Yet back in its homeland, ignorance ruled. Meanwhile even though Samuel Adnams’ Boston Lager was not classified as one, it too was deemed to be a version of the style on its release. Brooklyn Lager, writes the eponymous brewery’s brewmaster Garrett Oliver in his classic The Brewmaster’s Table, was based on Vienna lager. Vienna lager even had a role to play in the early years of the American craft beer revolution. Coming in first was no guarantee of success though and within 80 years it had vanished in its home territory, though it was kept alive in both pre- and post-prohibition America as well as Mexico (a legacy of German brewers crossing the Atlantic with Mexico’s most notable example being Dos Equis). Even though what is now known as Pilsner Urquell is often seen as the first on the scene, it was Vienna lager that appeared a year early in 1841. There is a whole world of beer in Austria, but all too often this small country of nine million people in the heart of Central Europe is often overlooked when it comes to the juice of the barley - it is time that this view changed.Īfter all, Austria, or more particularly, Vienna, was the home of Vienna lager, one of the three great lager beers that emerged in this part of Central Europe during the early 1840s - the other members of the trio being Pilsner and Märzen. These include darkly imperious imperial stouts, sprightly, luminous Helles and barrel-aged, wildly fermented, fruit-flavoured beers that defy categorisation. There are plenty of other Austrian beers to consider. It has a whisky-like spirituality alongside plenty of rich malt and an Abbey beer-like candy sweetness in the finish. This is the colour of a tanned, well-used pair of leather riding boots whose owner once kept a country pile in Styria. Let us now taste a vintage beer, brewed annually and then lagered for nearly 12 months before going out into the world. This time, it is a potent and punchy Trappist beer produced by Austrian monks with lots of rum, raisin and chocolate notes the ultimate collaboration beer that joins together the sacred world of prayer and contemplation with the profane one of brewing. Deep golden in colour and glowing like the fabled gold and precious stones of the Nibelung, this is a smooth, full-bodied lager from one of Austria’s oldest breweries. Take a sip: on the palate there is a whirl of bready malt and lemony hop while bitterness and sweetness cooperate in the finish. Let us pour it into the glass and delve into the cultivated and elegantly clean nose with its cereal-like softness rising into the air.
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