European lagers are generally divided into three classes— pale (pilsner, Dortmunder, & helles), amber (Vienna, Märzen, & Oktoberfest), and dark (dunkel & schwartz).
It is common to see the abbreviation “VMO” in brewing literature when referring to the German amber lagers.
The helles, Märzen, Oktoberfest, and dunkel are all associated with the city of Munich, but Vienna plays an integral role in the development of the VMO.
Ray Daniels explains:
The Viennese brewers used a decoction mash, after the German tradition. This is a step-mash, where the temperatures are raised to engage enzyme activity through a succession of temperature ranges. In a decoction mash, the grist is drawn off of the mash, boiled, then returned to the mash. It’s a bit tricky, and there are certain formulae to follow as to raise the temperature of such-and-such volume at such-and-such density by so-many degrees by such-and-such volume of a boil; the boil being the constant (212F).
Wahl & Henius reported in 1908 that the Vienna beers are hopped at a rate of
Now, the truly distinctive part of the Vienna lager is in the malt. This is a pale malt that is kilned a bit higher than other pale malts, which gives it a bit of toasty, nutty flavor. A good Vienna lager is a malt-forward type of beer.
A Viennese brewer by the name of Santigo Graf brought the style to Mexico in the 1880’s. It is from the Mexican brewers that the style is most evident today. Negro Modelo is considered the standard of the style, although the Dos Equis amber is a much better beer, IMHO. The Schell Firebrick, from New Ulm, Minnesota, is a step above the Dos Equis.
These are the tasting notes from the GABF:
Now, there is a forum that I frequent which focuses on brewing, and that’s sort of what this is about, really. (Never let it be said that I failed to provide sufficient background information.) There was a fellow there looking for a recipe for a Vienna lager, something along the lines of Brooklyn lager or Short’s Noble Chaos. I happened to have made a Vienna lager that received very good reviews, and so I posted the recipe there.
Now, the fellow that lives upstairs from me is a chef that writes a column on food and beer pairings. We sometimes trade beer and food back and forth. He said that this was my best one yet. He said that it should be sold commercially, but I am content with a small production. (I have other things I do for business.)
This was a step-mash (122, 144, 152, 162) with a kölsch yeast. It came out a bit stronger than I had intended due to the mash efficiency.
The backbone is the Vienna malt, with a bit of two-row for the increased enzyme activity for the mash. Victory is the American version of the Belgian biscuit malt. It is included here to provide a bit more toasty, nut-like complexity. The caramel malt, crystal 120, has a warm, pleasant toastiness to it. So, the malt bill is all about toastiness.
Perle is a German hop that has a bright evergreen flavor. Spalt is a noble hop, the one used in Budweiser, and it has a strong flavor for a noble hop. Mount Hood is also a noble hop, but is much softer than Spalt. Perle for bittering, Spalt for flavor, and Mt. Hood for aroma. That's the hop schedule.
Exactly as George Fix phrased it:
Another fellow at the forum saw the recipe there, and decided to try his hand at it. He modified the original a bit, including some muscovado sugar and some malt extract, adding more bittering hops, and used a Trappist yeast. He aged it in an oaken barrel. This appears more like the historical Märzen to me than a Vienna lager, though the Belgian yeasts are known for high ester production (It’s the esters that’s the real difference between an ale and a lager.)
He was so pleased with it that he sent me a couple of bottles to thank me for the recipe. These are my trophies.
This the first time that anyone else has ever used one of my recipes, that I know of. I keep trying to push my extract recipe for a Southern English brown ale (SEBA), but most people that brew tend to like enormous amounts of hops rather than something heavily malty with low hops.
Here are some photos with my crappy cell phone cam:
My own Vienna lager alongside the trophies from an admirer.
I will enjoy this beer while I watch Mr. Deeds Goes to Town this evening.
I do wish you could enjoy one of these beers with me. I hope you have enjoyed the history, and that it made you thirsty for something darkly malty.
