Even though they’re two distinct types of beer, the American and German beer styles both known as steam beer (dampfbier in German) share something beyond their name: Each is an odd style born of circumstance.
The brewers who first made Anchor Steam in 1896 were trying to make a lager even though lager yeast works best at cold temperature and they lacked refrigeration — or even ice — to cool the beer down. Instead, they used San Francisco’s crisp, foggy air to chill the beer. The process created steam, which is one of two possible explanations for the style’s nickname. (Some suggest the style was called steam beer because of its heavy carbonation.)
While the process was primitive (and not particularly effective) for making a typical lager, it did produce a fruity, malty, well-balanced, amber-hued beer.
Similarly, the Bavarian peasant brewers who made dampfbier used whatever hops and grains were at hand. Typically, that meant barley and the hops they could grow themselves, along with weissbier yeast scrounged from a local weissbier brewery. The resulting concoction produced loads of bubbles on the vat’s surface, which, when they burst, made it look like the liquid was steaming.
When finished, the beer was often called a poor man’s hefeweizen, as the yeast lends the beer a bubble-gum-like flavor similar to that found in the German wheat beer.
The two styles would likely have been forgotten if it weren’t for a couple of guys who saw something worthwhile in their quirkiness.
While Fritz Maytag enjoyed Anchor Steam before buying a share of the brewery in 1965, the beer was wildly inconsistent. “The recipe changed based on the money the brewery had,” explains Mark Carpenter, Anchor’s brewmaster, who has worked at the brewery since 1971. But when the brewery had ample funds, it was good. Really good. And unlike anything else.
Soon after Maytag bought in, he modernized the brewery, adding refrigeration and modern brewing equipment, and standardized the recipe. The approach helped Anchor Steam — with its flavorful, earthy, toasty flavor — become an icon.
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Tony Russomanno, owner and gypsy brewer of the Chicago bar Local Option, took a markedly different path than Maytag five years ago when he decided to put a modern spin on a dampfbier, a style he had read about but never tasted.
His idea was that using the weissbier yeast with barley and German hops would produce a sessionable beer with a distinct flavor. But rather than use any old ingredients, he wanted to use the best ingredients he could find.
“In the old days dampfbier was made out of struggle,” he says. “We don’t need to struggle now, so we used (a) modern interpretation that considered today’s palates using better technology and ingredients that made sense.”
The resulting medium-bodied beer, Dampf Loc, is bready and effervescent with hints of clove and bubble gum. In short, it’s delicious. And it’s just about the only dampfbier you’ll find readily.
While there are countless beers that are weird for the sake of being weird or because their odd combination of ingredients works, there’s something unique about quirkiness rooted in the past.