Steam beer

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Steam beer, also known as California common beer, is made by fermenting lager yeast at a higher than normal temperature.

Historically steam beer came from Bavaria, Germany, and is associated with San Francisco and the West Coast of the United States.^[1] It was an improvised process, originating out of necessity,^[1] and was considered a cheap, low-quality beer, as shown by references to it in literature of the 1890s and 1900s.^[2]

Modern steam beer originated with the Anchor Brewing Company, which trademarked the term in 1981 (and ceased operations in 2023). Although the modern company had corporate continuity with a small brewery which made beer since the 1890s, Anchor Steam was a modern craft-brewed lager. The company did not claim any close similarity between its present-day product and turn-of-the-20th-century steam beer.^{[citation needed]}