Vienna Lager

A Vienna lager pours light reddish amber to copper, bright, under a large off-white head. It tastes of soft, elegant, toasty malt, bready and rich without caramel or roast, balanced by a firm bitterness, and finishes fairly dry. At 4.7–5.5% it is an everyday beer, not a festival one.

Where it comes from

Anton Dreher developed it at his family’s brewery at Schwechat, near Vienna, in 1841. He had studied at Sedlmayr’s Spaten brewery in Munich and at Barclay Perkins in London, made pale malt the English way and brewed it with lager yeast from Munich, lagering the beer cold in his own cellars. The style spread in the later 1800s, and Austrian brewers who emigrated, among them Santiago Graf, took it to Mexico. In Vienna, Ottakringer’s Wiener Original is a classic example, and Schwechat still brews a Wiener Lager.

Brewers traditionally use the best Vienna malt, sometimes with Pilsner and Munich malt, continental hops and a clean German lager yeast. The BJCP notes that many traditional examples have become sweeter and use more adjuncts.

How to serve it

Pour it at 7–10 °C into a flute. It goes with grilled meats and vegetables, mild cheeses or almond biscotti.

Next to its neighbours

It has the malt of a Märzen, but lighter in intensity and body, a little more bitter and drier, and weaker than a Märzen or a Festbier. It is less rich, malty and hoppy than a Czech amber lager.

Vienna Lager in numbers

Classic examples

Schwechater, Ottakringer

Original gravity

1.048–1.055

Final gravity

1.010–1.014

Food

Grilled meats and vegetables; mild cheeses; almond biscotti

Classic examples

Ottakringer Wiener Original; Schwechater Wiener Lager; Theresianer Vienna; Devils Backbone Vienna Lager; Chuckanut Vienna Lager

BJCP style

7A Vienna Lager

Sources

Checked October 30, 2026.

1. 7A. Vienna Lager, 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — Beer Judge Certification Program
2. Vienna-Style Lager — CraftBeer.com, Brewers Association
3. Our breweries — Brau Union Österreich