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Beer Styles - Dark Lagers

Styles & Seasonals June 6, 2005      
Written by Oakes


Richmond, CANADA -

Vienna – For a style that has a definite origin, Vienna is surprisingly tough to pin down. Attributed to Viennese brewer Anton Dreher in 1840, the style was said to have been developed out of a desire for a transparent lager. Remember that one of the reasons for pilsner’s popularity was the emergence of cheap glass. Well, this is why Vienna was created as well. Were it not for the developments in Bohemia shortly thereafter, Vienna may have become the standard lager. Granted, the dumbing-down of pilsner into Pale Lager would also have occurred with Vienna-style beer and most likely would have ended up in the same exact place, but beers like MGD or Labatt’s Blue would attempt in their marketing to pass themselves off as Wiener, not Pilsner, beer.



It was that emergence of Pilsner, and of golden pale lager in general, that rapidly pushed Vienna lager into obscurity. The style long ago ceased to exist in Vienna. However, in the time it was around, it spread and when Michael Jackson laid out what has become the basics of modern beer style theory, Vienna entered the brewing lexicon for good. Because of the style’s geographic drift and lack of a clear classic example, interpretation of Vienna has always been a little bit vague.



Today it is generally understood as a session-strength lager that falls somewhere in between American Dark and Oktoberfest/Märzen. The colour is in the copper-bronze range, the accent to the malts, with moderate bitterness (topping out not much more bitter than 22-24 IBU). Occasionally, a very hoppy amber lager will find itself described as a Vienna, but as such beers are quite rare, this is only because they have no style to call their own.



Certain Mexican beers, like Dos Equis or Negro Modelo, are considered by some to be benchmarks of the style, owing to their Austro-Hungarian heritage as brewmasters from that empire fled to Mexico and brewed such beers there. However, those examples today contain fairly high adjunct rates and low lagering times. It is more logical to say that those are now American Darks, and there is no direct lineage to true Vienna beer anymore. True Vienna beer should be made in the strict Germanic tradition – all malt with long lagering times. Thankfully, Jackson’s sketching of the style provided a framework for today’s brewers to work with and we have many such examples. This doesn’t give us a definitive Vienna, but it does allow us to enjoy a beer that is truer than the Mexican beers to the original character of Anton Dreher’s beer.



Most popular examples: Brooklyn Lager (USA), Saranac Adirondack Amber (USA), Great Lakes Eliot Ness (USA), Heineken Special Dark (Netherlands)



Some of my favourites: Starobrno Cerveny Drak (Czech Republic), Great Lakes Eliot Ness (USA), Lakefront Riverwest Stein (USA), Königsberg Dunkel (Russia)



Colour: 2 – 2.75

Flavour: 2 – 3.25

Sweetness: 2 – 4



Oktoberfest/Märzen – Reportedly created by Franziskaner in 1872, and based on the Vienna style. It was the first such lager in Bavaria, but there is more to the style than mere origin. Whether at the time, or over time, these two words “Oktoberfest” and “Märzen” have come to mean the same thing – a red or copper lager of slightly higher than session strength and of malty character.



The legend of the style is less specific than the Franziskaner story. It goes that beers were not brewed in summer because it was too hot and fermentation was too unpredictable. This we know is true. So in Bavaria, the last of the beer was brewed in March (März) and stored in caves. These caves were drawn upon all summer and at the end of the summer everyone had a big party to blow off the remaining stores of the spring’s beer. Harvest festivals are a fairly widespread tradition so it stands to reason that this was done on some level (maybe not the big blowout we know today) long before the Vienna style was created.



Which brings us to the Franziskaner story – this would be the time when Märzen beers took their current form. Oktoberfest beer, meanwhile, continues to change, and these days the Oktoberfest beer served at the festival itself is little more than a bland helles or maybe even a pilsner. Just to confuse things, Munich breweries often make two Oktoberfest beers – an old-style Märzen for export markets and the lighter, more modern incarnation for the fest itself.



Most popular examples: Samuel Adams Octoberfest (USA), Spaten Oktoberfest Ur-Märzen (Germany), Paulaner Oktoberfest (Germany), Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest-Märzen (Germany), Beck’s Oktoberfest (Germany)



Some of my favourites: Mill Street Oktoberfest (Canada), Nils Oscar Kalasöl (Sweden), Cheval Blanc Märzen (Canada), Paulaner Oktoberfest (Germany)



Colour: 2 – 3.25

Flavour: 2 – 3.5

Sweetness: 2.5 – 4



Dunkel – These are direct descendents of the traditional lagers of Central Europe. At the time when brewers in the area were inadvertently bringing the concept of bottom-fermentation to the world, beer was dark. Maltsters did not have the ability in these areas to make pale malt, so the malt was dark. Thus the beer was dark. Dunkel is nothing more than a generic term for dark lager. Similar terms in other countries are applied to similar beers, of which some have emerged as distinct regional substyles.



