Beer in Austria

Bottle and glass of Stiegl beer

There are many different types of Austrian beer. The most common style of beer is Märzen.

Brands

Among Styrian breweries, in the south, are the popular Gösser, Puntigamer and Murauer brands. Hirter is produced in the town of Hirt in Carinthia. In Lower Austria Egger, Zwettler, Schwechater, and the popular Wieselburger predominate. In Vienna Ottakringer is brewed.

From the more westernly parts of Austria come Kaiser, Zipfer and Kapsreiter in Upper Austria. Upper Austria is also home to famous Freistadt beer (Freistädter Bier). The brewery's organization is unique in that the brewery is a commune - owned and operated by those individuals who own a house within the city walls, thus the name of the town Freistadt (free-city). Continuing West, Salzburg is home to aforementioned Stiegl, as well as Augustiner Bräu (not related to the German one) and Edelweiss. Weissbier (wheat beer) is the most popular type of beer in this region. From Tyrol and Vorarlberg come Falkenstein, Frastanzer, Mohrenbräu, Starkenberger, Zillertaler and the popular Fohrenburger.

Slogans

Gösser - "Gut, besser, Gösser." ("Good, better, Gösser").

Stiegl - "Es muss ein Stiegl sein." ("It has to be a Stiegl/It must be a Stiegl").

Egger - "My home is my Egger."

Puntigamer - "Das 'bierige' Bier." ("The 'beery' beer").

Ottakringer - "Warum erfrischt mich das Ottakringer bloß so? Bloß so." ("Why is it that Ottakringer refreshes me just like that? Just like that.")

Villacher - "Die brau'n sich was, die Kärntner! (play on wirds - brew (brauen) and dare (trauen) rhyme in german language. They brew something, those Carinthians!)

Kaiser - "Hast ein Kaiser, bist ein Kaiser" ("If you have a Kaiser, you are a kaiser.")

Zipfer - "Ein Glas heller Freude ("A glass of delightful joy", play on words - "helle Freude" means "delightful joy", but "Helles" is also a type of beer)

Stiegl

One of the most common brands of beer to be found in Austria is Stiegl, founded in 1492. Stiegl brews both a helles (a light lager) and a Weissbier (Hefeweizen), as well as other specialty beers. Stiegl is the most popular beer of Austria that isn't owned by Brau AG and is known for its slightly sour taste.

The brewery has a large museum of beer and beer making on the outskirts of Salzburg, a tour of which ends in a visit to the pub for a beer on the house.

Ottakringer

Ottakringer from Vienna can be found more often in the eastern provinces. Over the past decades, it has earned somewhat of a cult status leading the company to name one of their canned variants "16er-Blech" (Ottakring is the 16th district of Vienna, "Blech" a slang term for a tin can).

Egger Bier

In Voralberg is also a beer brand called Egger Bier, which is brewed by a brewery in Egg, Bregenzerwald. This led to a lawsuit with the above mentioned Egger from Lower Austria, which ended in an agreement between the two breweries. So, when buying a Egger in Vorarlberg you get one from Egg, whereas in the rest of Austria it will be from Lower Austria.

See also

• Culture of Austria
• German beer
• Czech beer

References

Notes