Dampfbier revisited

[unionrdr]

I'm getting ready to brew up my first saison tomorrow. This got me to thinking about an old recipe idea for a little known Bavarian beer style called Dampbier (pronounced dumm pff beer). Being the original steam beer,I thought it might be good to brew this time of year. I thought about & researched it a year or two ago & it slid by the wayside over the course of time. Since I now brew pb/pm biab,I thought I'd try it finally. I found this from BYO; http://byo.com/stories/item/530-dampfbier-style-profile It lists an AG & an E/SG recipe for it. Since I don't have the volume for AG,I'll have to try the E/SG recipe. Being from Upper Bavaria,I thought it appropo to brew one up. It's the original steam beer. Here's the page from The German Beer Institute on it;http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/Dampfbier.html I've got some Bavarian whet beer yeast blend in the fridge,though it's old & not sure if I can revive it. Been washed once & stored since last summer. Wyeast 3056. But since it doesn't produce as much esters as others,it might not be quite right for the style? They say to use Weihenstephan yeast or whit labs 380. I guess those give the ester profile of the original?

 

[Beernik]

Mine is 1/2 carbonated. It's this year's summer beer at my house.

I used a light colored Oktoberfest recipe for it: 1/3 Pilsner, 1/3 Munich 10L, and 1/3 Vienna.

I used Columbus hops at 60 minutes to give it a little wild hop character.

I wanted to use Wyeast 3068 or White Labs 380. But neither of my LHBS had them, so I used White Labs 300. I used a 75% pitch rate vs. regular ales and fermented at 54F for two days and let it rise to 64F.

Basically, it tastes like a fruity/estery Oktoberfest and I'm loving it.

It's really interesting how the yeast flavors play differently against barley vs. wheat. I don't know that I'd pick them out as hefe esters if I didn't already know.

 

[unionrdr]

Whew! Been runnin' since 10:30AM. finally time to relax. That boy's gonna run me ragged yet. Anyway,I like how it's all barley malts fermented with a wheat ale yeast. The German one's an ale,the American steam beer's a lager.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,it looks like Weyermann malts,the LME anyway,isn't available in the USA atm. The E/SG recipe from BYO uses;
5 1/4 lbs Weyermann Bavarian Pilsner LME
2 lbs Weyermann Munich type I malt 6L-grain
1 oz 4% AA Hallertauer Mittelfruh hops @ 45 minutes
1/2 oz Hallertauer Mittelfruh hops @ 0 minutes
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen or White Labs WL380 Hefeweizen IV yeast
1/2C plain light DME for priming
The weyermann LME isn't going to happen a this point in time. I could use a good substitute for that one? Midwest has it in the malted grain version. It seems like this one would do nicely in place of the Munich type I malt?; http://www.midwestsupplies.com/maillard-malts-weyermann-german-munich-malt.html Need some input here for substitutions?...
**Just had another thought. Since Midwest carries the Weyermann Bavarian pilsner malted grain,why not just do a partial mash version of the E/SG recipe? With this conversion chart http://www.jaysbrewing.com/2011/11/17/lazy-chart-for-converting-dme-lme-grain/. Midwest has the bavarian pilsner malted grain-http://www.midwestsupplies.com/maillard-malts-weyermann-bohemian-pilsner-malted-grain.html. Use 1-3.15 lb jug of pilsner LME & about 2.5 lbs of the bavarian pilsner malt mashed with the light Munich malt @ the 152F in the recipe? # I started working on the pm recipe for it in BS2 after having to add the 3 malts I found to sub in. Recipe page says-OG 1.048>FG 1.010>IBU 14>SRM 5.2 ABV 5%. BS2 so far says- OG 1.047>FG 1.011>IBU 14.7>SRM 4.6>ABV 4.7%. Pretty close so far with WL 380 yeast.

 

[Beernik]

If it was me, depending on how much space I had in the brew pot, I'd use Pilsen DME and partial mash the Munich 10L or use Munich DME and partial mash the Pilsen.

152F sounds like a good temperature.

Munich DME is harder to find, but it is out there.

I'm not a fan of LME. But that's a personal bias.

