The Austrian brewing industry
It would be easy to assume that Austria shares a common beer culture as well as a language with its larger neighbour. Yet in many ways Austrian beer is distinclty different from that of Germany. The old cultural ties of the Habsburg empire which link it with the Czech Republic are just as important. There is one obvious and important difference between Austrian and German brewing: Austria (thankfully) does not have a Reinheitsgebot. It can be no coincidence that in Austria new breweries have been much more willing to take on a wide range of styles, including some, such as pale ale, not indigenous to central Europe. It should be noted, however, that some of the longer-established lager breweries do make a point of sticking to the Reinheitsgebot. As is the case now in most smaller European countries, a single large company dominates the beer market. Brau-Union AG, which owns the Gösser, Zipfer, Schwechater, Wieselburger and Puntigamer breweries accounts for 56% of beer sales. It was fromed in the late 1990's by a merger of Austria's two largest brewery groups, Steirerbrau and Brau-AG. The company appeared intent on becoming a major European player during the 1990's. It embarked on an aggressive strategy of acquisition in countries of the former Soviet Block, such as Poland, Romania and Hungary. I always had my doubts about whether they really had the finances or resolve to tackle the likes of Interbrew and Heineken head on. As it turned out, they didn't. In 2002 the company announced that it was looking for an international partner. In effect, they were waving a white flag and saying "please take us over, nice Mr. Multinational". Heineken duly obliged. Brau-Union still runs a large number of, by international standards, small plants in Austria. It's unlikely that the majority of them will survive long under globalist control. All of Brau-Union's competitors brew on a much smaller scale. It is only the Brau-Union beers which are widely available on a national level. Neverthless, the top five companies account for 83% of the market between them. There are currently 184 breweries operating in Austria. This is a rough breakdown of the structure of the Austrian brewing industry:
Brewery	No.	Details
Brau-Union	8	Gösser, Zipfer, Schwechater, Wieselburger and Puntigamer breweries accounts for 56% of beer sales
Large regional breweries	2	Stiegl and Ottakringer - producing in excess of 500,000 hl and with some national availability.
Mid-size regional companies	9	Vereinigte Kärntner Brauereien, Privatbrauerei Fritz Egger, Brauerei Fohrenburg, Brauerei Zwettl, Mohrenbrauerei August Huber, Schloss Eggenberg, Murauer, Brauerei Hirt and Josef Sigl - producing 100,000 - 500,000 hl.
Local breweries	40	Long-established independent breweries, producing 10,000 - 100,000 hl.
Microbreweries	24	Newly-established breweries, producing under 10,000 hl. Unlike in Germany, where new breweries are mostly linked to a pub, there have been a significant number of new microbreweries in Austria.
Brewpubs	101	In the last decade brewpubs have become very popular in Austria.
Contract brewers	2	Companies who have their beers brewed by a third party. Not that common in Austria.
Beer Trade Beer exports and imports just about match each other, amounting to around 5% of consumption. When eastern European markets began to open up in the 1990's, exports doubled, hitting a peak of 1 million hectolitres in 1994. They have now dropped back down to the 1980's level. Imports have been creeping up since the 1980's. The overwhelming majority comes from just two sources, Germany (60%) and the Czech Republic (22%).
Beer Organisations Verband der Brauereien Österreichs The Austrian brewers' organisation. Verband der Haus- und Kleinbrauereien Österreichs c/o Salzburger Weißbierbrauerei Rupertgasse 10, 5020 Salzburg. Email: seitz@bier-kompetenz.at http://www.kleinbrauereien.at The organisation for small brewers. It currently has 28 members. BierIG Pötzelsbergstraße 5b, 5162 Obertrum. Email: info@bierig.org Homepage: www.bierig.org Austrian beer consumers' organisation, a member of the EBCU. Kampagne für gutes Bier (KGBier) Email: info@kgbier.at Homepage: www.kgbier.at Another Austrian beer consumers' organisation.

