Hybrid & regional
California Common
Lager yeast fermented warm in the Californian manner, producing a clean amber beer with woody, minty hop character.
- Strength
- 4.5–5.5% ABV
- Bitterness
- 30–45 IBU
- Colour
- Amber to copper
- Serve at
- 7–10°C
Also known as steam beer.
Nineteenth-century San Francisco brewers had lager yeast but no ice, so they fermented cool-ish rather than cold, in broad shallow vessels on the roof. The result is a beer with a lager’s relative cleanliness and a distinct fruit and mineral edge.
"Steam Beer" is a registered trademark of Anchor Brewing, which is why the generic style name is California Common. That is a trademark fact rather than a brewing one, and BeerHQ records the alias accordingly.
The hop character is the signature and the easiest thing to lose: the woody, minty Northern Brewer note is what makes the style recognisable, and examples that substitute a modern citrus hop stop being California Common in any meaningful sense. A good one is clean, firmly bitter and amber, with a fruitiness that reads as a trace rather than as an ale.
Questions this page answers
- what does california common taste like — How it tastes
- california common abv — Measurements
- california common food pairing — What to eat with it
- california common serving temperature — Serving
- how long does california common last — Freshness and storage
- styles similar to california common — If you like this, try
- california common history — How it got here
- what beer is an example of california common — Beers to try
How it tastes
BeerHQ’s own comparative scale, not a measurement. Each bar is a range because a style is a span of real beers rather than one beer.
Appearance and character
| Colour | Amber to copper |
|---|---|
| Clarity | clear |
| Head | Off-white, persistent |
| Fermentation | Hybrid. Crosses the ale/lager process line — for example ale yeast fermented cold, or lager yeast fermented warm. |
| Origin | United States — California |
Measurements
Conventional ranges published by style bodies, not a specification. IBU measures iso-alpha acids in a lab and does not track perceived bitterness — compare it against the sensory scale above rather than reading it as a flavour rating.
| Measurement | Typical range |
|---|---|
| ABV | 4.5–5.5% ABV |
| IBU | 30–45 IBU |
| Colour | Amber to copper — 10–14 SRM, 20–28 EBC. |
| Original gravity | 1.048–1.054 |
| Final gravity | 1.011–1.014 |
| Carbonation | 2–3 vol CO₂ |
Classified by BJCP-2021 as California Common (exact fit). BeerHQ maintains its own taxonomy and records how it maps onto others rather than adopting any one of them.
What goes into it
| Hops | Northern Brewer |
|---|---|
| Malt | Pale ale malt, Crystal malt |
| Yeast | California lager yeast |
Serving
| Temperature | 7–10°C |
|---|---|
| Glass | Nonic pint, Willi Becher |
Freshness and storage
California Common shows best within 2–5 months of packaging. After that it declines in quality rather than becoming unsafe.
Drink fresh. Buy it as young as you can and drink it soon. What makes this beer worth drinking is the first thing to leave it.
- A delicate beer with a short window. What makes it good is cleanliness and definition, which are the first things to blur.
What changes with time
- Flavour decline. The beer is still perfectly sound, but the most volatile parts of its character have faded. Weeks to a few months, fastest in heavily dry-hopped beer.
- Staling. The general, gradual loss of freshness that affects all beer, accelerated sharply by warmth. Months, and roughly twice as fast for every 10 °C warmer.
In the package
- Keg — No light can reach the beer, so lightstrike is impossible in this format. Very low oxygen ingress, which matters for a beer this dependent on hop aroma.
- Brown glass bottle — No format-specific concerns beyond the general advice above.
- Aluminium can — No light can reach the beer, so lightstrike is impossible in this format. Very low oxygen ingress, which matters for a beer this dependent on hop aroma.
Old beer tastes worse; it does not become dangerous. Ethanol, low pH, hop compounds and the absence of oxygen make packaged beer hostile to the organisms that cause foodborne illness. The exception is a compromised package — visible mould at the closure, a pierced or rusted can, a lifted cap — which is a reason to discard the beer regardless of its age.
Guidance, not an expiry date. How a beer is stored matters more than the date printed on it, and staling roughly doubles in rate for every 10 °C. See storage and freshness for the full model.
What to eat with it
- Adobo
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
- Gyoza
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
- Ham
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
- Tapas
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
- Pad Thai
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
- Smoked fish
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Beers to try
Widely-known examples BeerHQ carries as reference points for this style. Not a recommendation list and not ranked — these are the beers that make the category concrete.
If you like this, try
Vienna lager
A comparable amber lager profile from true cold fermentation.
Suits you if: You like California Common but want less herbal. Reason not to: Noticeably less herbal than California Common, which may make it feel thin by comparison.
Altbier
Another hybrid amber beer with firm bitterness.
Suits you if: You like California Common but want less herbal. Reason not to: Noticeably less herbal than California Common, which may make it feel thin by comparison.
