steam beer

[Gary L. Bertran]

Hi
I'm a beer drinker, not a brewer, and my hobby is etymology. In chasing down the origin of "steam beer", there are references to
the high pressure in the casks and a lot of spewing when tapped. This high pressure or "steam" is attributed to the warm weather
and/or fermentation. It seems to me that this could have been avoided by simply cutting down on the krausen, so there might have
been some other reason for the high pressure. One possibility that comes to mind would be to give it a better head. Could there have
been something in the process that led to a weak head?

Any other ideas you have on the matter would be appreciated.

Gary L. Bertrand

[threecb]

Hi Gary,

I did a quick search and came up with this article
from Brew Your Own magazine that outlines the
(suspected) origins of the style:

Steam Beer Article (http://byo.com/feature/106.html)

Hope it helps!

steve

[Gary L. Bertran]

Thanks for the reference, Steve, I hadn't found that one in my earlier search. It's much more detailed than the others, but like them, it talks about the high pressures in the kegs but not about WHY they made it so high - even requiring heavier barrels. Couldn't they simply have cut down on the krausen?

Gary

[mmmBeer...]

Thanks for the article Steve! That made for a great read.

[threecb]

Originally posted by Gary L. Bertran
Thanks for the reference, Steve, I hadn't found that one in my earlier search. It's much more detailed than the others, but like them, it talks about the high pressures in the kegs but not about WHY they made it so high - even requiring heavier barrels. Couldn't they simply have cut down on the krausen?

Gary

I enjoyed the article also, it filled in some gaps for me, too.

Any of you homebrewers out there want to field Gary's question?

thanks,
steve

[quantum24]

well, one possibility would be that actively fermenting beer is not as succeptible to bacterical contamination as non fermenting beer. so i would guess that due to poor sanitary measures, shipping beer that was still fermenting was a good way to stave of contamination (esp in the developing west). maybe anyways!

[MagTheGrate]

Most recipes that I find for steam beer tell you to use a lager strain of yeast but to ferment at ale temperatures.

My guess is that the warmer temperature makes the lager yeast go crazy, creating more pressure in their casks.

-Mag

[b3s]

historically, california common (of which a particular brand is called steam beer) was a lager done at ale temps because that was all the lower they could get the temp in san francisco.

basically, what you are getting (based on the taste of my california common at racking time) is the maltiness of a lager, combined with some of the fruity esters of an ale (due to the higher fermentation temperature). of course, the particular lager strain you use has some bearing on this. i used a california common lager strain, but i would imagine any lager strain would be fine.