Kentucky Common: Style Profile
If you were drinking beer in the Louisville, Kentucky area between 1900 and 1919, chances are you were enjoying a dark, lively, refreshing Kentucky common (or simply common). At the time of Prohibition, up to 75% of beer sold in some neighborhoods was of this type. Best thought of as a dark cream ale, this beer was an inexpensive and quickly-produced thirst-quencher favored by the working man.
Louisville was the 12th largest city in the United States at the time of the Civil War, and was the 15th largest brewing center in 1900. The large population of Irish and German immigrants brought with them a taste for good beer in large quantities, including an enjoyment of darker beers. The local breweries sought to fill this demand and to make the beers affordable for the laboring classes.
Kentucky common is one of the few truly indigenous beer styles in the United States, along with California common (steam beer) and cream ale. It is a present use ale (or running beer), which is a beer that is distributed for sale immediately after fermentation is done and without aging at the brewery. Kräusened to naturally carbonate in casks, common beer was sometimes also known as lively ale due to its high carbonation level. Present use ale can be contrasted with stock ale (or keeping beer) that are more heavily hopped and aged.
Brewing records from the early 1900s show that Kentucky common fermented in three to five days and was packaged in barrels and ready for sale in six to eight days from when it was brewed. Remember this excellerated production process; it will be a key factor in debunking a common myth about this historic style later in the article. For the consumer, it meant that the beer was fresh and the price was low.
Sensory Profile
Kentucky common is a new style added to the recently released 2015 Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Style Guidelines, listed under the new category of historical beer. I’m indebted to a group of Louisville-area brewers and judges who did the primary research for the new guidelines. Dibbs Harting did the major work in preparing the draft guidelines and an excellent supporting research paper and presentation. Conrad Selle, co-author of the definitive Louisville Breweries, provided numerous copies of brewing logs from the original breweries. Leah Dienes, Brewmaster at Apocalypse Brew Works, brews a commercial Kentucky common named Oertel’s 1912 in honor of the original brewery just down the street from her brewery. The three of them joined me to sample numerous test batches and discuss the style and their research.
A Kentucky common is a dry, refreshing, highly carbonated dark ale. It has a balanced to malty impression with interesting grainy, biscuity, and toasty flavors and a restrained hop and alcohol level. While called a dark beer, the color is actually in the amber-orange to light brown range, similar to Irish red ales, German altbiers, or Belgian pale ales. The high carbonation level produces a tall foam stand with white to off-white color. Clarity can be bright to somewhat hazy, since this can be served very young.
The flavor profile is grainy with bready, biscuity, toffee, or caramel notes. Moderate to low bitterness keeps the balance somewhat malty. The use of corn can add a rounded mouthfeel with the impression of sweetness, but the body is still medium to medium-light. Floral or spicy hops can be both tasted and smelled. The beer doesn’t have a roasty character, and shouldn’t have a coarse or harsh quality of bitterness. The finish is relatively dry, with black malt providing some of the dryness.
The fermentation profile is generally clean, but there may be some faint berry esters, especially if Cluster hops are used. The clean profile, lightish body, dry finish, restrained alcohol, sparkling carbonation, and balanced, pleasant flavors combine to make this a tasty and refreshing style. Historically, the beer was served young and very fresh, so it’s best to try this one as soon as it’s ready (similar to German weissbiers). With modern production methods, this beer should be relatively stable, so it shouldn’t degrade quickly.
Brewing Ingredients and Methods
The beer was most commonly made with mostly American ingredients, with only imported finishing hops providing a refined aroma and flavor. The base malt (around 60% of the grist) was locally-available pale 6-row brewer’s malt. Corn grits comprised the bulk of the remaining grist, with small percentages of black malt and caramel malt (up to 2% of each) providing color and some additional malt flavor.
Native American hop varieties were used for bittering, including first wort hop additions. Imported (and expensive) noble-type German or Czech hops were used as the final aroma addition. Bitterness levels are modest, since this should be a balanced or slightly malt-focused style; aim for around 20 to 25 IBUs.
As a sessionable beer, the alcohol was also modest. Starting gravities in the range of 1.044 to 1.055 were common, and the alcohol level is around 4.5 to 5% by volume. Since this is a dry beer, I’d avoid going too high on the starting gravity because you do want it to be well-attenuated.
Most breweries had their own proprietary yeast strains, but none were known for imparting significant byproducts. The fermentation schedule was short, so aggressive top-fermenting ale yeast should be used. I’d go with a strain with a relatively neutral profile, high attenuation, and good flocculation characteristics.
