exBEERiment | Grain Comparison: German vs. Czech Vienna Malt In A Czech Premium Pale Lager

Author: Jordan Folks

Base malt makes up the bulk of nearly all beer recipes, with Pale and Pilsner malt varieties being the most commonly used for the vast majority of styles. However, there are other base malts that often get confused for specialty malts, perhaps due to the fact they have a more notable impact on the color and flavor of beer, with one such example being Vienna malt. Developed in the early 1840s by Austrian brewer Anton Dreher, Vienna malt was the result of applying innovative English kilning techniques to Central European barley, ultimately allowing for the production of beers with unique toasty malt flavors such as the eponymous Vienna Lager.

Weyermann is one of the most recognizable and respected German maltsters, producing a popular Vienna malt that’s known to contribute a malty-sweet flavor to beer with notes of honey, almond, and hazelnut. Czech maltster, Tchecomalt, also produces a Vienna malt that, in addition to being kilned slightly darker than Weyermann’s product, is said to impart beer with rich bready and toasted nut characteristics.

While recently at my local homebrew shop, F.H. Steinbart, I noticed they had an unopened sack of Tchecomalt Vienna Malt, so I decided to pick it up. As a lager beer purist, I’ve tended to believe that the best Czech beers must be made with genuine Czech ingredients, though this was called into question when a past xBmt showed neither tasters nor I could distinguish a Czech Pale Lager made with either Czech or domestic Pilsner malt. Considering the depth of flavor associated with Vienna malt, I was curious how a Czech version would compare to a popular German variety and designed an xBmt to see for myself!

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the differences between a Czech Premium Pale Lager made with German Vienna malt and one made with Czech Vienna malt.

| METHODS |

For this xBmt, I went with a simple Czech Premium Pale Lager recipe where Vienna malt made up 100% of the grain bill.

Thank You, Uncle Bobo

After collecting the water for two 5 gallon/19 liter batches, adjusting them to the same desired profile, and getting them heating up, I milled the grains.

Since these were traditional Czech lagers, I opted to perform a single decoction, allowing the mash to initially rest for 60 minutes at 146˚F/63˚C before boiling a portion of the mash for 10 minutes then returning it to the main mash, which brought the temperature up to 160˚F/71˚C.

Following a 10 minute final rest, I removed the grains and began heating the worts, at which point I prepared the kettle hop additions.

The worts were boiled for 60 minutes before being quickly chilled with my JaDeD Brewing SS Coil Hydra.

Refractometer readings showed the wort made with German Vienna malt had a slightly lower OG than the batch made with Czech Vienna malt.

Identical volumes of wort from either batch were transferred to sanitized fermentation kegs.

The worts were left in my chamber for a few hours until they were stabilized at my desired fermentation temperature of 50˚F/10˚C, at which point I pitched 500 mL of Imperial Yeast L29 Lookr slurry into each wort.

The beers were left to ferment for two weeks before I took hydrometer measurements showing a small difference in FG.

I gently reduced the temperature of the beers to 32˚F/0˚C over a few days then pressure transferred them to CO2 purged serving kegs, which were placed on gas in my keezer. After a 4 week lagering period, the beers were clear, carbonated, and ready for evaluation.

| RESULTS |

A total of 21 people of varying levels of experience participated in this xBmt. Each participant was served 2 samples of the beer made with German Vienna malt and 1 sample of the beer made with Czech Vienna malt in different colored opaque cups then asked to identify the unique sample. While 12 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to accurately identify the unique sample in order to reach statistical significance, only 3 did (p=0.99), indicating participants in this xBmt were unable to reliably distinguish a Czech Premium Pale Lager made with Weyermann (German) Vienna malt from one made with Tchecomalt (Czech) Vienna malt.

My Impressions: While I typically do 5 semi-blind triangle tests, for this xBmt, I went with 7 trials and identified the unique sample 5 times. While not a perfect performance, I felt the beer made with Czech Vienna malt had a very full and pure flavor profile, whereas the version made with German Vienna malt was slightly less characterful overall with a hint of acidity, though still great.

| DISCUSSION |

Sometimes mistaken for a specialty malt, Vienna malt is a base grain that can be used entirely on its own to produce beers with a greater depth of flavor compared to using Pilsner and Pale malts. As is the case with most brewing grains, Vienna malt is produced by many maltsters in various regions including both Germany and Czechia. Interestingly, tasters in this xBmt were unable to reliably distinguish a Czech Premium Pale Lager made with Weyermann (German) Vienna malt from one made with Tchecomalt (Czech) Vienna malt.

There were some objective differences between these beers, for example the one made with German Vienna malt had a lower OG and FG, resulting in it having 0.3% less ABV, which isn’t much. However, there was also a notable difference in color between the beers, with the Czech Vienna malt batch presenting as slightly darker, which would seem to indicate the possibility of a flavor difference. The fact that wasn’t the case suggests these beers, and the different malts used to create them, are far more similar than they are different.

It’s always weird when the blind taster data from an xBmt doesn’t align with the brewer’s triangle test performance, which may very well be a function of bias, though despite not getting all of my attempts right, I felt I perceived a real difference between these beers. Both were excellent examples of Czech Premium Pale Lager that were generally quite similar, but I got a fuller malt flavor from the version made with Czech Vienna malt, which I happened to prefer. As such, while I was certainly happy with the beer made with German Vienna malt and remain a fan of Weyermann products, I definitely plan to use more Czech Vienna malt in the future.

If you have any thoughts about this xBmt, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!

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