Kentucky Common

A Forgotten Local Specialty

The Kentucky Common used to be all the rage in the place for which it is named, especially in Louisville. It was almost all that was brewed and consumed at local pubs and restaurants. That is until, of course, Prohibition. Sensing a theme in this series?

Prohibition did not stop people from drinking alcohol, but it did make people reach for the more potent and concentrated alcoholic beverages (it was easier to hide one bottle of a spirit than a case of beer). This was incredibly damaging to American beer culture, since consumers weren’t ordering a pint anymore, breweries, even illegal ones at the time, weren’t able to keep their brewing skills sharp. Indeed, many of them never returned to brewing beer, thus the Kentucky Common style was lost among other local specialties, until the arrival of the homebrewer.

To borrow the parlance of another beer writing org, what even is a Kentucky Common?

What is a Kentucky Common?

Well, in essence, it is an amber/brown cream ale. That’s right, it’s a dark cream ale.

As we know, the cream part of the name cream ale comes from the hefty addition of corn to an otherwise regular ale, which the Kentucky Common also does not shy away from. It has upwards of 30% corn in the grist makeup, resulting in the lightest of ales. Couple that with a high carbonation and you’ve got one creamy Kentucky Common.

This should not be confused with the common off-flavor called DMS (dimethyl sulfide), which some associate with a corn-like taste in beer. DMS doesn’t actually come from corn but rather from lightly kilned malted barley. Fortunately, you can easily address this by extending your boil time from 60 minutes to 90 minutes.

Now what makes Kentucky Common a ‘dark’ cream ale?

Well that would be due to a touch of caramel malt added and also some black malt. It is speculated that those roasted malts were added to a regular cream ale to assist with the harder water in Louisville. To briefly touch on some water chemistry, the reason the caramel and black malt helps has to do with pH.

Hard Water vs. Soft Water

Hard water can have a much higher pH than soft water, leading to a higher pH in the finished beer, which can negatively impact its taste. A lower pH in finished beer is often associated with crispness. Caramel malts and black malts added to a Cream Ale contribute to the flavor, but more importantly, they are roasted to a point that makes them more acidic. This acidity from the malts helps lower the overall pH of the beer, bringing it back to a desirable and tasty range.

A Throw Back Carbonation Trick

Kentucky Common has another unique historical feature: it was naturally quite creamy, much like Cream Ale. This creaminess refers to the mouthfeel, enhanced by a high level of carbonation. Breweries in Louisville achieved this by packaging the beer before it had finished fermenting.

They would rack (move) the beer from their larger fermentation vessels into tightly sealed barrels. As the yeast finished fermenting, all the Co2 that it created had nowhere to go and would naturally carbonate the beer in the barrels.

These barrels were then rolled out into pubs and saloons all over Louisville and tapped so that patrons might enjoy freshly carbonated ale, with lots of bubbles and head.

Pre-prohibition this would have been one of the only ways to enjoy beer, unless you were making it yourself at home. And what a fun way to drink beer and enjoy the camaraderie of your community!

Meat. And. Potatoes. Time. 

BJCP Style Guidelines

The BJCP Style Guidelines list the stats of Kentucky Common as the following:

IBU: 15 – 30

SRM: 11 – 20

OG: 1.044 – 1.055

FG: 1.010 – 1.018

ABV: 4% – 5.5%

Here is our recipe for our Common King, a Kentucky Common:

Grains: 6.5 lbs 6-row

2.5 lbs Flaked Corn

0.5 lbs Caramel 80

0.25 lbs Black Malt

Hops: 1 oz Willamette, 1 oz Spalt

Yeast: OYL-004 Omega West Coast Ale I

A Common Thread in this Series

If you read the previous blog in this series, this recipe should be quite familiar to you. (If not, click that link to read it.) It uses the same highly prevalent 6-row that was ubiquitous in America pre-prohibition. It also has a hefty helping of flaked corn, which most beer made in America utilized back then for easy sugars to ferment into alcohol.

The amount of those grains have been reduced, however, to produce a more “sessionable” beer, which was historically Kentucky Common. In fact, it was one of the first session beers in America and was meant to be drunk fresh and in quaffable quantities.

Then we used a classic American hop, one of the first, which is a daughter of a traditional English hop, Fuggle. For aroma we use a German hop for a nice floral and slightly spicy character. This would have been used by the German brewers making the beer.

For yeast, we use the all-star Chico strain from Omega Yeast, that is OYL-004, West Coast Ale I for all clean fermenting American beer styles. 

To Kentucky Common, and lots of it!