Pioneer Pathway
Payette Brewing

Draft at Payette. Pale straw colored pour, small spotty head. Clean grainy aroma. Taste too is straight up grains, flavorful. Biscuity, bready, smooth.

ive liked other lighter types and lagers from payette better, but i guess you can never have too much of this sort of thing this time of year, when everyone wants crushable refreshing summery beers, im sure that barrel aged wheatwine handle they have right now is moving a little slowly. this is a solid lager, a little more richly malty than i expect from a helles, this is darker than yellow and more substantial in taste and feel, but its still very light and drinkable beer. for me, it could be drier, and the german lager yeast character could be a little more robust, i really like to taste it in the style, but it seems muted here behind the grain. i also do not get that snappy mineral crispness i like these to finish with, nor the over the top effervescent carbonation that makes something like this pop. its far from lifeless, but its not exploding either. in the end this is a fine drinker, but it seems a little less than fully traditional and doesnt quite hit the mark for a helles in my book. that said, its a fine addition to their summer draft list and should sell well at their awesome taproom. i wanted this to be lighter and brighter.