(And a big ‘Hello!’ to Lindsay along the Danube. I hope you have time to find something a bit more authentic than my humble brew on your journey.)
It is common to see the abbreviation “VMO” in brewing literature when referring to the German amber lagers.
The helles, Märzen, Oktoberfest, and dunkel are all associated with the city of Munich, but Vienna plays an integral role in the development of the VMO.
Ray Daniels explains:
From its beginnings as a Roman outpost, Vienna struggled along for many centuries before becoming a city in its own right during the thirteenth century. The first brewery— associated with a hospital— was noted not long after, in 1296. For several centuries after this, beer was the underdog in a running battle with wine. Grapes grow well in the Vienna area, and the landed parties who produced wine demanded protection of their product from the competition posed by beer. It was not until the sixteenth century that brewing was widely licensed to convents, castles, towns, and marketplaces.Gabriel Sedlmayr was a brewer from Munich that toured England in the early 19th century. At that time, the English brewers had developed more technologically advanced methods than were in use on the continent. Sedlmayr is credited with bring the use of the thermometer and hydrometer to German brewers as a result of this trip.
By 1732, fourteen breweries operated near Vienna. They produced one or two types of oat beer, three varieties of wheat beer, and five varieties of barley beer.
It was the professional relationship between Sedlmayr and Vienna’s Anton Dreher that gave rise to the Vienna lager style.Dreher introduced Vienna lager in 1841. By the 1870’s, Vienna beers had won great acclaim. There were three distinctive styles of Vienna lager at this time— Abzug, a low-gravity variety roughly 3/4 the strength of the standard; Lager, which refers to Vienna lager roughly as we know it today; and Märzen, a slightly stronger version of the lager. There is one brewery that also produced a Doppelmärzen, which was stronger still. The primary difference between these styles was the gravity.
Dreher came from a brewing family and studied with Sedlmayr in Munich as a young man before taking over the family brewery in Vienna. Early along, Dreher combined the Munich bottom-fermentation yeast with Vienna malts and brewing procedures to create the Vienna style of lager. The Märzen style produced in the same breweries was nothing more than a stronger version of the Vienna brew.
It appears that the Munich Oktoberfest style was an imitation of the Viennese Märzen beer. Interestingly enough, it was Gabriel Sadlmayr’s son who is credited with brewing the first Vienna-style Oktoberfest beer. [This was in 1872-- M.]
The Viennese brewers used a decoction mash, after the German tradition. This is a step-mash, where the temperatures are raised to engage enzyme activity through a succession of temperature ranges. In a decoction mash, the grist is drawn off of the mash, boiled, then returned to the mash. It’s a bit tricky, and there are certain formulae to follow as to raise the temperature of such-and-such volume at such-and-such density by so-many degrees by such-and-such volume of a boil; the boil being the constant (212F).
Wahl & Henius reported in 1908 that the Vienna beers are hopped at a rate of
30 percent less than those for Bohemian beers, about 30 percent more than those for Bavarian beers.The hops were mainly Czech Saaz and Styrian Golding.
Now, the truly distinctive part of the Vienna lager is in the malt. This is a pale malt that is kilned a bit higher than other pale malts, which gives it a bit of toasty, nutty flavor. A good Vienna lager is a malt-forward type of beer.
A Viennese brewer by the name of Santigo Graf brought the style to Mexico in the 1880’s. It is from the Mexican brewers that the style is most evident today. Negro Modelo is considered the standard of the style, although the Dos Equis amber is a much better beer, IMHO. The Schell Firebrick, from New Ulm, Minnesota, is a step above the Dos Equis.
These are the tasting notes from the GABF:
Beers in this category are reddish brown or copper colored. They are medium in body. The beer is characterized by malty aroma and slight malt sweetness. The malt aroma and flavor should have a notable degree of toasted and/or slightly roasted malt character. Hop bitterness is clean and crisp. Noble-type hop aromas and flavors should be low or mild. Fruity esters, diacetyl, and chill haze should not be perceived.The BJCP has more detailed notes:
Aroma: Moderately rich German malt aroma (of Vienna and/or Munich malt). A light toasted malt aroma may be present. Similar, though less intense than Oktoberfest. Clean lager character, with no fruity esters or diacetyl. Noble hop aroma may be low to none. Caramel aroma is inappropriate.It should be noted that the modern Märzenbiers are derived from the Munich interpretation of the style. The shift occurred at some time between 1955 and 1970.
