Vienna Lager Enters The Modern Style Guidelines

By 1999, Vienna Lager was already present in the Beer Judge Certification Program style materials as a recognized beer style. In the 1999 BJCP guide, it appeared as style 9B, and later BJCP versions continued to define it, including the 2008 guidelines as 3A and the 2015 and 2021 guidelines as 7A. This modern codification helped preserve Vienna Lager as a distinct style even after its decline in its original Central European context. The guidelines describe the beer as a bottom-fermented amber lager with a clean fermentation profile, soft toasty malt character, and moderate bitterness, while also explicitly connecting the style to Anton Dreher, Vienna in 1841, its later survival in Mexico, and its modern craft revival.