Victory Day Franken(Dampf)Bier with Juniper and Kvass

[mashani]

So I was going to brew a short boil extract dampfbier to fill my pipeline with something else low in ABV that I could drink after cycling. I was working on the recipe on the 9th. My neighbor (a Russian Jew) knocks on my door, and hands me a bag full of Kvass wort jars that are close to their exp. date. Says he'll never use them, got them as a gift, but he knows I brew stuff so figured I might be able to use them.

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So who am I to pass up free goodies. But now I have to figure out how to use a bunch of Kvass wort sooner then later. And I don't want to just make Kvass. I need the calories but not all the unfermented simple cane sugar that ends up in Kvass.

I had good luck using a couple of jars of the stuff to supplement a roggenbier in the past, so I figured why not let the Russians trash my dampfbier to celebrate Victory Day. After all, they were just (if not more) involved in defeating the Germans as us and lost way more people in the war. So I used 2 jars in 5 gallons of that and it was fine. So I used 3 jars in this as I had no other rye in it. I will probably make a "rye Belgian single" or something next.

So then I got thinking that Juniper is nice in rye beer too. I've had sathi and kvass with juniper and it's yummy. Sathi made with finnish bakers yeast has a lot of the same types of phenols/esters as wheat beers/Belgian beers. And I have a lot of juniper berries. So in they went.

So it ended up being this. For 5 gallons. 20 minute boil.

3.64# of Kvass Wort (this stuff is only about 1.013PPG, so it's not as much as it sounds)
2# Amber DME
1# Dark DME
10oz Belgian Cassonade sugar. Because if I'm messing with German beer for Victory day, I might as well go all Belgian on their ass too.

20 minute boil

1.0oz French Aramis hops @15 commando. Because if I'm messing with German beer for Victory day, I might as well go all French on their ass too.
0.5oz Dried Juniper Berries @5 (cracked with my mortar/pestle), in a hop sack.

Did a 10 minute "Hop and Juniper Stand" with the lid on, then pulled the Juniper out.

Cooled, split between 2 LBCs, and split a pack of Danstar Munich between them. I usually pitch whole packs, but don't want to lose the Banana esters of the yeast here by over pitching. I just hope the brett didn't get in. Else I will get Victory Day Franken(Dampf)Bier with Juniper, Rye, and Pineapple. Which might be good?

My OG was 1.040
My SRM is god knows what (it will be brown)
IBUs are something like 12-13

It is warm here, so this is going to fermentat the high end if not higher then Munichs range, with my lids barley on - trying to coax out whatever banana I can get like a true dampfbier.

It's hell to get the lid off those jars - if even possible. If you ever get some of it, don't waste your time, just punch a couple of holes in the lid and pour it out. Russians must have can openers with super powers.

[mashani]

If this tastes as good as it smells right now, it's going to be great. Had to put trays under the fermenters, as it's blowing out the lids. Which I wasn't expecting.

[Kealia]

I don't even know what to say about this one, but I'll reiterate that when the zombie apocalypse hits I'm heading your way. You are the MacGyver of beer.

[mashani]

If it's fermentable, I can make beer with it

I wish I had the equipment to have done the "Iron Brewer" comp here, because that would have been fun. I have no fear of weird ingredients.

But the kvass and juniper isn't totally weird to me, I've used both before - so I had no fear of doing this as 5 gallons because I'm 99% sure it's going to make something good to drink unless the only thing you like to drink is IPA. I know the hops and juniper will play nice with it and the wheat beer esters will be nice with it too. I saw no need to use specialty grains here and spend more time brewing as I'll get plenty of interesting flavors from the kvass and dark dme to play against the banana and spice from the hops/yeast and little bit of citrus I will get from the hops. There will be a lot going on here as is.

[mashani]

I thought it settled down as of last night. Woke up this morning and found this again. At least it's only 1/3rd or so of what I had yesterday. It's been pretty impressive blowoff for a smallish beer like substance. Don't know if its the warm temps, the sugar, or the kvass, or the lack of pressure (lids are barely on) that's setting the yeast on fire, but something is making it very happy.

