Hop choice for California Common

[Tanglefoot]

Planning a Cali Common this weekend, trying to decide the hop bill and looking for suggestions.
Simple grain bill of extra pale Maris Otter and light Munich, I have a choice of the following
for hops

To bitter ;
Moutere 15.7%
Strata 12.8%
Nelson Sauvin 11.5% ( just used this for Kiwi Pilsener so not first choice )
Magnum 17.3%
Chinook 13.2%

Late boil/ dry hop
Moteuka 7%
Meridian 5.4%
Challenger 7.4%

Will be using MJ54 to ferment.

Just done a Kiwi Pilsener with NZ hops so thought I might use the Strata to bitter and Meridian for late boil and dry hop - any other thoughts on good combinations ?
Cheers !

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I think I'd be tempted to go with the moutere to bitter, I'd not heard of it before but I like the sound of it. I'd go with Meridian for the late boil, not used it before but sounds nice. Depends on how close to the style you want to go. I would be tempted with Challenger to bitter bit I'd fancy going with something more exotic.

 

[Brew_DD2]

For a Cali Common I'd be tempted to just go with Chinook.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Moutere was my choice also of the NZ hops for bittering, Meridian sounds good for late boil and dry hop, that was a Malt Miller lucky dip.
Chinook also sounds good, perhaps with Meridian as dry hop.

 

[Bosch]

Northern Brewer is the traditional hop for California common

 

[dave_77]

Magnum or challenger for bittering and challenger or Chinook late..other stuff sounds too tropical for a Cali Common...be more like American amber with the more tropical hops

 

[Tanglefoot]

This is what I went with in the end, I've made similar batches with Hallertau Mittelfruh and Admiral/Cascade with good results.
Next year I'll give the classic choice Northern brewer a go, Challenger is related
and often suggested as a sub.


18L batch

4kg extra pale Maris Otter
.5kg Light Crystal

20gm Challenger 60mins
10gm Challenger 15mins
5gm Chinook 10mins

10gm Chinook 80c hopstand 60 mins

50gm Challenger dry hop 3 days


Chilling now, pan sat outside at - 6c or so !

 

[Clarence]

Planning a Cali Common this weekend, trying to decide the hop bill and looking for suggestions.
Simple grain bill of extra pale Maris Otter and light Munich, I have a choice of the following
for hops

To bitter ;
Moutere 15.7%
Strata 12.8%
Nelson Sauvin 11.5% ( just used this for Kiwi Pilsener so not first choice )
Magnum 17.3%
Chinook 13.2%

Late boil/ dry hop
Moteuka 7%
Meridian 5.4%
Challenger 7.4%

Will be using MJ54 to ferment.

Just done a Kiwi Pilsener with NZ hops so thought I might use the Strata to bitter and Meridian for late boil and dry hop - any other thoughts on good combinations ?
Cheers !

Moutere is an excellent hop, but where are you sourcing it? I haven't found any in the UK* and I've just had to place an order with beerco.com in Australia. Fortunately, the've got a promo on 250g packs which goes a long way to offsetting the postage if you get a couple of packs. I use it as a single hop (bittering and late) in a strong ale, by the way.

*MaltMiller have some of the 2019 crop. I prefer to wait for delivery of the 2022 crop from Beerco.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Moutere is an excellent hop, but where are you sourcing it?

*MaltMiller have some of the 2019 crop. I prefer to wait for delivery of the 2022 crop from Beerco.

Got it in a multi pack of NZ hops from Malt Miller, it's 2020 crop, best before 2025.
Excited to try it, just done a Diamond Pilsener with Nelson Sauvin and Riwaka.

 

[An Ankoù]

Moutere is an excellent hop, but where are you sourcing it? I haven't found any in the UK* and I've just had to place an order with beerco.com in Australia. Fortunately, the've got a promo on 250g packs which goes a long way to offsetting the postage if you get a couple of packs. I use it as a single hop (bittering and late) in a strong ale, by the way.

*MaltMiller have some of the 2019 crop. I prefer to wait for delivery of the 2022 crop from Beerco.