Appearance: Light reddish amber to copper color. Bright clarity. Large, off-white, persistent head.
Flavor: Moderately rich German malt aroma (of Vienna and/or Munich malt). A light toasted malt aroma may be present. Similar, though less intense than Oktoberfest. Clean lager character, with no fruity esters or diacetyl. Noble hop aroma may be low to none. Caramel aroma is inappropriate.
Mouthfeel: Medium-light to medium body, with a gentle creaminess. Moderate carbonation. Smooth. Moderately crisp finish. May have a bit of alcohol warming.
Overall Impression: Moderately rich German malt aroma (of Vienna and/or Munich malt). A light toasted malt aroma may be present. Similar, though less intense than Oktoberfest. Clean lager character, with no fruity esters or diacetyl. Noble hop aroma may be low to none. Caramel aroma is inappropriate.
Comments: American versions can be a bit stronger, drier and more bitter, while European versions tend to be sweeter. Many Mexican amber and dark lagers used to be more authentic, but unfortunately are now more like sweet, adjunct-laden American Dark Lagers.
Now, there is a forum that I frequent which focuses on brewing, and that’s sort of what this is about, really. (Never let it be said that I failed to provide sufficient background information.) There was a fellow there looking for a recipe for a Vienna lager, something along the lines of Brooklyn lager or Short’s Noble Chaos. I happened to have made a Vienna lager that received very good reviews, and so I posted the recipe there.
Now, the fellow that lives upstairs from me is a chef that writes a column on food and beer pairings. We sometimes trade beer and food back and forth. He said that this was my best one yet. He said that it should be sold commercially, but I am content with a small production. (I have other things I do for business.)
This was a step-mash (122, 144, 152, 162) with a kölsch yeast. It came out a bit stronger than I had intended due to the mash efficiency.
The backbone is the Vienna malt, with a bit of two-row for the increased enzyme activity for the mash. Victory is the American version of the Belgian biscuit malt. It is included here to provide a bit more toasty, nut-like complexity. The caramel malt, crystal 120, has a warm, pleasant toastiness to it. So, the malt bill is all about toastiness.
Perle is a German hop that has a bright evergreen flavor. Spalt is a noble hop, the one used in Budweiser, and it has a strong flavor for a noble hop. Mount Hood is also a noble hop, but is much softer than Spalt. Perle for bittering, Spalt for flavor, and Mt. Hood for aroma. That's the hop schedule.
Exactly as George Fix phrased it:
elegance and softness as well as a measure of complexity.A fine beer, indeed.
Another fellow at the forum saw the recipe there, and decided to try his hand at it. He modified the original a bit, including some muscovado sugar and some malt extract, adding more bittering hops, and used a Trappist yeast. He aged it in an oaken barrel. This appears more like the historical Märzen to me than a Vienna lager, though the Belgian yeasts are known for high ester production (It’s the esters that’s the real difference between an ale and a lager.)
He was so pleased with it that he sent me a couple of bottles to thank me for the recipe. These are my trophies.
This the first time that anyone else has ever used one of my recipes, that I know of. I keep trying to push my extract recipe for a Southern English brown ale (SEBA), but most people that brew tend to like enormous amounts of hops rather than something heavily malty with low hops.
Here are some photos with my crappy cell phone cam:
My own Vienna lager alongside the trophies from an admirer.
I will enjoy this beer while I watch Mr. Deeds Goes to Town this evening.
I do wish you could enjoy one of these beers with me. I hope you have enjoyed the history, and that it made you thirsty for something darkly malty.
