Helles Bock
Cricket Hill Brewing Co.

Pours deep golden with slow, steady carbonated bubbles rising to the top and a thin white head. The head soon disappears to a wisp. Nice color, poor head retention.

The smell is of an earthy breadiness with some vague fruitiness. It is all under a thin, but obvious, sweet alcohol cover.

There is a thin, diluted sweet alcohol flavor upfront. Some sugary sweetness is under the alcohol. After the first sip or two, some fruity hops and sweet, bready malt emerge, but remain vague. Too watery (which allows the drinker to get past the dominating alcohol, but does nothing for the flavor). The alcohol dominates, though itself is subdued, because of the thinness in flavors. The masked flavors are actually not bad at all, but too thin.

There is a smoothness to it. This beer has potential, but is lost by the watery thinness and dominating alcohol. The underlying flavors are quite good, but so thin that they just tease. If they came out to play, this could be a decent brew. It needs to be "tweaked" to allow the flavors to emerge more fully.