Kentucky common beer

Before modern refrigeration, most breweries depended on ice cut the previous winter for producing beer.

With an influx of European immigrants into Louisville during the mid 19th century, there was an increased demand for beer in the area.

Common beer was fermented at higher temperatures like an ale, but was aged for a very short period of time if at all before being consumed, thus eliminating any need to keep it cool.

Assumptions that Kentucky Common was a sour beer are based on the description of the style written in 1906[5] however, based on brewing records, the mash lengths and hopping rates would have made sour mashing impossible as Lactobacillus delbruekii and Lactobacillus hordei used in sour mashing are both hop sensitive, lacking the HorA[6] gene.

[18] Ghost Brewing Company in Bay Shore, New York make a Kentucky Common called Afterlife.

[19] Hops Brewery in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque brews Dad Joke, a Kentucky common, year-round.

[23] This kind of beer was usually made with 6 row barley, approximately 25 to 30 percent corn grits and 1 to 2 percent each caramel or caramel malts and black malt to counteract the high bicarbonate water.

The beer is an easy-drinking, slightly sweet, dark amber to light brown ale.