(And a big ‘Hello!’ to Lindsay along the Danube. I hope you have time to find something a bit more authentic than my humble brew on your journey.)
7 comments:
RE: Nvisiblewmn.blogspot.com
I commend you on your logic, which I analyze as follows:
She is not smart because she is dumb. She is dumb because she is not smart.
Simply brilliant. Should you not be elsewhere applying that incredible reasoning ability solving the "unsolvable"?
Your basic premise, however, tempts agreement. This woman must be remarkably stupid if she took up with you and yours. I pity such stupidity. How sad that you would pick on the retarded among us. Have you nothing more challenging to engage that preternaturally sharp mind?
Hello, Charlatanes; for as a sophist, you are sorely lacking.
I am afraid that I am quite unable to return the commendations. To the contrary, your logic is rather sloppy and unappealing. I will analyze it one paragraph at a time:
First of all, you choose to demonstrate your lack of manners by bringing some idiocy here which does not belong here. You are a very uncouth individual. This is probably due to your upbringing. I accept your proof in this.
Secondly, you are a snide smart-ass. You like to substitute unfounded assumptions as fact. You claim to have direct knowledge where you are wholly ignorant.
Thirdly, by the contrivance of a false equivalence, you arrive at circular logic. Cute. But I'm not amused by this. You make a pretense of being rational, but this is (as Aristotle points out in Book I of The Topics) merely contentious reasoning.
Fourthly, the man who wrote this (in response to a remark from me) has a master's in engineering from Southern Methodist, and works on robotic controls for weapons systems. So, I suppose the true answer is, 'Yes,' though not as you meant it.
Fifthly, if this is true as you say, then you admit that you are a far worse person than I am capable of. Being perfectly stupid, this woman breaks off relations with me. How stupid! Then, being perfectly stupid, this woman retains relations with you. How perfectly stupid!
And in the same group of statements, you claim that you "pity" this "retarded" person for her most perfect of stupidities!
You have demonstrated clearly that you are uncouth, presumptuous, mealy-mouthed, stupid, careless, and pretentious individual. I find nothing commendable in that.
But this is the manner of what substitutes for a sense of morality among many of those bloggers of little character.
They have carved out grand palaces for themselves, yet they neglected to mould the noble men to inhabit them.
I would rather have four blank walls.
Of course, to ones such as these, being slightly humorous would cover any grievous injury.
"You know, Adam Sandler sure is funny. And if he ever teaches a high school class, I hope to God that man has sex with as many of those students as humanly possible. After all, he's funny!"
That is the way of these characterless bloggers.
Of course, among the ill-acquainted with ethics, simply being a mother would justify any number of transgressions.
"I know, when I was a kid, my mom used to lie to the police all the time!
That is the way of these characterless bloggers.
Their assumptions masquerade as facts, their pretentiousness feigns superiority.
But what is it that you do?
I have no use for you. You are unsound.
If you have any worth as a human being, it is misdirected. You keep it well-hidden.
I'm not impressed.
An interesting expose on beers which were consumed everyday by everyone (women and children included) in the middle Ages in the European cities i visited. Very poor sanitation meant drinking contaminated water was an unhealthy option.
Hence a fondness for beer corresponded with staying alive in relatively good health. The alcohol content however was far less then than now. Travelling through European cities and towns it became obvious just how widespread was the practice and for wine consumption for those who could afford it.
But for the Germanic Bishop –Princes, past life was a different matter entirely residing in their resplendent palatial residences.
One underground cellar annexed to his huge 400 room residence stored over 2 million litres of wine. He received audiences while enthroned on his throne (toilet) each morning apparently (whilst restoring his equilibrium) to deal with both affairs of state and of the soul.
A huge mural adorned the residence ceiling (much larger than one at St Peter’s Basilica) with him, together with the angels looking outward from a masterly Europe to the then known world of 3 primitive continents represented by the America’s Asia and India.
Best wishes
Hello, Lindsay.
I find the image of the angels looking down on the noble on his 'throne' to be quite amusing. Apparently, court is the place for business that just won't wait.
