Steam beer

Steam beer is a highly effervescent beer made by brewing lager yeasts at warmer fermentation temperatures. It has two distinct but related meanings:

Historic steam beer, associated with San Francisco and the U.S. West Coast, was brewed with lager yeast without the use of true refrigeration (by ice or mechanical means). It was an improvised process, originating out of necessity, perhaps as early as the Gold Rush and at least 1860 in Nevada. It was considered a cheap and low-quality beer, as shown by references to it in literature of the 1890s and 1900s.