Our first attempt at an amber lager and we couldn't be happier with the results. Read on to find out more about how this beer turned out.
Introduction
Vienna lagers have a little more malt character than light lagers, and should be smooth and easy drinking. After much research on recipes, we settled on one shared by Mean Brews, and we feel it really has hit the mark. Let's dive into each of the key areas below to see exactly how it turned out.
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| Vienna Vibes Vienna Lager in the glass |
Appearance
As you can see from the image above, this is one fine looking beer. The colour is absolutely spot on, with a nice brown-amber colour that after a bit of time in the keg has turned crystal clear. In a larger glass and not in direct sunlight, it does appear a little darker, but either way it's right where it should be. There's a thicky, fluffy off-white head with plenty of staying power and leaves some nice lacing on the glass as you enjoy each sip.
Aroma
The aroma is predominantly roasty and brown bread notes from the malt and a tiny bit of lager yeast character as well. Not much in the way of hop aroma which is fine and suitable for the style.
Flavour
The body is medium to medium-light. Flavour notes include hints of chocolate, cocoa and some roast and brown-bread. On the first sip there was perhaps the tiniest hint of caramel, but couldn't really be picked up afterwards, but this is good as we're not after the caramel sweetness you'd get from something like an amber ale. There's a nice, neutral lager yeast character from the W-34/70 yeast, which proves time and time again why it's our favourite and go-to lager yeast. Even when using a single packet and fermented at the upper end of the recommended temperature range, we're failing to find any flaws. It did finish with a higher gravity than expected at 1.015, but you wouldn't know it as the finish isn't particularly full or sweet, and does have a tiny bit of dryness to it that keeps you coming back for more.
The bitterness is quite subdued, which is suitable for the style, and is well balanced with the malt character, though we'd say it does lean slightly towards malty, than bitter. The overall flavour profile is perfect in our opinion with the perfect combination of malt character, bitterness and yeast.
Conclusion
This is one easy drinking, sessionable, amber style lager. It's disappointing we don't have easy access to any commercial versions of this style as a point of comparison, but from what we can tell and comparing against the BJCP guidelines, this one has certainly hit the mark.
Huge thanks to Mean Brews for sharing this recipe.
Check out the link to the Recipe and Brew Day posts below.
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