I did the math, and 2 mil liters comes out to a bit over 17,000 barrels; about half the yearly output of Abbaye d'Orval, or over four times the yearly output of Westvleteren. Darwin Brewery Ltd. (mentioned below) has a brewing capacity of 15 barrels.
Now, the brewing process protected against certain types of contamination; and a big part of this is that the water is boiled for an hour after draining the grains. Also, yeast is fairly aggressive toward other microbes, and alcohol (and it takes only a little) tends to kill off bacteria. And it keeps well. But I bring this up because other types of contamination, notably runoff from mining processes, were relatively unaffected.
And the yeasts were definitely different. I remember reading (I believe this was in Fix's Principles of Brewing Science) that the wine yeasts used during biblical times has a maximum alcohol tolerance of 10%. So the wines we drink today are much, much stronger by comparison.
There were also other strains of yeast in use. The brettanomyces was a flavor characteristic in British ales (hence the name) until the early 20th century. The lambicus found in many Flemish ales is a strain of brett. Orval has a strain of brett. in it, though not the lambicus.
The brett. consumes sugars that the saccharomyces leave behind, leaving a lighter, drier beer.
If you would like to try something with brett., I would recommend Monk's Cafe, a Flanders red, and Orval, which, although a Trappist product, is really an older style of saison.
And without getting distracted into the debate over whether porter is an American or an English style (very strong opinions on both sides of this), I would like to mention the case of Flag Porter by Darwin Brewery Ltd. This was basically a project to recreate a historical brew from the 1850's using a yeast found in the bottles of a shipwreck. (The 1830's saw some important changes in the brewing of porter.) I've tried it, and it's nothing to shout about, but interesting nevertheless; a good beer, better than Samuel Smith's, I'd say.
I haven't been able to find the stats on the gravity of the beer, beginning and ending, so I can't really give an idea of the attenuation of it.
But while I'm touching on the topic, I would like to say that Zywiec is the best porter in all the world, to my knowledge; my favorite beer of all.
Wow. I've been around the block a time or two, and there's only been a time or two when I came across a visitor who was so badly behaved as Sophistes. Allowing a commenter to speak on one's blog is akin to letting them visit your house - and what Sophistes did is crash the party for the express purpose of dumping a turd in the punchbowl. There's simply no excuse for such behavior. While I commend the host on his behavior and restraint in responding, the fact remains that such visitors should not be welcomed under any circumstances. In the non-cyber world, such behavior would warrant a call to the nearest precinct to remove the unwanted individual.
This brings up a larger question for our society to ponder: What kind of a person does such a thing? Even a vigilante limits their actions to crimes of the person concerned. The whackos walking around Arizona "patrolling the border" are not kicking in doors in Mexico and handing out tongue-lashings for those they believe are guilt of something. Batman does not walk around telling everyone that the Joker is sexually impotent and has a tiny penis (not that I would actually know about the Joker's penis - it's just an example).
Nor is this behavior what we would call "anti-hero" action. Paladin might have crashed a few doors and broken some glass jaws in the pursuit of justice, but his actions were always directly related to his goal - the pursuit of a guilty individual.
So if there is no nobility found in the action, we are left to see it for what it is - the cries of a misanthropic individual who is so poorly socialized that they cannot perceive of an acceptable manner of dealing with a grievance, real or imagined. They are more closely related to Jim Stark - the semi-criminal character of Rebel Without a Cause. They are acting out because there is a pathological need to violate the rules and etiquette of any group setting. Unsure of their own standing as an adult in society, they lash out childishly. While they lecture others on their perceived faults, their real cry is echoed from Stark: "What do you do when you have to be a man?"
At any rate, this is not the place for such a person to work through the issues of abuse and abandonment that almost always go hand-in-hand with such behavior. They are in horrifying need of a skilled therapist who can force them to address their daddy issues while providing an environment of acceptance to explore their self-loathing and the accompanying projection of those feelings onto those around them. We can only hope that Sophistes has mental health benefits that allow him/her to address such issues sooner, rather than later.