 

[unionrdr]

I'll be adding the LME @ flame out so far. That's when I usually add them anyway,including in partial mash. I just wish I could've obtained the Weyermann Bavarian pilsner LME. Comes in 8.8 lb jugs though for some $45-$49.
So far,the recipe in BS2 looks like this;
<Lake Erie Steam-Dampfbier>
3.15 lbs Pilsen LME (Maillard)
2.5 lbs Bohemian pilsner malt-grain (Weyermann)
2.0 lbs Light Munich malt-grain (Weyermann)
1 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh Hops (45 minutes)
.5 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh Hops (0 minutes)
WL 380 Hefeweizen IV Ale yeast
Grains mashed @ 152F 1 hour. Dunk sparged,then hop additions. LME added @ flame out.

 

[Beernik]

Good luck with it. Let me know how it turns out.

Mine just got the seal of approval from my brother. I think I finally hooked him into homebrewing.

 

[Beergnomes]

I'm getting ready to brew up my first saison tomorrow. This got me to thinking about an old recipe idea for a little known Bavarian beer style called Dampbier (pronounced dumm pff )

Sorry but not quite right. The a makes an ah sound not a short u, soften the p and follow with the f. One thing about German, unlike us, their proper pronunciations follow their alphabet pretty strictly. Add a few combination rules & know their alphabet and you will be able to pronounce anything.
:fro:

 

[unionrdr]

I got the pronunciation from the German beer institute site. Even though my family's from there,I don't know much of the grammar. Thanks for the correction.
Gotta clean up the fermenter & find a larger OD seal for the spigot before I can brew it. Maybe tomorrow? I have the ingredients & the WLP 380 yeast vial. Can't wait to brew this one finally. Gotta head out to lowe's for the seals,since they sell those blue & white taps. I figured they'd have it,as Home Depot doesn't.

 

[Beergnomes]

Doing a German style for my next brew too. Created a recipe for a Westphalian Altbier. Hope I nail it. Good luck with yours and post progress.

 

[unionrdr]

I gotta cut the seals out of some thin rubber gasket material Lowe's sells. They'll go on the inside end of the spigot once I get the FV cleaned & rinsed. Then I can get the pm dampfbier going. I'll post up how it goes at that point,hopefully today. Here's a pic of the additional seal I just made for the inside end of the spigot;

 

[sumbrewindude]

Maybe use a sharpened edge of some conduit/pipe to cut out the circles? I'm sure those would be functional, just need to be cleaned up a little.

(Damphbier related - because of the recent chatter about them, I'm making one next go around..)

 

[unionrdr]

Don't have any conduit & my hollow punches don't go that big. Here's a couple shots sanitized & in place;


Looks like it's sealed up OK. But I'll have to do a fresh water rinse to test it. I also cleaned up some burrs around the mounting hole with the razor knife,79c on sale at Lowe's. My son has to be at work at 2pm,so I'll get an early start in the morning on the dampfbier. I'm pumped about this one after musing on it for a couple years. It's supposed to cool down some starting tomorrow afternoon. I hope that'll help initial fermentation a little...

 

[unionrdr]

Looking over my BS2 recipe & the BYO one in the link provided for grain amounts.
Gotta get the grains crushed after I rinse the PBW off the grain bag. I gotta try to get to the chill part by the time son has to go to 2nd job.

 

[unionrdr]

4.5lbs grain crushed & heating mash water to 152F,according to BYO AG instructions for the mash. Grain bed temp is supposed to go up to 168F for a (1 hour!) sparge. I'm just going to dunk sparge at that temp as usual. I'm going to mash 4.5 lbs of grains in 2 gallons of spring water. I want to see how well my process fits this style of ale...named it Lake Erie Steam.

 

[unionrdr]

Grains mashing @ 152F while I heat the 1.5 gallons sparge water to 168F. Glad I picked up a 2nd floating thermometer. One for the mash & one for the sparge. The mash looks like a nice golden color & smells like some kind of German deli bread,being all Weyermann malts.

 

[unionrdr]

Got the boil going with the 45 minute bittering addition of 1 oz US hallertau (Couldn't find Hallertauer Mittelfreuh locally). Last hop addition is .5oz of same @ 0 minutes. Cuttin it close to time to take my son to work. Gonna be a long steep...

