Adambier

It's ages since I wrote anything about weird old German styles. Far too long. So here's something about one of the most intriguing extinct German styles, Adambier. The beer brewed in Dortmund before the advent of Lager.

I say extinct. Sort of extinct. A couple of American breweries have sold something called Adambier. How closely they resembled the original is open to debate. Until now, I've been unable to discover anything about how it was produced, except that it was matured for a very long time.

Dortmunder Adambier was a strong, sourish top-fermenting beer. Wahl & Henius ("American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades", 1902) has an analysis of the beer performed in 1889. It was around 18º Balling, 7.38% alc. by weight (9.4% ABV) and a lactic acid content about half that of a contemporary lambiek. In contrast to sour beers such as Gose and Berliner Weisse, Adambier, also called Dortmunder Altbier, was heavily hopped. It acquired its sourness much like Porter - through a long secondary fermentation. Bacteria in the lagering vessels slowly changed the beer's character. It needed to be stored for at least a year for this process to take place. At the end of the primary fermentation the beer it was not sour at all. Another beer of this type was Münsterländer Altbier - stilll brewed by Pinkus Müller in Münster today. (Source: "Jahrbuch der Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin, 1911", p.522)

Here are some other texts discussing Adambier I've translated from German:

"1864 Dortmunder beerAdam-Bier. From 0. Reinke. The beer was walled up for 33 years and pulled from the foundations of an old brewery. It contained elongated and round normal yeast, partially sprouting, other than that relatively few bacteria: cocci and rod forms. Inoculated into beer and wort, after several days it began to ferment strongly. Until now, yeast had only been shown to be viable up to a maximum of 18 years. This is the first case, where after 33 years clearly living yeast has been found in beer."
"Vierteljahresschrift über die Fortschritte auf dem Gebiete der Chemie der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, Volume 12", 1897, pages 551-552.

"Adambier, a top-fermenting beer which after a long maturation is drunk as a bottled beer in Dortmund, has the following make up according to Reinke:

[see table below for analysis]

The high lactic acid content and the low Dextrin content of the beer are most unusual. The degree of attenuation was unusually high. The beer was brown, clear, without sediment, unopened it retained its clarity for a long time, the beer was perfectly carbonated and tasted sour, Porter-like. With iodine and ferric chloride there was no especially normal reaction. Microscopic examination showed traces of yeast cells, a few rod bacteria, and also traces of protein."
"Zeitschrift für Angewandte Chemie, Volume 3", 1889, page 466.

I've also uncovered a few analyses. Do you want to see them? 'Course you do.

Adambier
year	Brewery	beer	FG	OG (Balling)	extract	ABW	CO2	protein	maltose	dextrin	lactic acid	Acetic acid	colour	real attenuation	apparent attenuation
1884	Gebr. Meininghaus, Dortmund	Kloster Adambier	1.0199	22.1	7.8	7.81	0.3	1.46			0.18	0.007	5.5	64.7
1864	Unknown	Adambier		26.4	13.38	7.35		0.6619	3.61	5.481	0.36			49.49	60.36
1864	Unknown	Adambier		17.26	3.37	7.38			0.66	0.5	0.61			80.47	98.67
Sources: Jahresbericht fur Agrikultur-Chemie, Volume 27, 1885, page 426 Jahresberichte über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie, Volume 43, 1897, pager 961-962 Zeitschrift für Angewandte Chemie, Volume 3, 1889, page 466.

Er, that's about it. Not a great deal, is it? I'm not sure I'd like to try recreating Adambier on the basis of that. Though the description wasn't bad: brown, clear, sour, a bit like Porter.