The easiest way to get to the
Prater park in
Vienna is by taking the
U-Bahn to the Praterstern metro station. The park is next to the station, but first you must walk through the
fun fair.
There are several eateries and restaurants in the Prater park. One of them is the traditional
Schweizerhaus, which has a large beer garden. The menu has an extensive selection of Austrian courses, and there are several beers available on tap.
The Czech Budvar golden lager is the main beer at Schweizerhaus, but you can also get Budvar's dark lager or a G'mischtes where you get a mix of both lagers. Also available as draught beers are Grieskirchner Dunkles, Paulaner Hefe-Weißbier, Rotes Zwickl and the alcohol free Clausthaler.
I have had my share of Budvar on my visits to the Czech Republic, so I started with a Rotes Zwickl after sitting down at the beer garden. This brownish beer from the Ottakringer brewery is a naturtrüb beer. In the glass it had very little carbonation and a medium to small sized head. The nose had malts and a touch of yeast. In the mouth malts and caramel had a dance together with a touch of sourness before a bready finish with some yeast. A lovely beer!
In retrospect I should have taken another Rotes Zwickl or tried the Grieskirchner Dunkles. Instead I went for a beer I know very well, Paulaner's wheat beer. For some reason I had a craving for a weizen, and I knew that I would get a good one.
Paulaner Hefe-Weißbier has a lot of banana in the nose, and the taste is dominated by banana, bread and a touch of spices before a sweet and lasting finish with more banana. The beer is lovely, and it is one of my favourites. It is also better as a draught beer than from bottles, so it was pure bliss. The Paulaner brewery knows how to make an excellent wheat beer.
I left Schweizerhaus knowing it was a great experience being there. The beer was good, the weather was good and the beer garden was good. Actually, life and Vienna was good.
In a supermarket in Vienna I found two wheat beers from the brewery, and of course I took some bottles back to the hotel room. I first tried Edelweiss Hofbräu. The beer was cloudy with aromas of banana. The banana was very assertive in the mouth with a bready touch. I liked this wheat beer a lot, and I would like to try it again head to head with excellent German weizens like Paulaner and Weihenstephaner.
Then it was time for Edelweiss Hefetrüb. This was another beer with much banana in the nose. There was nearly no carbonation, and it had a medium sized head. In the mouth I felt some banana and bread before a watery finish. Edelweiss Hefetrüb is a nice wheat beer, but Edelweiss Hofbräu is the better and tastier choice.
During a visit to a pub in the city centre of Vienna I tried another wheat beer. I have forgotten the name of the pub, but it offered a wheat beer from the Zwickl brewery. This cloudy wheat beer was far from fizzy and had a decent, medium sized head. The nose had aromas of bread and banana. In the mouth I felt bread and yeast before a finish with a touch of banana. Zwickl weizen was another nice wheat beer, but I felt that the Edelweiss Hofbräu was the best of these three beers.
