steam beer

[Steve Hicks]

       I don't think anyone's given the explanation for "steam" beer
beer that I heard when introduced to it as a young sailor passing
through San Francisco in the late '60s:  that the beer (and the
name) originated when hordes of gold-seekers suddenly des-
cended on the quiet Mexican settlement ofYerba Buena in
1849...and didn't want to wait for their beer.

       The story was that some mechanic who recognized a boom-
market when he saw one came up with the idea of running steam
pipes through the wort, speeding fermentation (and profit).


                                                                   Steve Hicks
                                                                   Hicks
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