One of my favorite brews to make is a California Common. I recall the days when Anchor made a very fine version (IMO, no so much nowadays).
Recently brewed another CA Common only to discover my saved WL 810 from a prior brew session was dead. For various life-event reasons I waited too long between brews.
To save my brew day I pitched S-04 dry yeast into 5.5 gallons and M44 day yeast into the other 5.5 gallons and fermented both within the recommended fermentation ranges.
Kegged the S-04 version on November 21, 2021. Having a glass now. Tastes, to me, similar to a nice ESB or somewhat similar to a CA Common.
If it tastes like a California Common, then it is a California Common.
I’ll admit, I almost ranted about how it would need to be a lager yeast fermented warm in order to be a true California Common. But then I thought… well, S-04 tastes like a lager to me, and BRY-97 (M44) is quite clean as well, so… it will probably still fit the bill. I mean, if you tasted Anchor Steam and your two beers next to each other side by side, blindfolded… would you be able to tell us for certain which one fit the style best, which one worst? If not, then they can all pass for the same style. But if one or two of them are WAY out of whack, then you would have to decide whether it fits another style better. IF that even really matters to you, which, by your question, I would suppose that it does.
Call it what you like. If it’s reasonably close, you can call it the style you intended to brew. If not, then you can read up on style guidelines to see where else it might fit. Closest other style might be American Amber Ale. Or maybe Altbier. Something like that. Pull out the guidelines and see which one it resembles most closely.
For future reference, Mangrove Jack’s M54 California Lager Yeast (https://mangrovejacks.com/collections/craft-series-yeasts/products/californian-lager-m54-yeast-10g) is a dry yeast for making California Common. I haven’t used it, but if you make that style a lot and have an unpredictable brewing schedule it might be good to get some of this to have on hand. I love California Common myself and brew it several times a year.
It is indeed British. Just not a fruity one at all.
I would steer clear of the M54 yeast, as I believe it’s a repack of K-97, which… gets very mixed reviews. Personally I don’t like it at all. Tart hazy mess.
Well, in a shallow sense it doesn’t matter what yeast you use, but in a deeper sense it does matter where it came from and who profits from selling it to you. I seem to remember people on this forum saying that they weren’t going to purchase anything from Northern Brewer anymore after they were purchased (temporarily) by AB Inbev.
I know there are numerous resellers who purchase items in bulk and repackage them. I don’t mind that if they are honest about the fact and give descriptions that are faithful to the original. If someone is repackaging and selling something with a different description then I don’t approve. At this point I only have Dave’s statement about M54 so I am withholding judgement. I don’t plan on buying any of that yeast anyway, so the argument is theoretical for me.
There are a multitude of sources for the claim on the interwebs. Unfortunately I am leaving town momentarily and don’t have time to dig up a half dozen for you right now. Remind me tomorrow or on Saturday, I promise this was not my own idea but has been spread around all over the place, from very credible sources.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind using Mangrove Jack if it were available in my area. I mean, sure, they don’t know much about yeast and slap their own descriptions on it, etc., but if it makes good beer and/or if I can figure out which yeast it really is, then I’m game to trying it in my own brews. It just… isn’t sold at all around here, and hardly any of the big online stores in the USA either.
I used a combination of Wyeast #2112, California Lager and Wyeast San Fran Lager #810 in my batch of CC this summer (my supplier didn’t have two packs of the same yeast). The batch worked out quite well. But in my opinion, in order to stay true to the style, one would need to ferment using a lager yeast at ale temperature — IMHO
In 2019, there was discussion about this here on the AHA forum, where it was pointed out that the Mangrove Jack packets themselves state: “PACKED IN THE UK FROM IMPORTED AND LOCAL INGREDIENTS. Packaged in a protected atmosphere.” This is very consistent with the idea that they don’t make their own yeast but repack from other producers.
There is no such thing as a California Common yeast strain. Anchor acquired their current lager culture from Wallerstein Labs in the seventies after Fritz acquired the brewery. Before that, they were using yeast acquired from other California lager breweries. What 2112 is is a Christian Schmidt variant and so is Wyeast 2035. The parent culture is Wyeast 2272-PC North American Lager. Christian Schmidt is genetically related to W-34/70. As we all know W-34/70 performs well at ale fermentation temperatures (Christian Schmidt is more flocculent). That is why 2112 performs well at ale fermentation temperatures. There is just not that much genetic variation in lager cultures due to the hybridization event occurring relatively recently in yeast genus terms. The Saccharomyces cervisiae genus has been in use for millennia.