My Kentucky Common Wedding

Events & Comps
1

I had one thing in mind for my wedding’s homebrew. Would my relatives drink it?  Almost all of them are drinkers of American Light Lager.

My wedding was to be on a covered bridge in Kentucky. A lot of my family history is tied into the bridge. The bridge and my family both arrived in the county around the turn of the 20th century, So I decided that I would brew a Kentucky Common, since it was just added the BJCP guidelines this year and it is a historical beer tied to pre-prohibition Kentucky.

At the wedding:
I had a corny keg of KyCommon and a cooler of commercial Yuengling lager. Not a lot of drinking to seemed go on at all. My few family members that have explored beer some liked my beer. It was drinkable and approachable while providing those roasty notes from the black malt and a little caramel from the Caramel 40.  Despite the darker appearance (which made some apprehensive) it did not have too much mouthfeel like the less experienced drinkers had connected with “dark beer”.

I also made a 8.1% Marris Otter IPA for my bride. She had a six pack of bottles which she barley finished 2. I made the IPA with chinook and cascade hops from two Kentucky Hop Yards. Boyds Bottom ($4/oz) and Bluegrass Hopyard (free). I used about a pound of hops for 5 gallons.

this is the ky common a week after the wedding.
I will post a pic of the IPA the next time my wife opens one (tonight when she gets home from work)

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What I took away from the experience:

1)A dryer beer is more approachable for some less experienced beer drinkers. (my kycommon finished at 1.015, not dry but dryer than other “dark beers” that my friends and family have tried.

2)This was my first kegging, it was SO MUCH EASIER.

3)Chinook and Cascade aren’t the best combo, the cascade seems to over power the chinook. (the bluegrass hopyard hops being free we’re the most consistent in quality. I picked these hops and some plants were much healthier than others.)

P.S.
I also attempted a Barleywine to give to some family as a gift to take home. (It got an infection 6 months out)

2

I always wondered what a Kentucky common was. It sounds really good. That is probably the most common misconception that dark beers are big and heavy, high alcohol and taste like used motor oil and I get tired of trying to defend that…lol. Regular beer drinkers are scared of flavor, the thing I get all the time is “beer should taste like beer”…meaning what they are used to or know of as beer.

Congrats on the wedding as well. As far as the free hops that you picked, did you dry them before using them in the beer? That may have changed the flavor you anticipated as well.

3

As far as I can tell, a Kentucky Common is a dark cream ale with 6row barley. Some people use other basemalts but I used 6row because I felt it was more historically accurate.  All of the color came from 1.5% caramel and 2% black malt.

I got my info on it here: http://www.bjcp.org/docs/NHC2014-kycommon-handout.pdf
and the 2015 bjcp guidelines.

my common may be a little too dark.

but it does look like this beer from a picture in Kevin Gibson’s book “Louisville Beer: Derby City History on Draft,”

4

Very cool. I was just looking into brewing this style myself. It does look darker to me than I would have thought but I wouldn’t know. What yeast did you use?