The Kentucky Common is a historical style showed up on my radar after the release of the 2015 BJCP Guidelines. I am thankful for the research that has been done on historical styles. Especially knowing that there are southern historical styles. Here lately I’ve been naming beers by way of occurrence in everyday life. Common Drive is what we call a network drive at work. Kentucky Common, Common Drive, they share 1 word. Therefore, this is how a name is born in these parts. Now onto the rest of the story.
You need a backstory don’t you?
Remember the C’s of Amber I brewed for our intra-club competition in May? Well, I was fortunate enough to be able to brew in the next round. The style assigned for the next round was Kentucky Common. Oh boy. A style no one in the club has even brewed (that I am aware of). With this batch I bought Epiphany Craft Malts. I’m really enjoying the nuance of the malts that these small maltsters can produce. It’s amazing. To note, when the corn was ordered, it was malted whole corn and a spice grinder was used to mill it. Just imagine how my dull 2 roller mill just reacted when I tried to mill this stuff. Should have grabbed a before pic.
I have only had one commercial example of a Kentucky Common and that is when I visited Ten Mile Brewing in Long Beach California in July 2019. While in Long Beach for a conference, I reached out to a few beer peeops on recommendations on breweries to visit. Ten Mile was on multiple lists. It probably helped that he was a guest on the Experimental Brewing Podcast at one time talking about this Kentucky Common. This experience piqued my interest in the style. Did it intrigue me enough to go brew the style. Unfortunately it did not. This activity forced me to brew the style. It will end up on my rotation again to brew again.
I followed Josh Wiekert’s Make Your Best column for his rendition of a Kentucky Common. I thought a half pound of chocolate rye was a bit steep and would make it more on the brown side instead of being amber, and believe it will make it a touch sweeter than it should be.
Tasting Notes
Aroma: Grainy, cracker, pilsner-like malt aromas, with a slight note of corn sweetness in the background. Caramel notes are moderately low. Low floral notes that appear to be coming from the hops.
Appearance: Brown in color, pours a tan head that appears to retain very well. Has a slight haze.
Flavor: Grainy, cracker, pilsner-like malt like flavors. Moderate caramel and toffee notes that has a background of chocolate into the finish. Finishes medium dry that is balanced to the malt profile. Low bitterness. Hop flavor is fleeting, but is floral when detected.
My Impression: Do I like this beer? YES! Do I want to brew it again. YES! What would I change. I would back off the chocolate rye to maybe 6 ounces, and drop the caramel to 2 ounces, I believe those notes are too dominating the palate. Therefor, I second guessed myself when I was putting together the grain bill for this recipe. Thinking 8 ounces sure was a lot of chocolate rye for such a light bodied beer but these speciality malts are contributing to the body of the beer. I really enjoy the little nuances of the base malts and corn notes.
My Kentucky Common Recipe
Recipe Details
| Batch Size | Boil Time | IBU | SRM | Est. OG | Est. FG | ABV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 gal | 60 min | 16.6 IBUs | 14.9 SRM | 1.046 | 1.009 | 4.8 % |
Style Details
| Name | Cat. | OG Range | FG Range | IBU | SRM | Carb | ABV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky Common | 27 | 1.044 - 1.055 | 1.01 - 1.018 | 15 - 30 | 11 - 20 | 2.5 - 3 | 4 - 5.5 % |
Fermentables
| Name | Amount | % |
|---|---|---|
| Epiphany Foundation Malt | 7 lbs | 71.79 |
| Ephiphany Corn Malt | 2 lbs | 20.51 |
| Chocolate Rye (Weyermann) | 8 oz | 5.13 |
| Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L | 4 oz | 2.56 |
Hops
| Name | Amount | Time | Use | Form | Alpha % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cluster | 1 oz | 20 min | Boil | Pellet | 7.4 |
Miscs
| Name | Amount | Time | Use | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) | 4.50 g | 60 min | Mash | Water Agent |
| Epsom Salt (MgSO4) | 2.30 g | 60 min | Mash | Water Agent |
Yeast
| Name | Lab | Attenuation | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|
| SafAle German Ale (K-97) | DCL/Fermentis | 73% | 59°F - 75.2°F |
Mash
| Step | Temperature | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Saccharification | 147.9°F | 90 min |
| Mash Out | 168°F | 10 min |
Download
| Download this recipe's BeerXML file |
At least for me, and my brewing as of late, I’ve been brewing lagers. Yes I’ve been following the 
I just brewed this triple hopped, hazy Double IPA, y’all! I’m just taking a silly jab there. I really don’t know what to call this beer. It’s hazy, it’s hoppy, it’s got a slight warming to it. Hey it’s beer! Brewed this beer with Henry and Brian. Henry found a recipe he liked and he tweaked it to his liking (mainly because we couldn’t find Galaxy hops that weren’t stupid expensive). Am I happy with it? It’s drinkable, and has become more drinkable everyday I pull some off the tap. When I first kegged it and pulled a sample a few days after kegging and dry hopping, but before it was carbonated, I was really concerned. I did some research on dry hopping in the keg and of course the Internet is right, am I right? You know since this post is on the Internet everything I write is true </sarcasm>. Ok, I’m done there, but anyways, I found that some people would get vegetal and grassy characters from dry hopping in the keg. By the way this is what I was perceiving I was not pleased at all. I pulled the keg out for about a week to hopefully extract some of those wonderful lupulin oils into the beer. Those qualities have seemed to have faded into the distance (whew!).
First off, I know what most of you are thinking. He really used store bought apple juice? Yes I did. Why? In Mississippi I cannot run down to my local apple orchard and get fresh juice. I have made some pretty good ciders with store bought juice. I used to use a certain kind of apple juice in my ciders, but now I cannot find it anymore which is a bummer. I went with this Wal-Mart brand because it wasn’t from concentrate. Will this make a difference in flavor? Who knows. I know when I pulled a sample before I pitched the yeast, the flavor was really good. It was wifey approved. Also I looked up how to use apple juice in Beer Smith. From the few things I read, was calculate how much sugar is in the juice and just add it in Beer Smith as table sugar. That is what I did. I also made some notes as you’ll see.
Going back to my 
But why did I brew 8 gallons? Well, before I started my boil, I pulled off some wort. A friend wanted to make pastrami and wanted to braise it in beer. I suggested braising it in sweet unhopped wort. I suggested this when braising the meat you wouldn’t make the wort more bitter while letting it break down the fats. I thought this was a really cool idea. The final product was really good and interesting. I think beer wort has some potential to do some really creative things in the kitchen.