Is the Helles style making a craft comeback?

I'm with you on the House Lager, and I'd just as soon get the Benediktiner in the same price range.

Post Shift, on the other hand, may be the pick of the litter among their regular sixers.

 

I call it "sea breeze," but yeah -- that's a form of DMS that always reminds me of sticking my snoot into a full litre.

Add bready melanoidin to that and I'm back in Munich!

 

I'm "fortunate" to only barely perceive (and therefore have no dislike of) DMS.
I remember my college roommates claiming that Rolling Rock tasted like corn and I thought they were crazy. To me it's more of a grainy/crackery type of note, but one I don't find unpleasant.
On the other hand, I find myself particularly sensitive to diacetyl and sulphur. A friend once told me Augustiner often tastes "eggy" and now I hate him for it Once you know that, it's tough to escape it. You're welcome.

 

Very possibly sulfur dioxide then, I'll have to try to make that distinction next time.

As to DMS, I do remember more of a corny quality from the Alpenflo that was different from Augustiner.

Last summer I was at a bbq and grabbing beers from the cooler; drinking a Rolling Rock straight after a Stella made the corn quality stand out even more, if that's possible. I stuck with Stella after that .

 

My local lager brewery distributes a helles but they ended up rebranding it about a year ago, changing from “East Rock Helles” to “East Rock Lager” because they found that not enough people knew what a helles was.

JA house lager is abundant here but I personally find it a tad too sweet.

 

I drank a lot of Augustiner Helles when I was at Doemens back in 2014. I never did think of it as having DMS, but it did have a slight hint of sulfur. I also do brew with their yeast quite often and even though every lab I have spoken with about it claims it’s a low sulfur producer, I have found that it produces a lot of sulfur during fermentation but that it gets it out of the way early. Most of the sulfur then ages out during lagering, but a hint of sulfur can persist through to the final product. I think of it as being slightly eggy rather than like a struck match. I also have found that Augustiner yeast is much more flavorful than most other lager strains and that it doesn’t benefit from very long lagering times. 3-4 weeks is plenty for the strain.

 

Ha, funny. I didn’t see this post and responded also that I think of Augustiner yeast as being slightly eggy.

 

I spund all of my beers with the PRV’s set to 18 psi. On day 2 of fermentation with Augustiner yeast, the entire brewery smells terrible like the farts of 1000 rhinos. By day 4 though that is gone and spunding normally starts on day 6 with just a hint of the eggy sulfur quality remaining.

 

Yeah, it’s not for everybody. I have found that a small amount of the perceptible sulfur that persists until filtering doesn’t make it through filtration and packaging, but it can aid in protection from beer aging. I’ve never measured ppm to know where we are, but I’m guessing (based off a small amount of experience with wine) in package we are down under 10 ppm.

 

I agree with decoction, but malts are very modified now and I question the need for this. To your point, energy usage in Germany is a hot point and as a result, my understanding is a lot of breweries do not do this to keep energy usage/cost down

 

I still question how different this is from their Helles, but do feel the new packaging will make this a better seller going into the warmer weather season. I wish they offered this in pounders

 

In CT, Tribus Brewing (Milford CT) had a delicious Helles recently (Aw Ye Beb), and "Italian" Pilsner (queue the debate, lol) called Birra, and another pilsner called Czech Yoself. New England Brewing often has Raising Helles, Bobo Pilz, Elm City Pilsner, Hoppy Pilsner, and more. Most breweries in CT now always have a couple Pilsners/Lagers on tap, and consistently a Helles or other European lager type on tap.

 

Funny though that traditional German Pilsners were hoppier decades ago than they are now. In fact, using exact numbers from a German brewing professor of mine, he said that 40-50 years ago Pilseners were 45 IBU on average and that today the "proper" amount of IBU is 33. Perhaps what is being brewed today in America is more similar to what a German Pils was historically. It's also worth noting that there are several true German Pils that are exceptionally hoppy compared to what most of us think of being a Pils in the USA... Bitburger for example. Another one is Augustiner which from what I was told is a hopbursted Pils dry hopped with Mittelfruh (almost as if "Italian Pilsners" were produced in Germany long before Tipo Pils was first brewed). It's worth going to Germany (if you haven't before) and trying Pilsners fresh over there. There are many examples of fairly hoppy Pilseners brewed in Germany that we just don't see in the USA. Also, pretty hoppy Helles too, including Weihenstephaner Original being on the hoppy side for a Helles.

I would disagree. If the malts necessitate a stepped mash, I'd much rather drink a beer that uses a stepped infusion. I prefer the pale color allowed from infusion mashing as well as the lack of sweetness that derives from decoction mashes... Always interesting how different people's palates and preferences are.

 

I bought a sixtel of Helles back in January and really enjoyed it, but to your point, I can't say the same for bottle purchases of Helles. I like Classic, but wonder if it being fresh is giving it the upper hand for now