Kellerbier
Comparable bitterness, sweetness, body — the things you are probably drinking California Common for.
Suits you if: You like California Common but want less herbal. Reason not to: Noticeably less herbal than California Common, which may make it feel thin by comparison.
Kölsch
Same family — both are Hybrid & regional beers.
Suits you if: You like California Common but want less herbal. Reason not to: Noticeably less herbal than California Common, which may make it feel thin by comparison.
Cream ale
Same family — both are Hybrid & regional beers.
Suits you if: You like California Common but want less herbal. Reason not to: Noticeably less herbal than California Common, which may make it feel thin by comparison.
Compare with
- California Common vs Altbier — The main difference is hop aroma: California Common has noticeably more of it than Altbier. California Common also leads on herbal and resin & pine; Altbier on nutty.
- California Common vs Cream ale — California Common and Cream ale are closer than the comparison suggests. The measurable differences are small — caramel & toffee is the largest of them — so tradition, strength and what each is brewed for will tell you more than the flavour axes do.
- California Common vs Kölsch — California Common and Kölsch are closer than the comparison suggests. The measurable differences are small — caramel & toffee is the largest of them — so tradition, strength and what each is brewed for will tell you more than the flavour axes do.
- California Common vs Vienna lager — California Common and Vienna lager are closer than the comparison suggests. The measurable differences are small — herbal is the largest of them — so tradition, strength and what each is brewed for will tell you more than the flavour axes do.
Faults to watch for
How it got here
California common comes from a period when San Francisco brewers had lager yeast and no ice. Fermenting bottom-fermenting yeast at ambient Californian temperatures in wide shallow vessels produced a beer that is neither an ale nor a conventional lager, and the practice was widespread on the West Coast in the later nineteenth century.
It survived into the modern era through effectively one brewery, whose rescue and revival in the 1960s and 1970s preserved the style and made it an early landmark of American craft brewing.
1965 Fritz Maytag buys Anchor Brewing
A failing San Francisco brewery was bought and rebuilt around traditional methods at the low point of American brewing diversity.
See the whole sequence on the beer history timeline.
Sensory levels are BeerHQ’s editorial abstraction, described as None–Very high on a six-point scale. Measurements are conventional style ranges. Last reviewed 2026-08-15.
Evidence
What BeerHQ knows about this, and how. Every statement carries the state of the evidence behind it rather than being presented flatly as fact.
On Crystal malt
Crystal malt is produced by stewing wet germinated grain so that starch converts to sugar inside the husk, then kilning so that sugar caramelises in place — which is what distinguishes it from ordinary kilned malt.
Backed by a source
Sources: Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse — print; Brewing: Science and Practice — print
On Crystal malt
Crystal malt contributes sugars that brewing yeast largely cannot ferment, which is why it adds residual sweetness and body rather than alcohol.
Backed by a source
Sources: Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse — print; How to Brew (4th edition) — print
On Diacetyl
The buttery or butterscotch character described as diacetyl is 2,3-butanedione, a vicinal diketone formed outside the yeast cell by oxidative decarboxylation of alpha-acetolactate.
Backed by a source
Sources: Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing, chapter on flavour — print; Brewing: Science and Practice — print
On Diacetyl
Diacetyl has one of the lowest flavour thresholds of any beer compound, detectable by many tasters at concentrations in the region of 0.1 mg/L or below, with substantial variation between individuals.
Backed by a source
Sources: Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing — print; Technology Brewing and Malting — print
On Diacetyl
A low level of diacetyl is traditional and accepted in some Czech pale lagers and in some Yorkshire and Scottish ales, where it contributes a rounded buttery softness the brewers are not attempting to remove.
Backed by a source
Sources: Tasting Beer (2nd edition) — print; The Oxford Companion to Beer — print
On Diacetyl
Diacetyl reaches beer by two unrelated routes: as a normal fermentation by-product that healthy yeast subsequently reabsorbs, or from bacterial contamination — chiefly Pediococcus — which produces it continuously and cannot be rested out.
Backed by a source
Sources: Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation — print; Brewing: Science and Practice — print
On DMS
A low level of DMS is accepted, and by some tasters expected, in pale lagers built on pilsner malt, and only reads as a defect when it dominates.
Backed by a source
Sources: BJCP Beer Style Guidelines (2021); Tasting Beer (2nd edition) — print
On DMS
Dimethyl sulphide is generated during wort heating from S-methylmethionine, a precursor formed during germination and progressively destroyed by kilning — which is why it is highest in lightly-kilned pilsner malt and negligible in darker malts.
Backed by a source
Sources: Brewing: Science and Practice — print; Technology Brewing and Malting — print
On DMS
DMS is volatile and leaves wort as vapour during a vigorous uncovered boil, which is why covering the kettle, boiling gently or cooling the wort slowly all raise the level in finished beer.
Backed by a source
Sources: How to Brew (4th edition) — print; Brewing: Science and Practice — print