Austrian Beer Styles

Anton Dreher introduced bottom-fermenting beer to Austria in 1840. In 1833/34 he had travelled to Britain in the company of Gabriel Sedlmayr (of the Spaten brewery in Munich) to study the brewing industry. On his return, he first attempted to brew a Burton-style pale ale, though without any great success. Inspired by what Sedlmayr had told him about the Bavarian way of brewing, he decided to give bottom fermentation a try. The result was the first Vienna-style amber lager. Vienna lagers came in a variety of different strengths, the common thread being the Vienna amber malt from which they were brewed. At that time most lagers were brewed from a single type of malt: brown Münchner malt in Munich, pale pilnser malt in Pilsen. The subtypes were (in ascending order of strength) Abzug/Schenk (10-11º), Lagerbier (12-13º), Märzen (14º), Export (15º). (For more information on this topic, see my "19th Century Lager Styles" page. ) Today's Austrian lagers (now usually pilsner-coloured) fall into the approximate strength bands: type º Plato Leichtbier <9º Schankbier 9-11º Lagerbier/Märzen 11-12.5º Spezial 12.5-14º Bock 16º+ Source: Verband der Brauereien Österreichs It should not be forgotten that at the time of the development of new lager beers in Pilsen and Ceské Budejovice (Budweis), both were under Austrian rule. So, in reality, Austria rather than Germany is the home of the modern style of pale lager beers. The beers brewed in Munich up until the end of the 19th century were all dark. Dreher took the first step in brewing a paler lager. You can see a progression of paler and paler beers: Munich - dark brown; Vienna - dark amber; Pilsen pale amber; Ceské Budejovice - yellow. Sadly, one style of beer you won't find easily in Austria today is a true Vienna amber lager.

Bottom-fermenting beers

The great majority of beers brewed in Austria are pale lagers. That said, there are is a reasonable variety of different lager styles brewed in Austria. Here's a quick overview of the bottom-fermenting styles.

Märzen (or Lagerbier): Not to be confused with the German style of the same name, an Austrian Märzen is a pale lager of 11º to 12.5º Plato and 5 - 5.2% alcohol. The densities have fallen a shade in the last ten years, with some beers dropping below 12º. In Austria the term "Märzen" appears to refer to the realtive strength of the beer, rather than a specific type of amber lager. Vienna lagers were originally subdivided (in ascending order of strength) Abzug/Schenk (10-11º), Lagerbier (12-13º), Märzen (14º), Export (15º). When the switch was made from Vienna to Pilsner malt, the same classifications were used. Outside Austria, where they must have only ever seen the Märzen strength of Vienna lager, the name was interpreted as meaning an amber lager of 14º. A gradual erosion of beer strengths has left Austrian Märzens elbowing Lagerbier out of the 12º slot and into oblivion. The slot above, approximately13º, is now occupied by Spezial. For more information on this topic, see my "19th Century Lager Styles" page. Much like a Bavarian Helles, it is a malt-accented beer with delicate hopping. It is the standard beer and has managed to retain its market share remarkably well. It still accounts for well over 50% of beer drunk in Austria. Every brewery produces a Märzen.

Pils: The Austrian version is pretty much to the international standard: highly-attenuated, very little malt character, heavily-hopped. They are 11-12 Plato and somewhere around 5% alcohol. It's very much a foreign style - the first Austrian pils was only brewed in 1977. The Austrian examples are amongst the better beers of this type brewed in Europe. It has failed to make much impact and has even lost market share since 1990. With just over 5% of sales it is very much a minority product. Austria is surely the European country that drinks the least pils.

Spezialbier: Very much like a Bavarian Spezial - a pale lager of at least 12.5º Plato and around 5.5% alcohol, full-bodied and quite hoppy. Pretty well all the breweries produce a beer of this type. Even though sales have fallen considerably in the last 10 years (over 40%) it's still more popular than pils. The densities of these beers appear to have been falling. . Not long ago, around 13º would have been considered a minimum. The majority are now around 12.8º.

Dunkles: This term covers quite a wide variation in flavours, which all get lumped together as "dark" lagers. They vary in density between 12º and 14º Plato, but because of the high concentration of residual sugars are weaker - 4 % to 5.5% - than would be expected. The majority are very sweet with dark malt flavours and only a very restrained hop character. (Such beers are often called Doppelmalz, a designation which in Germany means a dark, low-alcohol beer.) The high level of sweetness makes them quite different from a münchner or a Czech dark lager. There has been a move towards beers in the drier Czech style, but these are still less common than the sweeter type. Dry dark lagers are easy to spot in the list below by a quick check of the degreee of attenuation. A large number of breweries produce a dark lager, though it is very much a minority style in terms of sales.