The mother class of Dunkel mainly comprises Bavarian-style dunkels. These are the ones that survived through the 20th century. The style’s name is sometimes rendered Münchner (Munich) Dunkel, but examples come from all over Bavaria. This terminology appears to have developed in Britain during the first big lager-making push in the late 19th century to differentiate dark lager from Pilsner.



Dunkel is a session-strength lager, around the 5% range give or take a few points. The colour is medium to dark brown. Flavour profile is malty-sweet, with elements of toast, nuts or other dark malt characteristics other than roast. Bitterness is low to moderate and hop aroma shouldn’t be there at all. Lagering times are traditionally 4-8 weeks, making these beers quite smooth.



I have found Bavarian examples more caramelly, Czech examples earthier, and other Eastern European the thinnest of the lot, to the point where many could be just as easily classed as American Dark or Vienna.



Most popular examples: Beck’s Dark (Germany), Warsteiner Premium Dunkel (Germany), Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel (Germany), Leinenkugel’s Creamy Dark (USA), Baltika 4 (Russia), Kozel Dark (Czech Republic)



Some of my favourites: Le Vôtre Black (China), Nynäshamns Marskär Mörk Lager (Sweden), Osterbrau Pilsner Special (Uzbekistan), Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel (Germany), Bernard Polotmavy Lezak (Czech Republic)



Colour: 3 – 4.25

Flavour: 2.5 – 4

Sweetness: 3 – 4.25



Schwarzbier – This black lager style is akin to a bottom-fermented porter, and indeed some believe that is the style’s origin. Porter was one of the style to take its turn as “the rage” in Europe. Brewers in Germany began to brew the style. Yeasts were variously top or bottom fermenting but this settled out to lager yeast as the number of styles dwindled, porter having been eclipsed by pilsner and the antecedents of Pale Lager. A bottom-fermented porter was a pretty easy one for German brewers, as they had a long tradition of brewing dark lagers already – they just had to make them a little bit darker and tweak the flavour profile. Among the handful of black lagers that remained in Germany through the 20th century was Köstritzer Schwarzbier.



However, the style was not kept alive by a handful of relics – it was kept alive by the Japanese. Before the micro era, Japan had only five breweries – Sapporo, Asahi, Kirin, Suntory, and the regional Orion down in Okinawa. Sapporo was the first to make schwarzbier – translated to the English “Black Beer” – in 1892. Eventually, the others would follow suit.



Today schwarzbier is struggling to find its way. It has garnered a fair bit of acceptance of late in its native land, where new examples have proven quite popular and the old stalwart Köstritzer has gained new fans. In South America, very sweet versions of the style, most likely descended from either foreign stout or dunkel rather than porter, remain fairly successful. But in the North America, where most beer styles have found enthusiastic fans, schwarzbier remains obscure.



Schwarzbier is a conventional strength lager, of black colour. Like dunkels, they should have earthy, toasty, malty palates. Unlike dunkels, they may have roasty notes, and some schwarzbiers do resemble porters. Yet they are bottom fermented beers and as such should have a smooth, clean palate. Some South American examples, though lacking in complexity, are astonishingly smooth. Among the most complex beers in the lager pantheon, schwarzbiers are a thinking man’s session beer.



Most popular examples: Sapporo Black (Japan), Köstritzer Schwarzbier (Germany), Xingu (Brazil), Dixie Blackened Voodoo (USA), Schwarzer Steiger (Germany)



Some of my favourites: Altstadthof Schwarzbier (Germany), Tsingtao Dark (China), Jämtlands Heaven (Sweden), Sprecher Black Bavarian (USA), Kulmbacher Mönschof Schwarzbier (Germany)



Colour: 4 – 5

Flavour: 2.5 – 4

Sweetness: 3 – 4.25





American Dark – Falling somewhere in between the true Vienna-style lagers and mainstream Pale Lager, the American Dark style is a session lager style, with abv ranging between 4-6%. The colour is often not all that dark – dark red, light chestnut, but once in a while gets to dark brown. In many cases, the colour is the result of brewer’s caramel being added to a Pale Lager, which has limited impact on the flavour.

Hop and malt character are low, though you may get a bit of the latter. Caramel notes are more common. Bitterness is low, and some examples can get a bit cloying. As with its cousin Pale Lager, American Darks have high adjunct contents and short lagering times. Combine this with artificial carbonation, and they lack the smoothness they are so often advertised to have. The body is often quite thin and finish quite quick. It’s a tough style to love for most beer aficionados, though many came to good beer via the style.

Essentially, the style is a corruption of dunkel, using techniques more akin to pale lager – use of adjuncts, short lagering times and high-gravity brewing. In a lot of cases, brewer’s caramel is used to darken what is otherwise a regular pale lager. Traditional “dark malt” notes are uncommon in the style.



Most popular examples: George Killian’s Irish Red (USA), Dos Equis Amber (Mexico), Negro Modelo (Mexico), Michelob Amber Bock (USA), JW Dundee’s Original Honey Brown Lager (USA)



Some of my favourites: Negro Modelo (Mexico), Ziegen Bock (USA), Shiner Bock (USA)



Colour: 2 – 4

Flavour: 0.5 – 3

Sweetness: 3 – 4

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