Vienna Vibes - Vienna Lager - All Grain Recipe

We've made a number of light lagers recently, so in order to continue our quest of continuously trying new and interesting beer styles, we've turned our attention to brewing a Vienna Lager. With more malt character than a regular light lager, the Vienna lager strikes a delicious balance between maltiness and bitterness.

Vienna Lager Beer Style Overview

Vienna lager is a traditional beer style that originated in Austria in the mid-19th century. It is characterised by its amber to reddish-brown color and smooth, malty flavor. The malt profile typically includes a toasty, slightly sweet taste with a hint of caramel, balanced by a moderate hop bitterness. This beer style is known for its clean, crisp finish, making it a refreshing yet flavorful option.

Vienna lagers are usually brewed with a combination of Vienna malt and other specialty malts, which contribute to their distinctive color and taste. They are fermented at cooler temperatures, which helps to produce a clean, well-rounded beer. Overall, Vienna lagers are appreciated for their balance, drinkability, and rich malt character.

Recipe Rationale

Recipe Source

We've spent a bit of time researching recipes, and have ultimately settled on this one which was posted on Brewfather by Mean Brews.

As the name suggest, Mean Brews uses statistical data to formulate recipes that closely match BJCP style guidelines. The original recipe has won numerous awards so we figured it's a great starting point for our own recipe.

You can see some more information about the original recipe in the Mean Brews Vienna Lager video on YouTube.

Grain Bill

The grist is predictably comprised of mostly Vienna malt, with a mixture of Munich and Pilsner malt to make up the majority of the difference. There is a bit happening with this grist with six different malts being used, but what we particularly liked about the Mean Brews recipe was that it didn't require a decoction mash and included some melanoidin malt to give a bit more complexity and character to the beer. The small amount of Carafa Special III is simply to darken the colour a little more.

Hops

We've opted for a high alpha acid bittering hop (Warrior) in order to use less of it in the 60 minute boil. Our 10 minute addition is our favourite noble hop variety, Saaz, that gives a beautiful, unique, spicy and floral character that we just love.

No whirlpool or dry hops here which should make for a fairly simple brew day.

Yeast

It's hard to go past our favourite yeast variety, W-34/70 for a recipe like this. We're opting to only use a single packet this time (we normally use two), so will be fermenting a little bit warmer at 18°C in order to not work the yeast too hard by keeping the temperature at the lower end of the range like we normally would. We may also utilise some pressure during the fermentation to suppress any off-flavours from developing, but W-34/70 is known for fermenting relatively clean, even at the upper end of the recommended temperature range.

Water Profile

We're sticking with the Mean Brews water profile here, which contains around 50ppm of sulphate and chloride keeping things relatively restrained and balanced. Our Japanese Rice Lager recipe was somewhat similar, with around 70ppm of sulphate and chloride which turned out particularly well and even won an award.

All Grain Homebrew Recipe

Vitals

• Boil Time: 60 minutes
• Brewhouse Efficiency: 75%
• Original Gravity: 1.050
• Final Gravity: 1.009
• IBU (Tinseth): 24
• BU/GU: 0.48
• Colour: 24.5 EBC
• Expected ABV: 5.4%

Mash

• Mash In: 67°C - 60 minutes
• Mash Out: 75°C - 10 minutes

Fermentables

• 2.5kg - Gladfield Vienna Malt (50%)
• 1.0kg - Gladfield Munich Malt (20%)
• 1.0kg - Gladfield Pilsner Malt (20%)
• 0.25kg - Weyermann Caramunich II (5%)
• 0.21kg - Weyermann Melanoidin (4.2%)
• 0.04kg - Weyermann Carafa Special III (0.8%)

Hops

Boil Hops

• 60 mins - Warrior 13.4% - 23 IBU
• 10 mins - Saaz 4.5% - 4 IBU

Yeast

• Fermentis W-34/70 (1 packet - dry)

Fermentation

• 18°C 

Carbonation

• 2.4 CO2-vol

Water Profile 

• Ca2+ (Calcium): 27
• Mg2+ (Magnesium): 9
• Na+ (Sodium): 21
• Cl- (Chloride): 51
• SO42- (Sulfate): 53
• HCO3- (Bicarbonate): 38

Brew Day

Want to see how it turned out? Check out the link to our brew day rundown below

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