This ‘Gran Riserva’ label was first released in 2006 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Peroni brewery, but it wasn’t until 10 years later that this beer was introduced to expand their range of premium beers.
It is classed as a Vienna Lager, a style that was created by Austrian brewer Anton Dreher in 1841. The beer style takes its name from the specialty malt used, being Vienna Malt. It is said that Dreher toured the UK and noted the different malting techniques used allowed for greater control of gently roasting the malts.
He took this idea back to his Klein-Schwechat Brewery to craft the world’s first Vienna Lager. It was so popular that his brewery operation expanded so much that at one point it was considered the largest brewery in the world at that time!
Our Vienna Lager pours an attractive copper colour, with a pleasant malty, bready and slightly earthy aroma. And that’s exactly what we taste.
There is malt sweetness up front, caramelised malt, with a bready, grainy body. It is a very clean taste, that offers enough bitterness to balance out the beer without ever being aggressive. The mouthfeel is pretty smooth, with good carbonation that helps to accentuate the flavours for a lingering aftertaste that you can enjoy well after the beer is gone. It is another example of a good beer from a very commercial brewery.
This beer is a pleasant surprise from one of Italy's biggest commercial breweries
