Helles Good
Loose Screw Beer Co. - Downtown Brewery Taproom

becoming a bit of a regular at their downtown meridian location, great to see some new innovation more often than not when we visit, and this one seems to have just dropped, an ideal style for the dog days of summer, but not one of their more impressive recent beers, to me they miss they german essence a little bit, and perhaps overshot the malt, this is brassy rather than sunny colored, and drinks enriched and sturdy for the style, which does permit a little sweetness, although this finishes drier than it starts, and its well lagered, just a bit robust compared to expectations, and less european to my senses. objectively solid beer, dont get me wrong. a little bit nutty and a touch of central sweetness in here, missing that crackery german malt character but the yeast does have some old world personality, and this is quite clean in that regard. hops are herbal and way back, very little bitterness and only moderate crispness on the swallow, this hits a little more bock-like maybe than helles, but its mellow and drinkable and should appeal to a wide audience of light but not boring lager fans. while i dont think this is quite on par with the best of their recent releases, its cool to see so much innovation here, and to see them stabbing at all kinds of styles, its been a good summer so far in here and the diversity on the beer list is great. this wouldnt stack up against the best of the imports, but it doesnt really need to.