EBCU

by Hubert Hanghofer, www.BierIG.org, April 2010

Common beerstyles

If you order beer in Austria you most probably will get a "Märzen". Austria's traditional beerstyle originated in the 19th century when brewing lager beers was revolutionized by Austria's legendary brewer Anton Dreher. During the 20th century the Märzen style was - like its Bavarian counterpart - more and more adapted towards international (american style) Lagers to keep up with the rising competition in the industrial mass beer market.

What you can expect from an industrial Märzen today is a hoppier version of the "Bavarian Helles". Compared with international Lager and Pils it still exhibits more colour, body and strength (5-5.5% ABV). In general, Märzen beers brewed in higher volumes tend towards "uniformity Lagers" while those brewed by middle class and craftbreweries for the regional market are more traditional - fuller bodied, sometimes hoppier and deep golden to light amber in colour.

Lagers derived from the classic Märzen style account for more than 80% of inland sales (s. table). In most places you'll also find Pilsners (in Austria known as "Pils"). Austrian Pils is geared towards the German style and frequently honored in national and international competitions. In Vienna there are many restaurants that also have imported Bohemian Pils on tap.

Wheat Ale (in Austria known as Weizen- or Weissbier) is brewed in the western Austrian provinces bordering Bavaria where it is also available on tap. But for this style bottles are more common and can even be seen as authentic because bottle conditioning and high carbonation levels (causing problems with dispense) are traditional for Weissbier.

Popular beer mixers

• "Radler" is a shandy (Lager mixed with lemonade) and is available in various flavours - usually premixed, bottled or kegged at the brewery.
• "Saurer Radler" is a dry shandy and a new variant that grows in popularity: Lager mixed at the bar with sparkling mineral- or soda-water.

Speciality Beers for the discerning beer connoisseur

Nowadays craftbeer is very widespread. During the craftbrewing revolution the number of pub- and microbreweries (annual capacity <20.000 hL) has grown form 18 in 1990 to 142 in 2009. During the same time the number of middle-class and industrial breweries has dropped from 45 to 30. Even though craftbeer accounts for only 2% of the volume there are lots of creative beers to discover!

Seasonal Bockbier is available some time around Easter ("Osterbock") and Christmas ("Weihnachtsbock"). Even the bigger breweries accept the annual challenge and keep up with the tradition of brewing a batch or two. Some breweries offer Bockbier all year round.

Because "Bockbier" is often used as a synonym for the strong beer category (original gravity >16°Plato) you may encounter the term "Bock" in conjunction with Weissbier - but usually you'll get a strong Lager.

Statistics and Trends

Source: www.bierserver.at

Even though there is good wine - Austria is a nation of beer drinkers! Per capita consumption levelled out between 107-110 liters over the past couple of years. It peaked at 124 liters in 1991.

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