Bat Out Of Helles
Alley Kat Brewing Company

650ml bottle - the latest in Alley Kat's Back Alley Brews series, where blah, blah, blah, you know the story. Another punny name, another happy me - however Imma go and skip the suggested pairing here, music or otherwise.

This beer pours a clear, bright (helles!) pale golden yellow colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and fizzy off-white head, which leaves some remote island chain lace in spots around the glass as it quickly recedes.

It smells of gritty and grainy pale malt, underripe apple/pear fruity notes, and very tame leafy, weedy, and musty green hop bitters. The taste is bready and crackery pale malt, an ethereal sense of gasohol, some subtle muddled pome fruitiness, and more well understated leafy, spicy, and musty floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its palate-coating frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and mostly smooth, just a touch of spicy hoppiness taking a chink out of the otherwise solid armour here. It finishes trending dry, and somewhat crisp, as the malt stays crackery, and the lingering hops are ok with that.

Overall, this is certainly a well-made, and earnest version of the style, but I can't help but wonder if it should be dubbed an "Alberta Helles Lager", because all the ingredients are from in-province, which leads to a slight deviation from what something like this from Munich actually tastes like. I've made the opposite argument in the past week, so maybe take my musings here with a healthy grain of salt.