The corn grits in the grist are normally mashed using a separate cereal mash, where all the grits and about a quarter of the 6-row are combined in a separate vessel and treated differently than the main mash. The cereal mash would step through a brief (15 minute) rest at 104 °F (40 °C) to help break down the cellular structures, before resting at 156 to 158 °F (69 to 70 °C) for conversion. The cereal mash was then boiled for 15 minutes, before being mixed back with the main mash (which had gone through a 15-minute protein rest at 122 °F/50 °C). Combining the mashes resulted in a final conversion temperature of 156 to 158 °F (69 to 70 °C), before mashing out at 168 °F (76 °C).
In a way, the cereal mash has a similar feel as a decoction mash, in that two mashes are used, one mash is boiled, and they are combined to create a mash rest temperature increase. The difference is that the grist of the cereal mash was not removed from the main mash; it started out as a separate mash before being combined. Traditionally, the wort was boiled for two hours, and Irish moss was likely used to improve clarity. The wort was chilled to around 60 °F (16 °C), and
fermentation was carried out at 66 to 68 °F (19 to 20 °C) for three to four days before the beer was racked and kräusened with actively fermenting wort to complete the fermentation and to carbonate the beer in a cask. The
entire brewing process was fast, with the finished beer ready for delivery to thirsty customers in six to eight days.
The finished carbonation level is estimated to be 3 to 3.5 volumes of CO2, which is quite lively. The beer was delivered to local saloons in pitch-lined barrels and often allowed to settle for one to three days before serving, although this was not always the case. The beer was traditionally dispensed at cellar temperature (58 °F/15 °C), but it could also be poured using gravity dispense directly from the barrel.
The details about the mash, fermentation, yeast, and delivery to trade are all important because of a persistent myth about the style, in that it was a sour beer. Modern homebrew lore has it that a sour mash was used, probably because it was typical for Kentucky bourbon distillers in the area. However, a sour mash takes days, and there is no record of this in the mash program of breweries whose records were examined. Similarly, there is no record of lactic bacteria being added. The mash program, hopping rates, and boil would certainly not allow lactic bacteria to survive.
The only mention of sourness is in one edition of Wahl & Henius’ American Handy-book of Brewing, Malting, and Auxiliary Trades. Another edition makes no mention of sourness. Modern speculation is that the sourness was detected in beer that had been out in the trade, not at the brewery, and that infection could have been introduced through packaging or handling, and that it is simply spoilage bacteria at work. Perhaps smaller breweries were less rigorous with cleaning and sent out some bad beer; that happens even today. But it does not define a style. The fact of the matter is that if you prepare the beer using the same methods, techniques, and schedules as the historical brewers used, you will not produce a sour beer unless your cold-side sanitation is seriously deficient or you allow the beer to sit around long enough to spoil. Neither of those were the case with the major producers historically, as the brewing records show.
Homebrew Example
Having spent time reviewing the brewing records and talking with the research team and sampling their brews, I felt like I had sufficient information to try to make a modern version of the style. I have made several simplifications in the process that should make the recipe more homebrewer-friendly, but you are certainly welcome to use my recipe with the traditional ingredients and processes I outlined.
The first change that I made is to use flaked maize instead of corn grits. This allows me to omit the cereal mash and just mash the corn and 6-row directly. As modern 6-row malts are better modified, I also didn’t feel the need to do the lower temperature glucan and protein rests. A more typical German step mash program is what I chose, but even that could be simplified to a single step infusion as my recipe notes explain.
Since I am looking to avoid harshness in the beer, I use my typical approach of using reverse osmosis (RO) water, acidified to pH 5.5, with a small amount of calcium chloride in the mash, and dark/crystal malts added during mashout. This extracts the color and flavor without any unwanted flavors. I use English dark and crystal malts, as I prefer the flavor profile and lower harshness levels. However, these are still a small percentage of the grist.
I’ve selected a very common yeast, Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale), as the yeast strain. This should give a neutral fermentation profile, good attenuation, and quick fermentation performance. I selected American hops, as these are often easier to find and fresher in homebrew shops, using first wort hopping for the flavor addition and adding aroma hops at knockout. Any noble-type hops would work well for flavor and aroma, however. I picked very middle-of-the-road numbers for this beer, shooting for average numbers for the style. I also like making this beer lower in gravity to make it a bit more sessionable (particularly as a modern lawnmower beer for the summer), trying to come in closer to the bottom of the ABV scale. But I think the version here presents a nice modern tribute to a misunderstood and almost-forgotten beer style from the Bluegrass State.
