VISIONARY BREWERS,
VISIONARY BEERS

The history of the family of beers that might be termed Munich style is fascinating because it is not one of organic evolution shaped by geographic considerations, nor is it one of chance discovery or accident of history. It is rather a tale of active endeavour, and, even better, it is a story of brotherly friendship.

EVOLUTION

The two Munich and Vienna styles were similar, and, given the beer distribution methods of the time, Munich and Vienna were sufficiently distant from each other to make both viable. However, over time, as transport improved, Munich malt based beers have displaced their Viennese cousins, so much so that the latter now occupies a much more niche position in the pages of the brewer’s recipe book.

MARZEN AND OKTOBERFEST

Before the arrival of these new malts the beers of the region were typically produced with malts coloured in the mid-40s EBC, to use today’s rating system. Sedlmayr’s new Munich malt was roughly half that, whilst Dreher’s new Vienna malt was a shade darker. One thing these new malts did share was a gentle kilning, meaning that, unlike darker malts they maintained a high diastatic ability, allowing them to form the bulk of any grist bill, thus enabling the malt style itself to be a central characteristic of the beer, rather than a modifier alone.

MUNICH or VIENNA?

If one were to distinguish between the Munich and Vienna styles, one would have to say that the Munich malts produced a slightly sweeter beverage, whereas Vienna malts gave a drier finish and as a result Munich beers tended to have a slightly lower IBU than their Viennese equivalents. As one might expect from this sweet-dry subtlety of difference the Munich beers tended to be slightly stronger; around 6% ABV compared with a typical 5% for the Vienna styles. In essence, however, the two styles were sufficiently similar that AEB’s FERMOLAGER Munich Heritage active dry yeast is more than able to embrace them both within its ample remit.

Today few brewers worry themselves about the historical nuances between the malt styles produced by the two pioneering friends. They are much more concerned with producing contemporary beers that appeal to contemporary palates whilst remaining true to their antecedent styles. For that reason alone, AEB Brewing’s FERMOLAGER Munich Heritage yeast is the ideal choice for anyone looking to produce beers with historical authenticity and modern appeal.

‘Munich’ really refers to a type of malt rather than a beer style, so it is necessary to consider what types of beer this malt was used to make. The beer that Gabriel Sedlmayr produced in 1841 using his new aromatic malt he called märzenbier. Literally this means’ March beer’ and refers to the fact that, since a decree by the Bavarian Wittelsbacher Duke Albrecht V in 1553 prohibiting brewing between the end of April and the start of October, March was a very busy brewing month.

Although he didn’t fully understand it, the reason Albrecht outlawed summer brewing was to prevent microbial infection in warmer weather. Intuitively the brewers busy brewing throughout March to build up their summer stocks brewed beers that were stronger to help them last throughout the hotter months. They also kept them cool wherever they could, unwittingly inventing the lagering process and gradually selecting for bottom-fermenting yeasts.

‘Munich’ really refers to a type of malt rather than a beer style, so it is necessary to consider what types of beer this malt was used to make. The beer that Gabriel Sedlmayr produced in 1841 using his new aromatic malt he called märzenbier. Literally this means’ March beer’ and refers to the fact that, since a decree by the Bavarian Wittelsbacher Duke Albrecht V in 1553 prohibiting brewing between the end of April and the start of October, March was a very busy brewing month. 

Although he didn’t fully understand it, the reason Albrecht outlawed summer brewing was to prevent microbial infection in warmer weather. Intuitively the brewers busy brewing throughout March to build up their summer stocks brewed beers that were stronger to help them last throughout the hotter months. They also kept them cool wherever they could, unwittingly inventing the lagering process and gradually selecting for bottom-fermenting yeasts.  

Sedlmayr was not only a brilliant technical innovator, he was also a superb marketeer. Whilst the concept of märzenbier had been around since Duke Albrecht’s day, it was only with the 1841 launch of his new Munich malt style lager beer ahead of that year’s Oktoberfest that he also decided to designate it as a mäerzenbier, therefore forever associating the event and the beer style in the public mind. Sedlmayr’s Spaten brewery repeated the trick in 1872 when they designated that year’s märzenbier as the Oktoberfestbier, ensuring that the world’s most famous beer festival would be advantageously linked with a specific beer style from a specific brewery, therefore gaining an advantage over his other Munich rivals.

Today’s Oktoberfest visitors are more likely to be spilling a regular Bavarian helles than a genuine Märzen, but the helles beer is still a significant member of the Munich lager family having evolved out of its märzenbier predecessors as a consequence of the preference for ever paler, lighter styles that was the predominant beer trend of the twentieth century.

Helles is again a beer style whose parent is the Spaten brewery. Helles literally means ‘light’, and so can, and did, simply refer to a beer that was lighter in colour than the next beer. In 1872 the Franziskaner-Leist Brauerei became the first people to use ‘helles’ as a style descriptor, but it was Spaten who, in 1894, produced the first brew that would be recognised by today’s drinkers as a genuine helles style beer. Today when we say ‘helles’ we mean a beer that is lighter in colour than a Märzen but more bready and less bitter than a pilsener.

Other beers in the Munich family would be almost any of today’s range of bottom-fermenting lagered beers, including dunkels and the harder to define bock styles. AEB’s FERMOLAGER Munich Heritage is more than able to deal with the challenges presented by brewing with darker malts in the grist as in the case of the dunkels, or when aiming for higher original gravities, as in the case of bock styles, be they doppelbocks, weizenbocks, or just plain old bock bocks.