Smoked Helles
Templin Family Brewing

awesome specimen herein the dimpled mug, of immaculate quality, and written on their printed beer menu as rauch "smoked" helles, which i assume must be this one despite how its listed here, nobody makes two of these right? just a bit of color to this, still more or less golden colored, but the light in here was low when we visited this time and maybe it was pushing a brassy color range, super high headed, pure white and lasting, amazing mouthfeel on this, i am a total side pull guy now, cool they have that option in here, it flatters this. nutty in the nose with lots of smoke but some sweetness to, a little balance to the smoke that leans a little bitter, there is a lot of grain character in this too, almost like it was decocted, full spectrum to me, hully and husky, fresh though even with the smoke, and i swear i get trace raw cacao, golden raisin, and faint maple, things nobody would ever place in a helles, but here we are, tons of character from the smoke, wonderfully well integrated without being dominant, the yeast is still intact and appreciable, and all of this is true in the flavor. subtle chestnut, pale leather, extinguished campfire without the acrid element, the soft sweetness of the base helles coming through, extending what ends up being a drier beer overall, tree bark, that inner bark layer, wet and sort of mulch-like, german to its core, very distinctive and its a lot of smoke, maybe too much for some, but the beer still is drinkable and mellow to me because of the texture, a little body but it feels exactly right to me, and this carbonation is gorgeous. very nice representation of the style, a well lagered beer with a lovely smoke profile, these guys are just killing it across a ton of styles, always impressive!