Steam beer

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. It was an improvised process, originating out of necessity, and was considered a cheap, low-quality beer, as shown by references to it in literature of the 1890s and 1900s.

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.