Gunslinger Smoked Helles
Upright Brewing Company

 

On tap at belmont station.

The beer pours a bright gold color with pretty good head retention and fairly good lacing. The nose is pretty attractive in this beer, as I get cookie dough, light honey, ginger and light smoke. On the palate, the smokey flavor tends to dominate, though it's still pretty light in ocmparison to some of the smoked beers I've had from Bamberg and Alaska brewing. The flavor profile is otherwise fairly light, with some light honey and peppery bitterness in the finish. Mouthfeel is medium bodied at most, and with a soft, fairly long finish.

Nothing extraordinairy here, but a very nice, easy to drink beer with a reasonable amount of aclohol.

On tap @ the Upright Brewing Company (Portland, OR) on 9/4/11. Served in a footed glass.

Pours a clear gold, with ½ finger of rich and creamy froth. Nice retention here, with this throwing up some sticky swathes of lace that cling to the sides of the glass. The aroma has a pleasant light smokiness to it, set against a tight feeling bready sweetness. Grassiness from the hops mingles with the smoke flavors, while I’m also picking up a bit of an underlying ripe and earthy fruitiness as well.

I’m getting much more of the hops and fruit presence up front in the taste, with this having a firm citric bitterness and a bit more of a ripe fruitiness at times as well. The malts have more of a neutral feeling sweet graininess to them but are still fairly tight feeling in the mouth. The smoked aspect of this mostly kicks in at the finish, hanging on the breath a bit while this overall finishes dry and slightly bitter. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, with a firm crispness to the overall feel yet this still has a good amount of creamy smoothness at times as well and helps keep this very easy drinking.

This was nice, with the Helles portion of this alone being well done, yet I really enjoyed the subtle smokiness of the malts as well and how it mostly worked with the gentle fruit flavors here. This was quite flavorful and very quaffable. This was definitely an enjoyable spin on the style.

On tap at The Beer Mongers 2nd Anniversary Party, 9.10.11, full pour. Listed on Upright website at "Gunslinging Helles", not sure if this fits into Helles or Rauchbier style.

Light golden cloudy body, first pour of festival resulted in gushing white two fingers head, medium-slow dissipation with some retained lacing. The smoke from maple chips of Grain and Gristle's bar (!) and ash wood is front and center but not overly aggressive, floral hops. Taste features a more nuanced smoke character which IMO places this more in the Helles category, leading to relatively soft mouthfeel and fairly dry finish. An interesting hybrid of Helles and Rauch styles.