Tuesday 14th September 2009

Bob Thompson

This brewery building has some history, at various times being a monastery and, when built, stables for the royal carriage horses. It is reached through a gate in the wall of the Belvedere Palace. This was built from 1717 to 1723 and it became a brewery and pub in 1994.

The palace was built by Prince Eugen of Savoy (1663 to 1736) and is nowadays a public museum. In 1896 the Austrian Kaiser decided it should be home for the heir presumptive, Franz Ferdinand, and it became his home. Of course, it was his assassination in Sarajevo in 1914, after he became monarch, which marked the beginning of the First World War.

The owner of the pub is the Salm Co which manufactures brewing equipment. You may see their name on breweries throughout the world. This brewery is of 16hl capacity and there are ten lagering tanks.

The two staple beers are initially fermented for a week and then lagered for a further three weeks. Pils (4.5%) is one of the two core beers. It uses malt from Stadlau, in the Vienna suburbs, and the hops are Hallertau and Saaz. The other beer is Helles (4.0%) which is in the Vienna mode, soft with very little hop influence. Both are good examples of their styles.

Personally, I thought the Pils was far and away the best, but that's because I like hoppier beers. I did find it strange that the strengths were lower than you'd expect for these types of beers. There is also a Beer of the Month that can be of any style. I believe it was a Bavarian-type wheat beer when I visited, which explains why I didn't have it. I'm not that keen on Wheat beer when there are others available.

There is also a distillery on site that produces a Beer Schnapps. It is remarkable that it takes twenty-five litres of beer to produce just one litre of spirit after distillation.

The pub offers take-out beers and there is a Happy Hour(s) on Mondays to Fridays between 15.00 and 17.00. On Saturdays it's from 12.00 to 16.00. At these times you can get two of the core beers (only) for the price of one.

I like this place a lot as it has genuine history and a good friendly pub atmosphere.

Important Information:

Salm Bräu, 8 Rennweg, Wien 1030. Tel: 799 5992

Open: Daily 11.00-24.00

Tram 71 stops at Unteres Belvedere, 100 metres from pub.
Note: this stop may be shown as Marrokkengasse on older maps.