clean kviek yeast would perform with this style?

No such thing as a clean kveik yeast in my experience. Use it if you must, like if you're in Queensland with no control over fermentation temperature. Otherwise don't bother with kveik IMO. It's overhyped crap.

 

[Feldon]

Be careful drinking that Kentucky Common. Can be very seductive.

Here’s a song by a bloke who reckons it can be life changing and hard to shake off (I think he misread the lyrics, but you’ll get what he means). Take care.