The host is to be commended for being so tolerant of the mentally ill and socially insecure.
Hello, Big Boss.
Thank you for the comment. I truly enjoyed it.
It's made even better by the fact that you are supposedly me, or I am supposedly you; one of the two.
And what makes that even better is the fact that someone who would use a false name to assist in committing fraud would be so easily duped by the truth.
And what makes that even better is that the All-Knowing Marie, who believes that she can accurately determine the whereabouts of my penis from some 800 miles away, can't even figure out who wrote what. Not that Marie would let something like facts stand in the way of her All-Knowingness. She just knows things.
And another thing that I really like about this is that somewhere there is an English teacher that is so superbly skilled in her field that she is unable to detect the differences in writing styles. I wouldn't expect such a thing from the illiterate; but the one who teaches English as a profession should be held to a higher standard.
What makes this even more funny was that I had written at the end of my last post at that site something along the lines of, "I'm done with this. I'm ready to move on to other things." Odd how truthfulness baffles the deceitful and devious, isn't it?
And so, the whole thing is rather funny on a number of levels.
But yes, the vindictiveness of it is rather shocking, true. Very unusual, at the very least.
It does make me wonder.
But really now, I think I've come up with some good material for another post just in writing this comment.
Thanks for stopping by.
Thank you, Big Boss, for taking this in hand. Actually, this is MY blog, and I am getting sick of the quarrels that are being carried out here on behalf of the blogger formerly known as The Invisible Woman.
Her "fans" have been here perpetuating the quarrel between that blogger, M Ercutio, and me because of things that happened in the demise of the friendship I had with her and the relationship he had with her. I, for one, am sick of it.
As far as I can tell, her mommy has been her, her boyfriend has been here, her various misguided hangers on have been here, and all have been here trolling with masses of negative comments about my friend M Ercutio (and he's just my friend, Mommy, nothing more, nothing less. Also, Mommy, being alone does not one lonely make. It's too bad you didn't know that before you made some of the choices you made in your life.You might do well to remember that YOUR story might make some juicy entertainment for your daughter's defenders).However, the odd thing is that The Invisible Woman herself has been notoriously absent.
I was a friend of hers for many years, and I know that she is in no need of your verbal defense. She is quite adept at the art of the "poison pen". She doesn't need her half-informed hangers-on or her seemling verbally inadept boyfriend to do it for her.
So, I am saying this once and for all. What happened between the Invisible Woman and me that ended our friendship is between THE INVISIBLE WOMAN and ME. It's none of anyone else's business. If she has a quarrel with ME, then SHE needs to make that quarrel with ME in private, not via cyberspace, just as I would with her. I will discuss it with her and no one else but her--I won't dicuss it on a blog with the mass illiterati. We are both women approaching 50, not high school girls. Therefore, I don't think we need anyone's help to address our conflict like two mature adults. After 25 years of being friends, I think it's the least that we can do to show respect for one another.
I would encourage all of you to remember that every story has two sides, and you shouldn't judge someone in haste when you don't have all the facts. You might do well to take this same advice regarding M Ercutio as you surely don't know both sides of that story, either.
In fact, I'm surprised at some of you. You were actually friends with him before you were friends with IW. Then you lose all grasp of your own judgment when you hear her side of the story and attack him like wolves before you even ask him what happened or how he felt about it.(Imagine, there was a time when I thought some of you people were fair-minded.)
You all know him as well as you know her, or even better. Generally, I find that if someone acts so radically out of character, it's because something horrible happens that makes them do so--usually something that hurts them.
The demise of any sort of relationship is rarely the fault of just one person.
I relaize that some of you need to have drama in your otherwise monotonous & miserable lives, but you will not find it here.I WILL NOT respond about this to anyone who comes trolling here trying to draw me out. I will simply delete your comments and move on. This blog was designed to be a place for positive interaction, and I am damned well going to make sure it stays that way. If you don't like it, you don't have to come here. I don't recall having invited you.
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