Kentucky Common
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.048 FG = 1.012
IBU = 20 SRM = 16.4 ABV = 4.8%
Ingredients
6.5 lbs. (3 kg) US 6-row malt
3.5 lbs. (1.6 kg) flaked maize (corn)
4 oz. (113 g) UK black malt
3 oz. (85 g) UK crystal malt (77 °L)
2 AAU Vanguard hops (first wort hops) (0.4 oz./11 g at 5% alpha acids)
3 AAU Cluster hops (60 min.) (0.4 oz./11 g at 7.5% alpha acids)
0.4 oz. (11 g) Vanguard hops (0 min.)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast
1 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Make a 1-qt. (1-L) yeast starter two or three days before brew day, aerating the wort thoroughly (preferably with oxygen) before pitching the yeast.
On brew day, prepare your ingredients; mill the grain, measure your hops, and prepare your water. This recipe uses reverse osmosis (RO) water. Add 1⁄4 tsp 10% phosphoric acid per 5 gallons (19 L) of brewing water, or until water measures pH 5.5 at room temperature. Add 1 tsp. calcium chloride (CaCl2) to the mash.
On brew day, mash in the 6-row and flaked maize at 131 °F (55 °C) in 15 qts. (14 L) of water, and hold this temperature for 15 minutes. Raise the temperature by infusion or direct heating to 145 °F (63 °C) for 30 minutes, then raise to 158 °F (70 °C) for 15 minutes. Finally, raise to 168 °F (76 °C) to mashout. Add the crystal and black malts, and recirculate for 15 minutes. Fly sparge with 168 °F (76 °C) water until 6.5 gallons (25 L) of wort is collected. Boil the wort for 90 minutes, adding the hops at times indicated in the recipe. First wort hops are added to the kettle before the wort is run off. After adding the final hops when the heat is turned off, let the wort stand for 15 minutes before chilling the wort. Chill to 64 °F (18 °C).
Oxygenate, then pitch the yeast starter. Allow fermentation temperature to rise to no more than 72 °F (22 °C) until fermentation is complete. Rack and allow the beer to drop bright, using crash cooling or fining if necessary. Prime and bottle condition, or keg and force carbonate to 3 to 3.5 volumes.
I used Fawcett black malt (455 °L) and Crisp Crystal 77L malt in this recipe, with US 6-row and flaked maize. I add the dark and crystal malts during recirculation to keep the harsh flavors down. I use minimal water treatments since I prefer the flavor profile of beers without excessive mineral additions. If you mash the dark and crystal malts, you likely will not have to use the phosphoric acid in the mash, but you should still use it in the sparge water.
If you want to perform a single step infusion mash, use a rest temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Cluster hops are common for bittering but nearly any other hop variety could be used in their place. The flavor and aroma hops should be some kind of noble-type hop, such as Hallertauer, Tettnanger, or Saaz (if using European hops), or my favorite US-grown substitutes, Vanguard, Santiam, and Sterling.
Any relatively neutral, well-attenuating and well-flocculating, aggressively-fermenting ale yeast can work, but you should avoid those that are described as malty or fruity, since those can produce flavors that interfere with the malt flavors. If you want to try a British yeast, I might choose Wyeast 1335 (British II).
Kentucky Common
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.048 FG = 1.012
IBU = 20 SRM = 16.4 ABV = 4.8%
Ingredients
6.8 lbs. (3.1 kg) light liquid malt extract
4 oz. (113 g) UK black malt
3 oz. (85 g) UK crystal malt (77 °L)
3 AAU Cluster hops (60 min.) (0.4 oz./11 g at 7.5% alpha acids)
2 AAU Vanguard hops (15 min.) (0.4 oz./11 g at 5% alpha acids)
0.4 oz. (11 g) Vanguard hops (0 min.)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast
1 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Use 6 gallons (23 L) of water in the brew kettle; heat to 158 °F (70 °C). Place the black malt and crystal malt loosely in a mesh bag and steep in the hot water for 30 minutes. Remove the mesh bag, then turn the heat off. Add the liquid malt extract and stir thoroughly to dissolve the extract completely. You do not want to feel liquid extract at the bottom of the kettle when stirring with your spoon. Turn the heat back on and bring to a boil. Boil the wort for 60 minutes, adding the hops at the times indicated in the recipe. After adding the final hops when the heat is turned off, let the wort stand for 15 minutes before chilling the wort. Chill to 64 °F (18 °C).
Oxygenate the wort, then pitch the yeast starter. Allow the fermentation temperature to rise to no more than 72 °F (22 °C) until fermentation is complete. Rack and allow the beer to drop bright, using crash cooling or fining if necessary. Prime and bottle condition, or keg and force carbonate to 3 to 3.5 volumes. As is true with the all-grain recipe, just about any hop variety can be substituted for the bittering hop addition, and the flavor and aroma hops should be some kind of noble-type hop.