 

[unionrdr]

0 minute steep lasted from 1:35pm to 2:41pm. Oh well,had to take son to work & get a 22 lb bag of ice for the wort chill. According to the BYO link,Dampfbier By The Numbers;
OG 1.048
FG 1.010
SRM 3-8,depending on the lovibond of the Munich malt
IBU 14
ABV nowadays,6-8%
*Beersmith 2 numbers;
Est OG 1.047-Actual 1.048 NAILED IT!
SRM 4.6
IBU 14.7
Est ABV 4.7%
Pitched WLP 380 yeast @ 65F. Color looks like it'll be a nice golden. Aeration through the dual layer fine mesh strainer gave a few inches of foam. Topped off with ice chilled spring water,as fridge fubared a week ago. Nice to have a brew day done by 4:11pm! :rockin:

 

[unionrdr]

Well,the WLP 380 started fermenting @ 9:25am,albeit slowly. Light,rapid bursts of bubbles. Never saw one do that before...

 

[unionrdr]

As of this morning,even though it's quite chilly in here,the beer is fermenting lightly but steadily @ 72F. The story behind the beer says the German's fermented it @ 70F to get the yeast esters they wanted in the beer. Hopefully 72F will do,as long as it drops a little soon. Otherwise it's going rather well so far. Last night while I was storing away newly cleaned equipment,I got a whiff of what smelled almost like a wheat beer fermenting. But not quite,as there's no wheat in the recipe. The hefeweizen IV yeast is apparently making some interesting esters?...

 

[unionrdr]

Internal temp is down to 66F with the cold nights & mornings around here. It's definitely past initial fermentation as well. Still got whiffs of the hefe yeast working as of last night. This yeast seems to be a steady fermenter,but not too aggressively so.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,I just finished bottling it a little bit ago. Hard to find priming info, but BYO article I made the PM recipe from said it doesn't have a lot of effervescence. So I primed it to 2.4 volumes of co2 with dextrose & water solution. That's the low end of Cali steam beer. German version does lighter co2 & uses Hefe yeast. I got 54 2/3's- 12 oz bottles. Now the wait begins. At this point, after 4 weeks or so in primary, it seems to have developed a mild Belgian funk!

 

[sumbrewindude]

Sooooo making a damphbier for the next brew.

Honestly trying to decide between liquid Westphalian or dry WB06 for it, but the base recipe I've got nailed down.

 

[unionrdr]

Well, the dampfbier will be in the bottles 3 weeks this Tuesday. But I put 4 of'em in the cooler today. Just have to see the end of next week how they are. Should be getting my car outta the shop about the same time, finally! We'll see how they look & taste then. The bottles are crystal clear, with what looks like a golden to gold with an amber blush. We'll know next weekend. Also, I fermented mine with WLP380 Hefeweizen IV ale yeast. The BYO article's description basically says Dampfbier uses a hefe yeast.

 

[unionrdr]

Well, here's the first pic of the end result;

It has low carbonation to style. But it tastes like a cross between a lightly-hopped ale & a wheat beer. Not bad, but will have to research the style more. I used mostly German ingredients, save for the Weyermann LME which I couldn't obtain. German Hallertau hops too. I think I'll move the hop times around as well. I think it needs a little more character. But the color is pretty close to what I saw on the German beer institute site.

 

[brewbama]

Looks great. I also tried a Dampfbier based on your idea a while back. Unfortunately my Weizen yeast was DOA due to travel in the Alabama heat despite the ice pack. So I had to use my emergency stock of US-05. It produced a nice Blonde Ale. My do over is this Friday with Danstar dry Weizen yeast.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[unionrdr]

The liquid WLP 380 yeast really makes it taste like a wheat ale. But I have to question why it has the wheat beer hit to it when there's no wheat in it? I didn't think the Hefeweizen IV yeast would lend that much wheat bier character? I'm thinking of moving the 0 minute addition to 3 minutes & maybe add a 1oz flavor addition @ 10 minutes to give it a bit more character. The 0 minute addition is just too light to smell very much. And a little spicy/herbal flavors in the over-all complexity would be better, in my opinion. I'll be interested to hear how the US-05 worked out. Next time, I'm considering using this Danstar dry wheat bier yeast;
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/danstar-munich-german-wheat-beer-yeast.html ?...

 

[beersk]

I bottled up a dampfbier last Wednesday. Anxious to try it. I brewed one last year that was good. This one was about 70/30 Weyermann floor malted pils and Red X malt, bittered with Hersbrucker to maybe 18 IBU, fermented with WLP300 at around 70. Tasted good going into the bottles. I primed to about 2.6 or 2.7 volumes I think.

 

[unionrdr]

I think I primed mine to like 2.3 VCO2. It's supposed to be low carbonation by the BYO article's recipe.