Reassure My Lager...

[FedoraDave]

Fancy talk from a guy who threatened to sue me for making South Ferry Steam Beer!

But I've never heard of dampfbier; I might have to give that a try next summer....

[mashani]

Nah, I won't sue you. But Anchor will if you sell it to me.

Dampfbier is basically wheat beer made with no wheat - just Pilsner or Pale malt. Using a German wheat yeast. With some dark grains tossed in if you like (but it should not be roasty). And fermented at as high as a temperature as you can stand letting that baby go at to get all the banana or bubblegum, or other fruit depending on the yeast strain you like (or if you hate that then lower for the cloves / more phenolic vibe). But warm is more accurate to old style, that's why it's called Dampf (steam).

The flavors are all yeast driven. So yeast is important. Don't use American wheat yeast. It isn't what you are looking for here.

It's basically poor mans beer. Made with whatever malt you had (which was not wheat because you sold all that to the bakers and wheat beer factory). And with yeast you bummed from that same wheat beer factory when you delivered the grain to them. And you couldn't afford hops, so you just threw your backyard stuff in there to get some bittering. Some of my old German ancestors lived in the places this was made, and likely made it for themselves, so I decided to do it once a year too. It's easy drinking lawnmower beer.

[BlackDuck]

Thanks for the Dampfbier explanation. I was not familiar with it either. Sounds quite interesting.

[Kealia]

Fancy talk from a guy who threatened to sue me for making South Ferry Steam Beer!

That would have been me, Dave - not mashani

[mashani]

FWIW, the best Dampfbier I've made was made using Wyeast 3638.

It makes a more complex ester profile then most German wheat beer strains. But it will blow up your fermenter if your not careful, so be careful. But since this style is all about the yeast, the more complex the yeast flavors the better. Unless you just like banana and cloves.

[MadBrewer]

I have a picnic tap hooked up to this and have been sampling it here and there. I'm feeling better about it compared to the hydro sample at kegging. It seems to be getting better, well at least I don't taste or smell the same character nearly as much as I did in the hydro sample. So hopefully several more weeks of lagering does this beer good which it should.

I'm thinking about replacing my bucket fermenter, some hoses and my auto siphon. It's about that time anyway, but if I picked up any bugs from my equipment I don't want that to continue. I've had only 1 or two infected batches. I think they were pelicle infections, at least one of them. Everything with this batch checks out ok, it reached FG, Final beer ph was 4.3 which is perfect, the beer is clear. I'm not saying it was infected, but something just still feels off about it. I have to let it lager fully before I say so completely. Some deep cleaning and new equipment wont hurt in the meantime.

[Kealia]

I hear you on the equipment. I just recently replaced my bucket, my stirring spoon, siphon and hoses, etc.

Nothing was wrong with them but I'd had them a while and wanted to get in front of any potential problems. It's a small investment for peace of mind IMO.

Glad to hear the beer is turning around for you.

[mashani]

FWIW, most beer infecting bugs hate it at 50-52 degrees. That's one of the reasons folks who hated "beer" or "ale" found that they liked lagers way back in the old world. The idea of "clean" beer was different back then. Lagers were "clean" because lager yeasts out competed just about everything at those types of temps. At 64 degrees or < my house Brett pretty much turns off. At 70-80 degrees, it's much more likely to have a party in my beer. So I am just saying, I wouldn't worry so much about an infection, it's doubtful you have anything that competed with your lager yeast at 50-52 degrees.

[MadBrewer]

Thats good to hear Mashini...I never knew that. I figured bugs where bugs but that makes a lot of sense.

Since the flavor is improving and not getting worse I would think infection is out. Going forward I'll be a little more careful with Lagers. I thought about making the jump to a glass carboy but bukets have fine for me. I have an autosiphon that is several yrs old that will be something I also get new.