Vienna-Style Lager

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Location:European
Category:Lager
BJCP Comparable Category:7A - Vienna Lager

Beer Style Description

This is the description of how the Vienna-Style Lager style of beer should taste, feel and look. However, there may be perfectly fine beers in this style that fall outside of these ranges and descriptions. This information is just to show the most commonly accepted ranges for the Vienna-Style Lager beer style.

  • Color: Copper to reddish-brown
  • Body: Medium
  • Malt Flavors & Aromas: Characterized by malty aroma and light malt sweetness, which should have a lightly toasted malt character.
  • Hop Flavors & Aromas: Very low to low, derived from noble-type hops.
  • IBUs/Bitterness: Low to medium-low, clean and crisp.
  • Fermentation Characteristics: DMS, diacetyl, and fruity esters should not be present.
  • Common Ingredients: Vienna malt provides a lightly toasty and complex, Maillard-rich malt profile. As with Märzens, only the finest quality malt should be used, along with Continental hops (preferably Saazer types or Styrians). Can use some caramel malts and/or darker malts to add color and sweetness, but caramel malts shouldn’t add significant aroma and flavor and dark malts shouldn’t provide any roasted character.
  • Commercial Examples: Cuauhtémoc Noche Buena, Chuckanut Vienna Lager, Devils Backbone Vienna Lager, Figueroa Mountain Danish-style Red Lager, Heavy Seas Cutlass Amber Lager, Schell’s Firebrick

Brewing Properties of Vienna-Style Lager

These are the functional brewing properties of Vienna-Style Lager beers, as descided by the Brewers Association. These guidelines reflect, as accurately as possible, the historical significance, authenticity or a common profile in the current commercial beer market.

ABV
The alcohol by volume is shows the amount of alcohol this style of beer should have.
4.8 - 5.4%
Bitterness
The International Bittering Units (IBU) scale is used to approximately quantify the actual (not perceived) bitterness of beer.
22 - 28 IBUs
SRM
SRM is a scale for measuring the color intensity of a beer. Low SRM grains impart a pale straw color while higher values mean it will add a darker color to the wort. Learn more »
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10 - 18 SRM
(20 - 35 EBC)
Original Gravity
Original Gravity (OG) is a measure of the sugar content in the wort before alcoholic fermentation has started to produce the beer.
1.046 - 1.056
Final Gravity
The Final Gravity (FG) is how much sugar is left over in the beer when fermentation is complete.
1.012 - 1.018

If you see an error in our data, please let us know!

Based on Brewers Association 2020 Beer Style Guidelines with changes. Used with permission of Brewer's Association.