Homebrew Summer: CA Dreamin’
AleSmith Brewing teams up with a local homebrewer to bring his recipe for a purely Californian style of beer to life on a much larger scale
Most beer styles that are named after places reference European locales. Munich helles, Dortmunder export, Baltic porter. Few bear the names of American territories, which makes the “steam beer” or “California common” so notable…and ironically uncommon. For this year’s edition of Homebrew Summer, Miramar operation, AleSmith Brewing, teamed with local homebrewer Alan Turken (pictured above, at left, with AleSmith’s Joshua Murphy) to bring his recipe for this style, CA Dreamin’, to life on their R&D brewhouse. That purely Californian specialty is on tap at AleSmith’s tasting room, and you can download the recipe for it (in all-grain and extract format) below.
This is one of over 20 beers we’re sharing recipes for as part of Homebrew Summer, so be sure to check back with us often. Or, if you prefer, you can sign up for our email newsletter, and we’ll send all of the recipes directly to your inbox. Cheers to homebrewing and another fun Homebrew Summer!
Joshua Murphy
Brewery Lead, AleSmith Brewing
When scaling this recipe up, we wanted to stay true to Alan’s vision and the traditional character of the style. One of the challenges was sourcing Northern Brewer hops, a variety closely associated with California common and famously used in the Steam beer from a brewery north of us. We ultimately sourced Northern Brewer hops from Germany to recreate that traditional hop character.
Alan Turken
Homebrewer
As a homebrewer who mostly makes two-to-three-gallon batches with a low-tech system, having the opportunity to assist in having my California common scaled up to 10 barrels (310 gallons) was pretty exciting. Josh guided me through the process on their pilot system, which has lots of valves, pumps, hoses, etc…everything you would expect at a professional brewery. My recipe was designed to approximate Anchor Steam and is pretty straightforward. At home, I still use tap water for the mash/lauter, shoot for a mash and sparge water pH of around 5.3, and use a modified brew-in-a-bag process. The staff at AleSmith were incredibly friendly, knowledgeable and welcoming to me. I had a great experience and it was a milestone in my homebrewing journey.
AleSmith Brewing is located at 9990 AleSmith Court in Miramar