Just had a look. That promo's finished. Drat. I wonder when CML are getting a new supply in.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Just had a look. That promo's finished. Drat. I wonder when CML are getting a new supply in.

I emailed them when they ran out of 'Ernest', they ordered it especially for me and sent it out within the week so you could try that? Fantastic service I thought.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Northern Brewer is the traditional hop for California common

Well, it's more that it's the hop used in Anchor Steam, which claims roots in the beers of the 19th-century gold rush. But Northern Brewer was not released until 1944 so it's not "authentic" as such and I wouldn't get too literal about using it. But the general idea is that you want to approximate the kind of hops that they would have used in the 19th century, so something "traditional" - Challenger is probably the closest of the hops listed by the OP, so I'd use that for bittering and aroma.

 

[An Ankoù]

I emailed them when they ran out of 'Ernest', they ordered it especially for me and sent it out within the week so you could try that? Fantastic service I thought.

I haven't tried Ernest yet, but I've got a hundred grams lurking in my sons fridge in Bournemouth so I can exercise a bit of patience there. What do you use it for, by the way? I ordered mine out of sheer curiosity. I'll do as you suggest on the morrow. Even so £6 for a hundred grams and £13 for 250g is pretty good. Dermott's "specials" change regularly and there are some really good deals on Lupomax 100g packs at £8 if anyones interested. Postage is around £15 though and takes a few weeks. You can get at least half a kilo posted for that, though, maybe more.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I haven't tried Ernest yet, but I've got a hundred grams lurking in my sons fridge in Bournemouth so I can exercise a bit of patience there. What do you use it for, by the way? I ordered mine out of sheer curiosity. I'll do as you suggest on the morrow. Even so £6 for a hundred grams and £13 for 250g is pretty good. Dermott's "specials" change regularly and there are some really good deals on Lupomax 100g packs at £8 if anyones interested. Postage is around £15 though and takes a few weeks. You can get at least half a kilo posted for that, though, maybe more.

I did an Ernest and Bramling X Golden Ale, Challenger to bitter, I think I did 20g of each every 5 minutes from 10 mins to go and a decent whirlpool.

 

[An Ankoù]

I did an Ernest and Bramling X Golden Ale, Challenger to bitter, I think I did 20g of each every 5 minutes from 10 mins to go and a decent whirlpool.

Sounds interesting. Don't know Ernest yet, but Bramling Cross is one of my favourites in bitters and pales.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Blowing my own trumpet but I thought it was one of my best, Ernest is very fruity, not quite us hop standards but not far off. I've done 2 versions, just changing yessr and I think my best was with using us05 rather than Midland.

 

[crescent city Mike]

Northern Brewer was actually released in 1936. Cluster was around before that. I've attached an article which might sway you in the way you think of Cal. Comm. as a style.
https://crescentcitybrewtalk.com/california-steam-beer/

 

[An Ankoù]

Northern Brewer was actually released in 1936. Cluster was around before that. I've attached an article which might sway you in the way you think of Cal. Comm. as a style.
https://crescentcitybrewtalk.com/california-steam-beer/

Some of these traditional American beers remain a mystery to me, especially California Common, Kentucky Common and Cream Beer or Ale. I see lots of conflicting recipes, not a great deal of consensus over the yeasts, but most importantly, I've got nothing to compare with when I've made a brew. I've had Anchor Steam, many moons ago and I could possibly get it again, but the other two are likely to remain a mystery unless I'm extradited to the US for roundly dissing Trump. Any advice on the Cream and the Kentucky Beers, @crescent city Mike ?

 

[crescent city Mike]

On the same web site, there is an article for Kentucky Common. Many traditional beers, world-wide I might add, have been lost to anecdote and conjecture.

 

[MrRook]

Some of these traditional American beers remain a mystery to me, especially California Common, Kentucky Common and Cream Beer or Ale. I see lots of conflicting recipes, not a great deal of consensus over the yeasts,

Cream ale is an ale version of American (light) lager so a clean ale yeast is what I'd use.