Go To Helles by Bob Montemurro Have we become too jaded to enjoy a beer made from the four basic ingredients: barley malt, hops, yeast and water? If just plain beer is what you seek, you can’t get just-plainer than a helles lager. Helles (pronounced “HELL-us”) is the immensely quaffable golden lager downed by the tanker in Bavarian beer halls. Stylistically, it’s a cousin to Pilsener. When the first pils appeared in 1842, its flaxen color and creamy white foam made it an instant sensation. By the 1890s, the new style was drawing enough market share from Central Europe’s murky brown lagers that even arch-conservative Munich brewers were forced to come up with their own version. Adapting the recipe to local tastes, they produced a lager that was the same brilliant gold but emphasized malt rather than hops. Munich’s Spaten brewery is credited with brewing the first true helles in 1894. A well-made helles is subtle but not boring. It should have that appetizing aroma of biscuits rising in the oven and a flowery/spicy hop finish that’s subdued but clearly detectable. Brisk in carbonation, with a moderate alcohol level between 4.5 and 5.5 percent by volume, helles has a quality that the late beer writer Michael Jackson termed “more- ish”: One swallow invites another. Think of it as having the same spicy hop characters of Czech Pils, but a bit more subdued and in balance with more malts in its flavor profile Speaking of extra hops, I sometimes find the line between helles and Pilsener to be a bit blurry. For example, Hoppin’ Helles, a recent line extension from Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing in Wisconsin, subsitutes more aggressive American hop varieties (including Citra and Simcoe) for the subtler European “noble” hop varieties which give the beer a light, citrusy character with grassy notes. Lighter beers like a Helles don’t always hold up well on transoceanic voyages, and a fine German helles won’t taste the same when sipped from a green bottle stateside as when downed under a tent at the Oktoberfest. Fortunately, some of Munich’s most famous beer halls now have American outposts. You can get a freshly brewed helles, made to German specifications, at a Hofbrauhaus clone in Pittsburgh or the newly opened Paulaner Brauhaus in New York City’s Bowery neighborhood. In bottles I like the Southampton Keller Helles along with similar beers from Victory and Great Lakes. Helles isn’t a popular style for American craft breweries, both because of the long maturation time it requires (six weeks or longer) and because it leaves no room for error: Off-flavors stand out all too clearly against such a delicate backdrop. But it isn’t as rare as it might seem. Sometimes it goes under such noms de plume as “golden lager,” “blond lager” or simply “lager.” Some people also interchange the name Helles with Dortmunder, a beer hailing from Dortmund, Germany. It too is a malt-accented pale lager. With a traditional Dortmunder, cookie-like or bready maltiness is very much in evidence. These beers are clean and easy to drink in quantity. Some Dortmunders made in Denmark and the Netherlands are stronger. Oh, by the way, "Helles" is German for "bright." It has nothing to do with that place down under (no, not Australia). ----------- I invite everyone to send me their own columns about beer. I'll select the best and publish them here. So join in and get writing! Cheers! Bob |
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