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[mashani]

Well apparently the wheat beer yeast got turned on by the Kvass wort and sugar. I do not taste any of my Brett, nor did I see any signs of pellicle formation, so I do not think my Brett got into it. Somewhere between 1.003 and 1.004 this seems to be. Good thing I didn't use Bella Saison. 90+% attenuation as is. I don't even want to know what Bella would have done to it. I could take the Kvass and sugar out of the recipe and it still should not have ended that low under normal circumstances. So the yeast got very happy.

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It's clearer then I expected too considering this is a non-flocculent yeast strain, I didn't cold crash, and it's not even been in the fermenter for 10 days. The yeast was not compacted, it was very loose, but it still pretty much settled into the cone at the bottom of the LBC.

It tastes dry... dry... dry... like saison bone dry... but without any tart - with a rye and herbal hop spice, banana and bubblegum esters, very slight clove and pine/gin and slight citrus on the finish. I seems that the wheat beer yeast just got turned on by the wort composition and highish temps I fermented at, maybe it likes my semi-open fermentation too. I know that other wheat beer strains do best / make the best flavors with open fermentations. The temps got up to about 72-73 at peak, which is a little bit higher then Windsors recommended range. But that's what you do when you make Dampfbier.

It tastes as I expected, except extra dry. I don't taste anything "wrong" with it that would make me think it's infected.

Instead of the 4% abv I expected, it's closer to 4.8%. Oh well. It's still lawnmowerish.

EDIT: This attenuation seems to bode well for the Belgian Blonde like beer I'm going to brew with the other jar of this stuff tossed in.

[mashani]

So I'm drinking this. Officially in rotation. It's spicy/rye/dry with bananas and bubblegum like fruity esters, and hints of dried fruit. But actually more bubblegum then bananas. So now I know that munich makes bubblegum if you crank up the heat. Which is good to know. I can take advantage of that in a future mixed yeast culture. The juniper is there, but not in your face - the yeast and rye really are driving this more. It's really more like a rye driven saison then anything else because of how dry it is.

There is no citrus - at all - to be found here. If you want that, this ain't your thing. But I like this. It's very easy to drink and very refreshing. And I've never had any commercial beer like it. At all. So it's got points for originality there.

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[jpsherman]

So I'm drinking this. Officially in rotation. It's spicy/rye/dry with bananas and bubblegum like fruity esters, and hints of dried fruit. But actually more bubblegum then bananas. So now I know that munich makes bubblegum if you crank up the heat. Which is good to know. I can take advantage of that in a future mixed yeast culture. The juniper is there, but not in your face - the yeast and rye really are driving this more. It's really more like a rye driven saison then anything else because of how dry it is.

There is no citrus - at all - to be found here. If you want that, this ain't your thing. But I like this. It's very easy to drink and very refreshing. And I've never had any commercial beer like it. At all. So it's got points for originality there.

Ha! I also learned this lesson the hard way. My Munich got a little warm because I used MrB's partial boil and top off method to chill my wort, but I did not chill my top off water enough. Too impatient to let wort cool more, I pitched at 72 degrees (damn noobs ) and managed to create Bazooka Joe in a bottle. After enough aging the bubblegum faded enough to let some malt come through and add some interesting (and delicious) complexity, but sadly the batch was nearly gone by then.

[mashani]

The bubblegum here isn't overpowering to me thankfully - I actually like it quite a lot. But I like stuff like Saison DuPont, so it comes with the territory.

But this now gives me an interesting option for future Saisons if I don't want to deal with liquid yeast. As in I think I can use a mixed culture of say Bella Saison and Munich, and end up getting a similar vibe as if I had used Belgian Saison yeast, but without having to crank up the heat to 90 degrees and/or deal with it's temperamental nature. Just mix some Bella and Munich and ferment at 74 or so, and it should rock. In theory.

[alb]

10oz Belgian Cassonade sugar. Because if I'm messing with German beer for Victory day, I might as well go all Belgian on their ass too.

1.0oz French Aramis hops @15 commando. Because if I'm messing with German beer for Victory day, I might as well go all French on their ass too.

[mashani]

I'm drinking what I think is the last bottle of this. The vast majority was consumed very quickly as it was really easy to drink.

As far as I can tell it has not changed a bit. It's still spicy rye dry bubblegum beer with a splash of gin. I still like it a lot. Mighty tasty for a total Frankenbier. If I end up with a bunch of Kvass wort again I'd seriously consider doing it again.