Serve in a nonic pint at 7-10 °C
What it tastes like
California Common starts with a problem we know well in India: brewing lager without enough cold. Brewers in nineteenth century San Francisco had lager yeast but little refrigeration, so they fermented it warm in wide, shallow vessels and let the bay air do what it could. The result kept some lager cleanliness and picked up a gentle fruitiness that a cold lager never shows.
In the glass it is amber to light copper, with toasty, bready malt and a firm bitterness that lands harder than you expect from the colour. The signature is the hop: Northern Brewer, which smells of mint, pine and old wood rather than citrus. Finish is dry and a little grainy. It sits between an amber lager and a pale ale and borrows the best manners of each.
The trick is the yeast strain. A good California lager strain stays clean at 14 to 18 °C, where most lager yeasts would throw sulphur and solvent. Pick the wrong one and you have a muddled amber ale.
Style profile
- Look
- Light amber to copper, clear, with a cream coloured head that holds well.
- Aroma and flavour
- Toast and light caramel malt, a woody, minty hop from Northern Brewer, faint fruit from the warm ferment, no citrus.
- Mouthfeel
- Medium body, lively carbonation, a dry and firmly bitter finish.
- Ingredients
- Pale malt with some crystal and a touch of toasted malt, Northern Brewer hops, a California lager yeast fermented warm.
In India
This is a style Indian brewers should brew more often. A brewpub without a glycol jacket on every tank can still make a clean, crisp beer with the right strain at 15 to 17 °C, which is closer to what a Bengaluru cellar manages in March than a true lager ferment. The beer is sturdy, takes a little heat in the supply chain better than a pale lager and drinks well through a long monsoon evening. On tap it remains a rarity.
At the Indian table
Food pairings contributed by Anuradha Rao
- Rajma chawalThe toasty malt matches the earthy kidney beans and the bitterness keeps a heavy plate moving.
- Kerala beef fryWoody hops and dry finish stand up to black pepper, curry leaf and coconut slivers.
- Mutton seekh kebabChar on the kebab echoes the toasted malt and the carbonation clears the fat.
- ChikkiJaggery and peanut pick up the caramel note and the bitterness stops it cloying.
Brewed in India
Rare in India so far. We could not verify a current commercial example; ask your local brewpub, as a few brew one as a seasonal.