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08-05-2014, 08:15
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Another thromise fulfilled: stuff about the Austrian form of Märzen.

Weird things are sort of my thing. One of my weird things is with Anton Dreher. Not that I want his babies or anything sick like that. More a fascination with - and admiration for - the way he dragged Austrian brewing into the industrial. But has ended up a marginal figure through fickle fashion.

Who else, looking at that table of beer analyses in "Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie", would have been more excited over Schwechater Märzen than all the Oktoberfesbiers combined? Not that they were dull.

Chemistry periodicals are a great source of 19th-century beer analyses. Frustrating, too. The commercial-oriented gravity books of Truman and Whitbread by definition have to disclose the brewers. The chemistry mags are less open. And often vague about the type of beer being analysed. Irritating for an anal arsehole like me.

"That's not a proper Märzen." is an accusation I've heard thrown at the modern Austrian form. Too pale and too weak. Apart from irritating the flob out of me, that got me wondering: when did Austrian Märzen get paler and weaker.

I've no new information on the colour question. Strength? Maybe. I say maybe, because it's based on a single sample. Chemists weren't always that precise when it came to styles. But . . . it is clearly included for comparison purposes with Oktoberfestbiers.

That said, you can see a general trend in the gravity of Schwechat's Märzen: downwards.




Austrian Märzen 1868 - 2004


Year
Brewer
Beer
package
Acidity
OG Plato
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation


1868
Schwechat
Märzen
draught
0.12
15.39
1062.7
1019.76
5.57
68.47%


1869
Schwechat
Dreher's Beer
draught
0.12
15.28
1062.2
1019.76
5.54
68.22%


1869
Liesing
Liesing Beer
draught
0.12
15.16
1061.7
1019.11
5.56
69.01%


1870
Schellenhof
Märzen

0.14
13.83
1056.0
1021.5
4.45
60.30%


1870
Schwechat
Märzen

0.14
13.54
1054.7
1016.9
4.90
67.95%


1870
St. Mark
Märzen

0.11
13.80
1055.8
1019.2
4.74
64.35%


1870
Brunn
Märzen

0.19
14.89
1060.5
1016.7
5.69
71.19%


1898
Schwechat
Märzenbier
bottled

14.60
1059.3
1018.1
5.34
69.45%


1901
Schwechat
Märzenbier
draught
0.14
12.75
1051.4
1015.6
4.53
68.66%


2004
Baumgartner
Märzen


12.30
1049.5
1010.3
5.10
78.37%


2004
Eggenberg
Märzen


12.20
1049.1
1011.4
4.90
75.98%


2004
Hofstetten
Märzen


11.50
1046.1
1009.9
4.70
77.65%


2004
Kaltenhausen
Märzen


11.60
1046.5
1008.2
5.00
81.72%


2004
Mohren
Märzen


11.60
1046.5
1008.9
4.90
80.17%


2004
Schlägl
Märzen


11.80
1047.4
1009.0
5.00
80.25%


Sources:


Birmingham Daily Post - Wednesday 27 January 1869, page 6.


British Medical Journal Jan 23rd 1869, page 84


"Theory and Practice of the Preparation of Malt and the Fabrication of Beer" Julius E. Thausing, Anton Schwartz and A.H. Bauer, Philadelphia 1882, pages 748-751


Brockhaus' konversations-lexikon, Band 2 by F.A. Brockhaus, 1898


Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie, 1903 page 434.


Baumgartner website


Eggenberg website


Hofstetten website


Kaltenhausen website


Mohren website


Schlägl website



Modern Austrian Märzen reminds me of low-gravity British IPA. Undervalued because it isn't what ideology tells us it should be.

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