What is a Vienna Lager?

The Vienna Lager is a fantastic style you will love, mainly if you are sick of only finding IPAs everywhere you go. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good IPA, but something must be said for variety.

Vienna lagers could be described as a moderate-strength continental amber lager with a soft, smooth maltiness. They tend to have a balanced, moderate bitterness, and the brew should finish dry. The malt flavor for Viennas is meant to be clean, bready-rich, and a bit toasty.

In the United States, there is a real problem with European beer styles regarding how well we understand them. For many years, the BJCP guidelines for these beers were based on oxidized and poorly handled examples shipped overseas. This meant that what we came to know as a Vienna lager, a Munich Helles, a Marzen, or Oktoberfest needed to be corrected.

While Viennas are meant to be malty, they are not intended to be sweet and, as I mentioned, should finish on the dry side. There is a misconception among many craft drinkers and brewers that maltiness and sweetness are the same. This notion is entirely false. Maltiness is about the flavors derived from malt, like grainy, bready, biscuity notes. Malt can contribute to the perception of sweetness sometimes, but it is not sweet. Sweetness is much simpler: it is the sweet taste you might find in a beer with a good amount of residual sugars (sugars that were not metabolized by yeast).

BJCP Guidelines

Overall Impression: A moderate-strength continental amber lager with a soft, smooth maltiness and a balanced, moderate bitterness, yet finishing relatively dry. The malt flavor is clean, bready-rich, and somewhat toasty, with an elegant impression derived from quality base malts and process, not specialty malts or adjuncts.

Appearance: Light reddish amber to copper color. Bright clarity. Large, off-white, persistent head.

Aroma: Moderately-intense malt aroma, with toasty and malty-rich accents. Floral, spicy hop aroma may be low to none. Clean lager character. A significant caramel, biscuity, or roasted aroma is inappropriate.

Flavor: Soft, elegant malt complexity is in the forefront, with a firm enough hop bitterness to provide a balanced finish. The malt flavor tends towards a rich, toasty character, without significant caramel, biscuity, or roast flavors. Fairly dry, soft finish, with both rich malt and hop bitterness present in the aftertaste. Floral, spicy, or herbal hop flavor may be low to none. Clean fermentation profile.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light to medium body, with a gentle creaminess. Moderate carbonation. Smooth.

Comments: A standard-strength everyday beer, not a beer brewed for festivals. Many traditional examples have become sweeter and more adjunct-laden, now seeming more like International Amber or Dark Lagers.

Characteristic Ingredients: Traditionally, best-quality Vienna malt, but can also use Pils and Munich malts. Traditional continental hops. Clean German lager yeast. May use small amounts of specialty malts for color and sweetness.

Style Comparison: Similar malt flavor as a Märzen, but lighter in intensity, and body, with a touch more bitterness and dryness in the balance. Lower in alcohol than Märzen or Festbier. Less rich, malty, and hoppy than Czech Amber Lager.

Vital Statistics:

IBU: 18 – 30

SRM: 9 – 15

OG: 1.048 – 1.055

How Mexico Played a Major Role in Vienna Lagers

Vienna Lagers were created as a result of advancements in malting technology. Before the 19th century, malting was performed using an open flame, and this often meant darker, smokier malts. But once indirect malting kilns were created by Anton Dreher of Austria in 1841, it was suddenly possible to kiln malts to lighter hues.

Vienna lagers did indeed originate in Austria. However, they became less popular in Europe over time. By the end of the 19th century, Vienna Lagers had made their way to North America, Mexico due to a large migration of Austrians to Mexico. Santiago Graf immigrated to Mexico and brought the style of Vienna Lager with him.

This is why you still find German and Austrian characteristics and ingredients in Mexican beer.

19th Century Vienna vs 21st Century Vienna

How has this style changed over time?

In the 19th century, Vienna Lagers were made with a single malt that was meticulously kilned. Brewing these in the 19th century meant using a triple decoction, which is no small task. These beers also had quite a lengthy lagering time.

Today, there are primarily two genres of Vienna Lagers:

1. 1980’s and 1990’s versions that used a lot of specialty malts
2.  Recent versions going back to basics with few or even no specialty malts.

For this brew, I am doing a more recent version, as I only have a couple of specialty malts: Pale Chocolate and Munich! (And Vienna, if you count that).

I, against my better judgment, will NOT be doing any decoctions. 

However, beware that to get your best Vienna, you would want at least one decoction to lend melanoidins to your finished product.

Melanoidins are created via Maillard reactions. You have experienced these before if you have eaten a steak or grilled meat that was fired at a high temperature, making it taste almost sweet! (This is why you should preheat your grill for a good steak at around 500 – 600F).

Melanoidins and Maillard Reaction

Melanoidins are responsible for a bunch of key traits in beer:

1. Color. Can add a rich brown color.
2. Flavor and Aroma. Imparts toasted, caramel and malty flavors. Adds a perception of sweetness.
3. Stability. Melanoidins have antioxidant properties, enhancing stability of beer. (Less prone to oxidation induced off-flavors)
4. Mouthfeel. Gives a fuller and rounder taste.
5. Foam Stability. Positively influence foam through complex reactions.

This process begins with the condensation of a reducing sugar, like glucose or maltose, and an amino acid. Amino acids are essential and appear at every turn in the brewing process!

Once the reaction triggers, a series of intermediates are formed, like reductones and deoxyosones. Next, these intermediates transform, developing advanced glycation end products (AGEs).

When additional heat is applied with proteins or amino acids present, they polymerize to form melanoidins!

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Recipe

A Note on Dark Malts

One of the significant callouts here is related to the pale chocolate malt. When you don’t want astringency or acrid flavors from dark malts, according to Gordon Strong, you should add dark grains at the very end of the mash.

This is critical to achieving a high-scoring beer with something other than burnt or charcoal flavors.

In a beer as delicate as a Vienna Lager, you only want the color of the dark malts to shine through but none of the harsh flavors that can come from mashing with them too long. So, when milling, separate your dark grains from the rest.

Conclusion

Check back soon for photos and tasting notes of the finished brew! It is currently carbonating.