History

California Common, popularly called steam beer, originated in San Francisco in the 1850s when Gold Rush brewers fermented lager yeast at the only temperatures available without ice, on wide shallow rooftops cooled by Pacific fog. Anchor Brewing on Mariposa Street, founded 1896 by Ernst Baruth, registered Steam Beer as a trademark and preserved the style for over a century. Anchor ceased production in July 2023; Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya bought the brand in 2024 and a relaunch is in the works but the Potrero Hill brewery has not resumed brewing. SF craft brewers including Fort Point and Magnolia still pour the canonical California Common style.

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Common allergens: Gluten

Make it at home

Yield 19Hands-on 4 hrTotal PT3WDifficulty Advanced

Ingredients

  • 4kg pale 2-row barley malt
  • 500g caramel 60L malt
  • 30g Northern Brewer hops at 60 minutes
  • 20g Northern Brewer hops at 15 minutes
  • 20g Northern Brewer hops at flameout
  • 1 packet San Francisco Lager yeast (Wyeast 2112 or White Labs WLP810)
  • 23 litres brewing water
  • Priming sugar for bottling
  • Bottling equipment and 19 litres' worth of clean caps and bottles

Method

  1. Mash the crushed pale and caramel malt in 12 litres of 67C water for 60 minutes; stir to maintain temperature.
  2. Lauter (drain the wort) and sparge with 11 litres of 76C water until you collect 25 litres of pre-boil wort.
  3. Boil the wort 60 minutes. Add 30g Northern Brewer at the start, 20g at 15 minutes remaining, 20g at flameout.
  4. Cool the wort to 17C using an immersion chiller. Transfer to a sanitised fermenter.
  5. Pitch the San Francisco Lager yeast at 17C. Ferment at the warm-ale temperature of 17 to 20C for 7 days (this is the defining choice; standard lager ferments at 10C).
  6. When fermentation slows, lager cold at 1 to 4C for 14 days.
  7. Bottle with priming sugar, cap, and condition 2 weeks at room temperature.
  8. Pour into a glass and look at the colour: amber, clear, with a long-lasting cream head.

Tip from the editors. The yeast strain is the dish, not the recipe. WLP810 and Wyeast 2112 are the only yeasts that hold the California Common's slight woody-mineral note when fermented warm; any other lager yeast will fault at 17C.

Where to eat california common (anchor steam)

California Common (Anchor Steam) in San Francisco

Fort Point Beer Company ★ 4.6

$$ BreweryModern California craft lagers and pales

Fort Point Beer Company in San Francisco is the Presidio-born brewery with a Valencia Street beer hall, a strong KSA Kolsch and a sharp west-coast pilsner.

TipOrder the KSA Kolsch on draught; the wood-fired pizza kitchen runs from 17:00 nightly.

Directions Book

Magnolia Brewing ★ 4.4

$$ BreweryBritish-leaning ales

Magnolia Brewing in San Francisco is the Haight-Ashbury brewpub since 1997, with a British-leaning ale lineup and the city's longest-running cask programme.

TipThe Smokestack Lightning porter on cask is the order; ask at the bar about real-ale Thursdays.

Directions Book

Cellarmaker House of Pizza ★ 4.8

$$ BrewerySmall-batch IPAs and sour-leaning rotatorsBernal Heights

Cellarmaker House of Pizza on Mission Street pours the SF craft brewery's tap list alongside Detroit-style pies with caramelized cheese crust.

Directions

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