Local pride can be a great motivator. The success of the hoppy golden lager from Pilsen led to many central European towns and cities wanting something similar. The people of Budweis wouldn’t want to say that their Budweiser was just a copy of their neighbours Pilsner – it’s a different beast which we could term a Budweis style of beer – a beer whose defining characteristic is that it can solely be brewed in Budweis. You could come up with 26 different entries – and frankly it wouldn’t be worth doing either – but Helles is one of the most notable local German lager variants. It clocks in at around 5% abv and has similarities with some of the other German lager styles. However it was pre-dated by the Dortmunder.
Dortmund lies in the west of Germany close to the river Ruhr. It started brewing pale lager abut 30 years after pilsners appeared when the town was populated by industrial workers and coal miners, thereby giving the beer a tough proletariat image. The heavy industry in Dortmund has died off in recent years and the beer’s popularity has also waned, partially because the style lacks a distinctive edge – it’s a balance of what you’ll find in other lagers. The original Dortmunder Union Export is available, but it is now made by a different brewery.
Munich caught onto the pilsner craze a little later than Dortmund but has had a more enduring impact. The helles beer originally produced by the Spaten Brewery is an incredibly pale coloured beer whose emphasis is almost entirely on the malt flavour. There is usually no aroma and hardly any bitterness at all. The beer was first sold in the port of Hamburg as a trial run, but it was soon selling strongly in the bars of Munich. Done well a helles is almost infinitely subtle, making best use of the purity laws. Done badly it’s just bland.
Five to Try -
1. Fischer Brau Helles
2. Ottakringer Helles
3. St Georgen Helles
4. Kaltenberg Hell
5. Stary Melnik Iz Bochonka Myagkoe
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