It’s been a while since I did an actual blog post, but this one seemed to write itself. A couple of months ago, a brewing buddy directed me to an article about historical beers that commercial breweries were brewing, and mentioned how the Kentucky Common seemed right down my alley. I started reading about it, and BAM… I was hooked.
The full writeup (with pics) is here, but the long and short of it is that the beer turned out fantastic - in the top two or three beers I have ever brewed.
Good on ya, Olan!
When I open my imaginary brewery, this is gonna be a flagship beer. 
Well, then, it’s gonna have to be an imaginary beer!
I give it an imaginary 50 just on first read
lol… let’s not get carried away on those imaginary scores. And who knows, other people may hate it. I have a local buddy who routinely wins medals in comps (one a gold in the first round of NHC this year, AGAIN)… I’m hoping he’ll swap beers with me and let me know what he thinks.
I made a Kentucky Common many years ago, with a sour mash. My impressions of it were:
Hey! It’s not sour! I should have sour mashed for an extra day or two I guess!?
It tastes a lot like an English bitter.
Question for you – do you think it tastes anything like an English ale??
KC is just a sort of caramelly, malt forward style, IMO. Very pleasant to drink, for sure, sour mash or not. I would do the sour mash again just because it’s fun! Even if it’s not historically accurate or doesn’t make it sour. To be fair, sour mashing is probably safe to use on just about any style under the sun, no need to reserve it for KC style for those of us who have done so thus far.
Great article. Cheers.
Thanks for the kind words, dmtaylor!
It’s funny that you say that - when I drank the first pint of this, I was thinking to myself that it reminded me very much of a good bitter. Similar flavor profile, way more total flavor than I was expecting in a beer with this low of an ABV.
As you probably gathered by the tone of the post, I’m not super worried that my beer isn’t really historically accurate. It was fun to research and learn about the style, but in the end, I made choices to yield what I thought would be a beer I would enjoy. Which is sort of the core point of this hobby, no? 
Sounds delicious.
Damn Volstead act screwed everything up. >:(
I made one and loved it. One of my regulars wants it every chance he gets!
Yeah, I’m loving it. Again, I think this would definitely make my flagship beer lineup if I ever opened my imaginary brewery.
I read that article too and decided to try it. First batch came out great, lasted about two weeks before we kicked the keg. I’ve done three other batches since. It’s great to find a beer you can brew on Sunday and serve on Saturday.
It’s a great beer to build from. So far, I’ve added black cherry extract, made a bourbon cherry and have plans to do a blood orange version.
It’s a great and versatile beer.
I would have never thought about adding flavors, but I could see how it would work. Definitely loving this style.
Man @homebrewdad7, I cant wait to try your recipe! Thanks for sharing. I did one that has similarities and this thing was seriously drinkable. I was loving every ounce of mine.
10 lbs Maris Otter (Crisp) (4.0 SRM) Grain 1 75.5 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 2 11.3 %
12.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.7 %
8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.8 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.9 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6 1.9 %
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 16.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 3.6 IBUs
1.0 pkg Denny’s Favorite (Wyeast Labs #1450) [124.21 ml] Yeast 9 -
Very nice. I have to tell you, I am really loving this style.
Sounds really tasty. I have some 6-row that I’ll be picking up at our next club meeting tomorrow night and I already have some speckled white grits from a local granary. I prefer doing a cereal mash with their grits than using flaked. More work, but it makes a real flavor difference, IMO. Just need to get the C malts and rye. I think I’m going to try this very soon. Thanks for sharing!
Sounds great. Let us know how it turns out!