While on a tour at a local brewery, the tour guide told me that another brewery (one of my favorites) used Vienna Malt as their base malt (vs Brewers Malt, Pale Malt or Maris Otter Malt) for ALL of the beers that they make.
I thought that was amazing and hoped to myself that I just heard some great insight on my favorite brewery’s process.
Anyone else brew with Vienna as their Base Malt?
I’ve done a few… Its good! Someone posted a while back that Vienna was a mix of Pils and Munich… Try your Marzen with 100% Vienna and tell me what you think… Its not too easy to get a sack up here as most the breweries keep pale malt in stock… They give me a ration of… poop when I ask to get a bag in… Sneezles61
yes
I’m a big fan of Vienna malt and use it a lot.
Bro in law did a Vienna SMASH and it was… OK. Not a huge fan of Vienna as the predominant flavor in that beer as it overpowered the hops. I can’t remember what hops he used but they couldn’t stand up to the malt. I think the right recipe could make it work.
Depends on the beer for me. For a Vienna Lager or a red ale…sure…but I generally add other base malts for complexity. I add 26% vienna or munich to the grist for my Pale Ales and IPAs but I don’t think the flavor profile of a 100% vienna pale ale would suit me…
Vienna roughly 60% of grist was fine for a Vienna lager. Cut with light Munich and @ 25% Pils. But you could try 100% to define that flavor more prominently, kinda the reasoning behind the whole SMASH thing. But maybe a small batch might be better 
I’ve always been intrigued by vienna malt. It has a distinctive flavor that should make some really nice beers - but I’ve never made a beer that I’ve been really happy with using vienna. The crackery flavor of it can be overpowering, and distract from the basic maltyness that I like so much. I’ve never tried it in a really hoppy beer, but I could see that working. It might have enough to it to give some balance and keep the beer from being one-dimensionally hoppy.
my viennas are 100% vienna malt
well, a couple oz’s of carafa malt to darken it to the approp color. vienna itself isn’t dark enough believe it or not.
as to the “too much vienna” element; just add more hops balance it out. A Vienna Lager is truly one of the styles that should be 50/50 malt/hop perfect balance.
On a side note, I have seen written that modern “vienna” malt is actually pils and munich malts combined. I would like to know the truth of this, or at least which companies to use for “true Vienna” malt.
Boiled a 3 gallon experimental batch this weekend.
8 lbs Vienna
1 lb. Crystal 20
1 Oz Chinook at 60
.5 oz Chinook at 5
1 Oz Centennial at flame out
We shall see …
Where did you hear that?
Brew Cat I read that its a combo too… There was a person whom expressed that on here… seems they where an understudy in Germany… Tom… You are on to something right there… I wonder if, just in my mind, that I haven’t used enough crystal/caramel malts to make an ESB kinda brew that my mind sez is ESB… Make sense? Sneezles61
I find it hard to believe any reputable malter would do that but I guess you never know. I only buy Avangard Best Malz pils, vienna and munich.
OMG,
So good.
A real treat.
Used WLP001.
Now to keep my neighbor from drinking it all.
Best get another one going! Sneezles61
be on the lookout for a brulosophy coming out soon where we test Vienna vs pils/munich blend.
What’s the purpose of the experiment? It will be interesting to see the results.
I use a 50/50 blend of vienna malt Vienna Malt - Briess Goldpils®
and oat malt English Oat Malt - Thomas Fawcett Malting
in my favorite hazy IPA.
Its the number one seller at a local brewery here.
I looked up my most recent Vienna lager(I’ve brewed this one a lot)from a couple of years ago, and it was 55% Vienna malt and the rest primarily pils malt, Munich and carafa II. It was nice, balanced. “Goodnight Vienna”. Time to brew it again!
Ive brewed 100% Vienna and didnt much care for the results but its really personal
