“Even though we think of Viennas as amberish-colored beers, at the time it would have been the lightest beer anyone had ever seen, so it would have been dazzling,” says Ranck.Īdditionally, clear glassware had become cheaper to produce (as opposed to stone or wooden drinking vessels). People loved Dreher’s Vienna Lager because it was comparatively light-colored to other beers at the time. It was an immediate hit and something that earned him the title “the beer king.” In 1841 Dreher released the bottom-fermented “Klein-Schwechater Lagerbier” which would soon be called Vienna Lager.
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Techniques such as chilling hot wort to bring it quickly to yeast-pitching temperatures and understanding how to better sanitize equipment.īut Dreher’s true claim to fame? He pivoted from brewing top-fermented beer (ales) to bottom-fermented beer (lagers). “The story is that they would go to these breweries with a hollowed out cane that they’d steal samples with, so they could bring them back to Germany to study ,” says Ranck.īeyond stealing wort, the duo learned how to use technology that hadn’t yet made it’s way to Central Europe. At the time, British brewing technology was on fire.” said Jason Ranck, Neshaminy Creek Brewing Head Brewer, who won medals in the Vienna Lager category at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in 20. “As lagers were getting started, everybody was looking at Britain. They made stops at breweries across the continent, but spent most of their time in Britain, sampling the suds and working as they went. We have a little bit of brewery espionage to thank for the invention of the Vienna lager.Īs the story goes, sometime around the 1820s and 30s, Anton Dreher, Owner of Brauhaus zu Klein-Schwechat in Austria, along with his buddy and fellow brewer, Gabriel Sedlmayr, went on a beer tour of Europe. A Brief History of Vienna Lagers Photography courtesy of Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company We’ll tell you why you shouldn’t sleep on this obscure style. Though seemingly subdued, Vienna lagers have a history as complex and mysterious as their flavor profile. Therefore, people are less likely to order one.
Quite simply: The average drinker just doesn’t know the definition of a Vienna lager. For example, an Oktoberfest, an amber, or in the case of Sam Adams, a Boston lager. And often, even if a beer is technically classified as a Vienna lager, breweries often opt to call it by another name for marketing reasons. Partly because it’s a more challenging beer to produce - it takes longer to ferment and there’s really nowhere for off-flavors to hide. In fact, this copper-hued and malt-forward brew is a fairly rare find. The Vienna lager isn’t your perennial tap list darling.
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