Austrian Stiegl beer is primarily associated with light lager. It is either Hell or Goldbräu. In fact, Stieglbrauerei zu Salzburg is extremely prolific. Untappd lists as many as 142 varieties, which is not too few for a small craft brewery. Of course, there are also weizens (two of them, to be exact). One of them, Stiegl Weisse Naturtrüb, I bought yesterday at the company store of Volkowska Brewery.
The Stieglbrauerei zu Salzburg brewery has been around since 1492. It got its name from the stairs that led from the brewery to the canal, which supplied the city with drinking water. It should be noted that from the beginning the brewery was not small. In 1664 it had a brewhouse with a capacity of one ton, which was not small for that time.
You have to remember that back then everything was done by hand (all beer was “craft beer”), and stirring a ton of mash with a shovel by hand is a lot of fun (I tried it). However, they managed to brew 100,000 liters of beer a year! Stieglbrauerei beer was the most popular in Salzburg. Even Mozart wasn’t squeamish about it!
On 29 December 1875 a serious fire completely destroyed the brewery, but it was promptly rebuilt and resumed its work.
Both World Wars also affected the brewery. After World War II, due to prohibition and problems with raw materials, only a weak 2.5% beer was brewed. However, this did not apply to the U.S. occupation forces! For them normal beer was brewed from American raw materials (!) on labels labeled “Brewed and bottled at the Stieglbrauerei. And in 1950, the then owner of Stieglbrauerei – Heinrich Keener II launched the production of Coca-Cola.
Now, the Stieglbrauerei is the largest and most modern private brewery in Austria.
Stiegl Weisse Naturtrüb (Salzburg, Austria) – 5.1/12 Aroma is weak, banana. The taste is quite dry. In the aftertaste, a classic banana flavor and quite noticeable saltiness! Very unusual weizen. Something in between, between the German Erdinger, with its dry sparkling flavor and gose. The fact that this beer has a saltiness, I was not the only one who noted in Untappd. I’m quite curious, is it something in a particular batch or is it supposed to be that way? B rating.