Bockbier: A strong lager of at least 16º Plato and around 6.5% alcohol. It is very full-bodied with a bittersweet taste. It can vary in colour between amber and dark brown. They are usually seasonal beers - Christmas and Easter being the favourite times for releasing them. There are some excellent beeers brewed in this style. The majority of breweries produce one, though total sales have fallen by 50% in the last 10 years and this style's market share is less than 0.5%. Though this is slightly deceptive as most examples are only available for a few weeks a year. There are a few beers in the Doppelbock style, of 17º Plato or more. Eggenberger Urbock 23°, at over 9% alcohol, is the strongest.

Zwicklbier: This isn't so much a style as a method of conditioning. A zwicklbier is any beer that is left unfiltered. Usually, it is a version of a brewery's biggest seller - in most cases, a Märzen. Zwettl brews a Zwickl Bock. There are a few bottled variations, but much more commonly they are draught only beers. Such beers have become increasingly popular and are even made by the bigger breweries.

Vienna: A reddish-amber lager of 12º - 14º Plato and 5.2 to 5.8% alcohol. They have roasted malt flavours and some sweetness in the mouth, but with a balancing bitterness in the finish. The colour, which is very important in this style, is about half-way between a pils and a münchner - somewhere around the colour of an English bitter. They should be brewed from 100% Vienna malt. As mentioned above, they originally came in a variety of strengths. The Bavarian märzen (or Oktoberfest) style is very similar, but is always at the top end of the strength range (around 14º) and a touch paler in colour. This is the style brewed by Anton Dreher when he introduced bottom-fermenting to Austria in 1840. Once beers of this type were brewed to a great variety of gravities, though the Märzen-strength version was the most famous type. Today you'll just find the odd leftover or revival. Only the Siebenstern-Bräu brewpub in Vienna currently has an amber Märzen in its range. Currently a couple of dozen amber lagers (excluding Bock) are brewed in Austria, split pretty evenly between 11-12.4º and 12.5-14º. The few that claim to be Märzen fall into both strength bands.

Helles: A very pale yellow beer of 11.5º - 12.5º Plato and 4.5 to 5.2% alcohol. A malty, sweetish beer that is quite lightly hopped. This style is quite close to Märzen and the beers seem to overlap in terms of taste and strength. A Helles is generally a little paler, weaker and sweeter than a Märzen. The term is also much used by brewpubs, where, as in Germany, the standard beers are a pale and a dark lager. Such beers can diverge greatly from the flavour profile given above and may more closely resemble a pils.

Schankbier: A generic term given to anything in the 9-11º gravity range. Compared to Germany, where its sales are insignificant, the 5-6% of the market these beers have doesn't look that bad. Almost all are pale lagers

Leicht/Medium: Things under 9º in the range 2.8-3.3% ABV. Mostly pale lagers. It's grip on the market (it accounts for less than 1% of sales) isn't great.

Top-fermenting beers

Except in new brewpubs and microbreweries, the only top-fermented beers produced are Bavarian-style wheat beers. As the popularity of such beers has increased in the last 20 years, more and more regional breweries have started to produce them. However, they still form a tiny fraction - less than 2% - of all beer sold. Let's take a closer look at the types of top-fermenting beer brewed in Austria.

Weizenbier Hell: A pale wheat beer with about 40% wheat in the mash. They are between 11º and 13º Plato, 4.5% - 5.5% alcohol. The same special wheat beer yeast is used as in Bavaria. This imparts lots of spicy aromas, such as cloves and ginger. The hopping levels are very low. Most of theses beers are left unfiltered and have a secondary fermentation in the bottle (Hefeweizen). The filtered version is referred to as Kristall-Weizen. Traditionally, weizen beers are only sold in bottled form, though ibn the last few years some draught versions have been appearing.

Weizenbier Dunkel: Much the same as the pale wheat beer, except darker in colour. They are between 11º and 13º Plato, 4.5% - 5.5% alcohol. The wheat beer yeast in conjunction with darker malts tends to impart the finished beer with a distinctive banana aroma. The dark wheat beers are always - as far as I am aware - left unfiltered.

Weizenbock: A wheat version of bock, weighing in at a minimum 16.5º Plato and 6.5% alcohol. Always dark, it's pretty much a scaled up version of Weizenbier Dunkel. There are only a few breweries which produce such a a beer. A good example is brewed by the Weißbierbrauerei in Salzburg.

Alt: There are a couple of breweries producing beers of this style. They are dark amber in colour and around 12º Plato and 5% alcohol.

Other styles: Some of the new small breweries produce beers in British ale styles - porter, stout and pale ale.