News & Updates

The next August Schell 150th Anniversary Draft Series beer is…

Schell’sA Dampfbier. On August 1st, August Schell Brewing Co. will release a beer honoring Otto Schell, the second president of Schell’s (1902-1911). The beer is a Bavarian Forest Dampfbier. As the folks at Schell’s put it,

Dampfbiers came from southern Bavaria during the late eighteenth century, when the Bavarian Forest was was one of the poorest regions in Bavaria.  Wheat was too valuable to be wasted on beer brewing, and the hops of the nearby Hallertau region were too expensive to purchase. So brewers developed an all barley beer, but didn’t have the temperature control to produce lagers.  With ales being a rarity in Germany, it required the brewer to travel to the nearest Weissbier brewery and scrounge some yeast to brew their Dampfbier.

Jace tells me it’s an all-barley beer fermented with their weizen yeast. Sounds good to me!

12 comments

  1. beachscrat says:

    Ahh the German “Steam” beer. I always wanted to try one of these. I really like the Hefeweizen yeast that they use, so this should be a good one. Especially when it’s nice and fresh!

  2. ryan says:

    I’m really curious to try this one. There has been a little talk here and there on the homebrew forums about the style and I’d been toying with the idea of brewing one, esp. since there aren’t many commercial examples. I guess I’ll try Schell’s version first.

  3. Trav says:

    Are there ANY commercial examples? I had never heard of this style before.

  4. ryan says:

    I’m not terribly sure, trav.

    I love how this is already on Ratebeer…

  5. beachscrat says:

    Just one commercial example (that I can find)
    “Erste Dampfbierbrauerei Zwiesel W. Pfeiffer KG” I read about this beer in an old BYO magazine.

    It’ll be cool to see if the banana and clove stuff comes through even without using wheat as a fermentable. Some people say that the hefeweizen yeast needs proteins that are only found in wheat to make those characteristics.

  6. surlybrewer says:

    actually, the compounds that the yeast needs to create those flavors(bannana,clove,etc) come from malted barley not wheat.
    (ie Cynic has no wheat,lots of clove,bubblegum and spice)
    HTH
    Cheers!

  7. Steve says:

    Already on Ratebeer? Losers.

    It’s nice to see the beers like this from Schells, along with things like the Keller and the dunkel. I like to see this sort of style exploration rather than the more-hops-big-beer tired school of thought.

  8. David Berg says:

    Both wheat and barley contain ferulic acid, so you can get the clove flavor from either. I’m not sure which grain has more, though.

  9. beachscrat says:

    That’s the compound I was trying to remember: Ferulic Acid. So probably the same acid rest at 109f-112f with the barley (instead of wheat) would get you enough of the Ferulic Acid for the yeast to make enough of the yummy clove phenols (4-vinyl guaiacol) to complement the banana esters.

  10. I’m looking forward to this beer!

    How do you pronounce ‘Dampfbier’? It looks like a word that might generate confusion with the bar staff, especially if the bar is noisy.
    “What can I get you?”
    “I’ll have a damn beer.”
    “Okay wiseguy! Which damn beer do you want?”
    “Schell’s damn beer.”
    “Damn it! We’ve got four different beers by Schell’s! Which one?”

  11. ryan says:

    Pronunciation guide for English-speakers:
    “dumm-pff-beer”

  12. Angie B says:

    Just got back from a trip to the Schell’s Brewery. They have the Dampfbier on tap in the tasting room. I absolutely loved it! I am a huge fan of the Hefeweizen, and this is basically a step up from that. I can’t wait for it to be released so I can have another!

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