American beer history is short. The oldest continuously operated brewery in the world, Weihenstephen Brewery in Bavaria, dates back to 1040. America’s oldest brewery, D.G. Yuengling & Son was founded…let’s see…carry the two…789 years later. We’ve really only been at it for a couple hundred years.
Early “American Beer” was dominated by immigrants simply brewing European-style beer in the New World. As the population pushed westward and into warmer climates, it was no longer practical to brew lager beer that - at the time - still depended on huge blocks of ice cut hewn from frozen rivers, lakes and ponds. Around the same time in California, locals solved this problem with “Common Beer” (aka California Common or Steam Beer) which was brewed at higher temperatures and aged for a very short period of time (if any) before service, bypassing the need for long term refrigeration.
Kentucky Common diverges from its Californian counterpart in one other important way: corn! Locally grown corn was cheap and abundant, fueling the booming Whiskey business. Historic recipes feature a high percentage (25-30%) of corn which many believe was primarily to keep costs down. We incorporated a healthy dose of corn into the grist of our version (Kentucky Fried Collab) but decided to incorporate a bit of Rye as well as it would likely have been on hand in Bourbon Country.
At it’s best, beer connects us. We love that about it. We cherish the opportunity to connect people with stories like this; about regular people craving a taste of home but when they can’t do it the old way, they create something entirely new. It is the essence of our brewing philosophy here, brew with respect for the historic styles but with an American twist.
Cheers! ~ JW
Filed under #Beer101
We Respect Your Privacy