PROVIDENCE, RI—Today, the Famous Narragansett Beer announces the release of its all-new Imperial Black Steam, a unique 100 percent American-style lager, as the third installment of the brewer’s Private Stock series of limited-edition craft offerings. The new small-batch brew is a California Common, or Steam Beer, an underdeveloped style that originated in mid-19^th century California.

Brewed under the supervision of award-winning Brewmaster Sean Larkin, Narragansett’s Imperial Black Steam delivers a chocolaty raisin and plum flavor balanced with subtle hints of black currant and spice from the Northern Brewers hops. The unfiltered American heritage-style beer was brewed with Choice malts and San Francisco lager yeast at a warmer temperature than most traditional lagers – the process that gives Common beers their signature flavor and assertive hop bitterness.

Imperial Black Steam is the third offering in Narragansett’s Private Stock series, a beer style selected to explore the creative boundaries of the limited-edition craft series while also celebrating the brand’s 123 years of lager heritage. The Imperial Black Steam label is designed with elements of nostalgia depicting a classic turn of the century steamship.

Narragansett Imperial Black Steam, priced at $5.99, is available in 22-ounce bomber bottles throughout Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and select Northern New England markets. The beer is nine percent Alcohol By Volume and 30 IBUs (International Bitterness Units).

For further information on the Narragansett Imperial Black Steam or to find a retailer near you, visit: www.narragansettbeer.com.

California Steam Beer a.k.a. California Common Beer

California steam beer was the bridge between those old styles and the new craft beer movement. This beer type, introduced in the later part of the 19th century, only reached its full potential in the 1970s as the last great American style of the old days and the first great American style of the new craft beer era.

Steam beer originated in about 1851, a little after the California Gold Rush started. It is actually an ale, warm fermented, but with bottom working (lager) yeast instead of the usual top working (ale) yeast normal for that beverage. These mid-nineteenth century immigrant German brewers finished out their beer, in warm California, as they had been taught: that is by lagering it in cool cellars (but not as long, and not as cold). Those German brewers were lager-addicted. In Germany, they had even started lagering their top fermented ales (altbier) and in this new country they were forced to brew bottom-fermented beer at warm temperatures, where cold ferments and lagering were unfeasible.

As time went by, this new beer came to be kräusened in the German (lager) style, rather than primed in the English (ale) fashion. Priming is the addition of sugar to the finished beer, which then causes a ferment in the container, resulting in a small increase to the alcohol content and the carbonation of the finished beer. German brewers felt obligated, even in this new country that had adopted them, to follow the ancient Reinheitsgebot purity law. Sugar was verbotten, so a small volume of kräusen (new fermenting beer) was added directly to the casks before bunging (closing) and delivery. This additional ferment gave the product a rich, creamy head, especially so because the beer was served warmer and therefore under much heavier pressure (carbonation) than we are accustomed to seeing these days.

A beer writer of the time, John Buchner, writing in the Western Brewer, in 1898, gives us the scoop: “Steam Beer is bottom fermenting at high temperatures of 60-69F/15-20C… [the beer] is allowed 10-12 days…from mash tub to glass.” “Steam” refers to strong CO2 pressure 50-60-lbs/in2 caused by kräusening with green beer as priming, thus building steam. Buchner was no fan: “not a connoisseur’s drink… tastes better than raw hopped, bitter and turbid ales.”

Steam beer was a bridge between ales and lagers of the nineteenth century and also a bridge to the twentieth. Even though ice machines became available by the 1870s, steam beer remained popular in San Francisco and other parts of California and, indeed, the nation.

Even as the great lager beer revolution of the mid to late 19th century flowered here and in Europe, a minor movement took place in a parallel vein in California.

California steam beer is the beer style bridge between the 19th and 20th centuries, between the lager revolution and the ale movement that preceded it.

Steam beer, introduced in the last half of the 19th century, was at that time a minor hybrid style, an outgrowth of the lager revolution. Oddly, steam beer, the last great American style of that era, actually reached its full potential in the 1970s as the first great “American” style in the new, mostly ale-producing, craft beer era. The grandfather beer to our beloved microbrew revolution.

A Little History, If You Please

Steam beer was first brewed in about 1851, a little after the California gold rush started. It is very close to being an ale: warm fermented, but with bottom-working (lager) yeast instead of the usual top-working (ale) yeast normal for that beverage.

Lager beer, a child of cooler climes, was necessarily fermented and aged at cold temperatures, often in caves and deep cellars, kept cool by ice blocks harvested in local lakes.

Mid-19th-century California, at gold rush times, with its influx of immigrants, many from central Europe, was a budding market for the new mellow lager beer. Unfortunately, California simply didn’t get cold enough for a lager ferment.

Warm ferment was the only answer. The newly devised system called for an initial ferment in large shallow pans called clarifiers. The beer was then transferred to closed casks, where it was kraeusened in the German (lager) style, rather than primed in the English (ale) fashion. Priming is the addition of sugar syrup to the finished beer. That causes a new ferment resulting in a small increase in alcohol content and carbonation of the finished beer. German immigrant brewers felt obligated, even in this new country that had adopted them, to follow the ancient 1516 Bavarian Reinheitsgebot purity law. Sugar was verboten, so a small volume of kraeusen (new fermenting beer) was added to the casks before bunging (closing) and delivery.

This additional ferment gave the product a rich, creamy head, especially so, because the beer was served warmer and therefore under much heavier pressure (carbonation). Actually, it was about the same pressure as is found in a good bottle of French champagne, some four times the pressure of beer served today. When the beer keg was tapped, there was often a loud hiss. Folks came to call this beer “steam” beer, perhaps for that very reason.

The production of steam beer flourished, and by the end of the 19th century, there were over 100 steam beer breweries in California, with others in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and as far east as Wisconsin. Some of these so-called steam brewers might have labeled themselves “steam” from the fact that they used pasteurization, called “steaming” in those days. At one time, 27 steam beer breweries operated in San Francisco alone, but the number declined, as did the popularity of the product. By the time of Prohibition in 1920, only seven remained.