Apocalypse, Falls City, Akasha, and Against the Grain all make a Ky Common in Louisville. Against the Grain uses a sour mash. I’m guessing that Common wasn’t a sour mash. Oertel’s 92 was a main beer around Lou. I remember giving my mom a taste of New Castle. She said,“that tastes just like Oertel’s 92.” I think Common was like that. Session strength at 4%-4.5%. I think the black malt was added only for ph adjustment, could be wrong. I’ve researched it and tried all of them. I’ve not brewed one yet. I think 1450 might add a nice body to a Common. I think, for me, the mouth feel is what is lacking in all of these that I’ve tried. Possibly 1450 could add what is missing.
From my understanding most barrels back then went sour from slow turn around and a wide variety of barrels used, but were not intended to be sour. Sour mashing IIRC in a Kentucky common, and have read to be a myth. I am not that well versed in sours or sour mashing, but I would fear the low pH would become problematic with the heavy pitch and the quick turn around on this brew. I don’t know how the beer would benefit from a sour mash from a flavor aspect, because again that is something I am still getting my feet wet with. So take this reply as just brew talk, well French pressed brew talk…
Would it turn out like an oud bruin at that point? Would the high amount of corn lead to an even thinner product with the sour mash breaking down a dextrinous into fermentable sugars?
The Against the Grain one with the sour mash, was unique. I’m not huge on sour beers. I don’t mind them, but it didn’t really fancy me in the Common. I’m sure the true Common beers were thin. Probably so they were easy drinking with the use of ale yeast.
Stan Hieronymous’ Brewing Local book has a fairly meaty section on KY Common. A good book to pick up.
I’ve been planning to use the White Labs bourbon yeast, which is said to add a touch of caramel.
Interesting. I would imagine the caramel flavors described come with higher alcohols, but if it could create that faux caramel flavor at session strength that would be a very interesting malty ale strain.
Yeah, I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. It occurred to me that perhaps brewers at the time just used the easily available local yeast. Adding guess to supposition, I thought that may have been yeast used on the sour mash to produce the wash for the bourbon. NFI whether it will work, but I look forward to the experiment.
I have brewed around ten batches of KC. It’s a great beer to brew for quick turn around. Brew Sunday, ferment all week, keg, carb and serve on Sunday. It does mellow nicely with age but when your buddy says, “How about you brew a beer for the wedding next week?” You can actually do it.
Also makes a great style to experiment with. I’ve added cherry extract with success. I brew mine a bit higher gravity, with an ABV around 7-7.5. Has always been a crowd pleaser.
Report back when you do! I like to hear the results.
I’m thinking about modifying my hops and schedule. I’m thinking
20 IBUs at 75m northern brewer 6.9%
8-10IBUs at 20m NB 6.9%
1oz Crystal at flame out
I was thinking an herbal/floral/mint thing going on. LHBS owner suggested Crystal and I think it sounds good. What’s your take on it?
Because I am unfamiliar with both… [emoji53]
NHBD parking lot brew was an awesome time. I got my numbers better than projected. *edit BH 81.5% - 87.5% Mash efficiency. Ended up with 9.25 Gallons of 1.052 wort on 16.6# of grain. So that was great, I pitched this morning some 17.14ml Slurry/L of wort.
Pitching slurry harvested 4/20 .6L assuming ~88% viability in that slurry. So is that 3.8M/mL/P? I always have difficult calculating the rough estimate of the viability of slurry. Does anyone have the formula for assuming viability?
Here it is boys and girls. For anyone who gives a shit, my KY Common. It is uniquely sweet, but it’s refreshing. The highest level of corn I have ever used or tasted. There isn’t a vegetable thing going on but a sweet aroma. It’s very mellow, light beer. I am proud of the head retention and the carbonation is about perfect IMHO. I wish I could attach a video of the pour because it’s pretty. No off flavors, very subtle hop character. Just smooth bitterness from NB, which I have never used.
Looks great! Corn gets a bad rap - it has a place in some beers.
Thanks Jon
+1 yes!
Good lookin beer
Send it to all of us. KYC is really light for the color. A style in and of its own. I like it, round here there are many versions. Guess it was the every day version of BMC in Louisville.
I’d love too, but logistics on that one may be a little rough. Plus I only have enough for 70 of all of us😉 anyone up for a bottle share?
I use whatever I have on hand. Usually NB or any neutral US hops with a flameout addition for aroma. It’s a working class beer so I try to keep it simple. But, as I said earlier, it’s a great base beer to experiment with. Go for it.
Let us know how it turned out.
The recipe turned out really well. As the bottles aged, I got what I am calling Carbonic acid from being over carbonated, I went for above 3 vols and it had a distinctive sharpness that didn’t age well, however the overall impression was clean and balanced malt flavors. Which is amazing that corn at 36+% still had plenty of character, malt presence and slight hop aroma. I will definitely brew this up again come spring
