Tuesday 28 October 2014

German Helles in 2014

Right, time to start making some use of all this information I've been wasting my evenings collecting. My only accompaniment the quiet sobbing of my negected wife and kids.

I suppose I should make this clear at the start. What I mean by Helles, isn't any old sort of pale Lager that isn't Pils. I should really use the full name of the style I'm discussing today: Helles Lagerbier or Lagerbier Hell. I'm using the shorthand of Helles because I can't be arsed to go and change the style on hundreds of table entries.

It's a very popular style amongst the breweries I'm looking at. No surprise, as most are from Bavaria. Where Helles is the most popular style. There were only more examples in my set of two styles: Pils and Hefeweizen. Those are, unsurprisingly, the three most popular styles in Germany.

Oh, I suppose I should tell you how I split apart Helles Lagerbier and Helles Export. Some of the latter were identified by the brewery as Export. With others it wasn't clear what, if anything, the brewery considered their style. So I used something mentioned in the Deutscher Brauer-Bund website style descriptions: that Export has a minimum gravity of 12 Platoº.

It seems like a good enough dividing line, so that's what I've used. Though it is pretty arbitrary. I'll classify a beer of 11.9º Helles and one of 12º Export. You have to draw the line somewhere, but I'm not claiming my classification is perfect.

I suppose I should show you the beers now:

German Helles in 2014
Brewer Town Beer OG FG OG Plato ABV App. Atten-uation bitterness (EBU)
Paulaner Munich Münchner Hell Leicht 1030.4 1005.8 7.7 3.20 80.93%
Göller Zeil am Main Hausbrauerbier 1044.9 1011.7 11.2 4.30 73.92%
Püls-bräu Stadtsteinach Weismainer Urhell 1046.1 1010.8 11.5 4.60 76.69%
Bürgerbräu Hersbruck Hersbruck Lagerbier 1045.3 1009.9 11.3 4.60 78.13%
Ammerndorfer Bier Dorn Bräu Ammerndorf Hell 1045.7 1010.3 11.4 4.60 77.46%
Privatbrauerei Kesselring Marktsteft Hell 1046.1 1010.0 11.5 4.70 78.31%
Zum Löwenbräu Flair Hotel Adelsdorf Vollbier Hell 1047.4 1011.2 11.8 4.70 76.36%
Brauerei Windsheimer Gutenstetten Vollbier 1047.8 1011.6 11.9 4.70 75.73%
Forschungsbrauerei Munich Münchener Vollbier Hell 1044.0 1007.9 11 4.70 82.05%
Arnsteiner Brauerei Seinsheim Ernte Hell 1044.4 1007.6 11.1 4.80 82.90%
Brauerei Gasthof Wiethaler Lauf an der Pegnitz Lagerbier Hell 4.80
Brauereigasthof Winkler Berching  Lagerbier Hell 1045.7 1008.8 11.4 4.80 80.74%
Klosterbrauerei Andechs Andechs Vollbier Hell 1046.1 1009.2 11.5 4.80 80.05%
Braugold Erfurt Braugold Hell 1046.1 1009.2 11.5 4.80 80.05%
Holsten Hamburg Altona Edel 1044.9 1007.3 11.2 4.90 83.73% 23
Kulmbacher Brauerei Kulmbach Kulmbacher Feinmild 1045.3 1007.7 11.3 4.90 82.99%
Kulmbacher Brauerei Kulmbach Mönchshof Bayerisch Hell 1045.3 1007.7 11.3 4.90 82.99%
Kulmbacher Brauerei Kulmbach EKU Hell 1045.7 1008.1 11.4 4.90 82.27%
Brauhaus Leikeim Altenkunstadt Hell 1045.7 1008.1 11.4 4.90 82.27%
Paulaner Munich Münchner Hell 1046.1 1008.5 11.5 4.90 81.57%
Kulmbacher Brauerei Kulmbach Kulmbacher Lager Hell  1046.1 1008.5 11.5 4.90 81.57%
Kulmbacher Brauerei Kulmbach Mönchshof Lager 1046.1 1008.5 11.5 4.90 81.57%
Gasthof Gundel Kammerstein Urhell 1046.1 1008.5 11.5 4.90 81.57%
Brauerei Weller  Erlangen 3x11 1044.0 1006.5 11 4.90 85.35%
Kitzmann-Bräu Erlangen Helles 1046.5 1008.9 11.6 4.90 80.87%
Kitzmann-Bräu Erlangen Kitzzz 1046.5 1008.9 11.6 4.90 80.87%
Brauerei Hermann Sigwart Weißenburg Hell 1046.5 1008.9 11.6 4.90 80.87%
Schübel Bräu Stadtsteinach a fränkisch 1047.4 1009.7 11.8 4.90 79.52%
Strauß Karl Brauerei Treuchtlingen Wettelsheimer Helles 1047.4 1009.7 11.8 4.90 79.52%
Göller Zeil am Main Hell 1047.4 1009.0 11.8 5.00 81.00%
Hacker-Pschorr Munich Münchner Hell 1046.1 1007.8 11.5 5.00 83.19%
Schwechater Vienna Schwechater Bier 1046.1 1007.8 11.5 5.00 83.19%
Kulmbacher Brauerei Kulmbach Original 1046.5 1007.5 11.6 5.10 83.99% 21
Weihenstephan Freising Original 1046.5 1007.4 11.6 5.10 84.10% 21
Spaten Munich Münchner Hell 1047.0 1007.1 11.7 5.20 84.88%
Löwenbräu  Munich Original 1047.4 1007.5 11.8 5.20 84.17%
Average 1045.6 1008.7 11.4 4.8 81.01% 21.7
Sources:
Brewery websites.

As you can see, there's not a huge amount of variation. And the average does look like the spec of a typical Helles: 11.5º Plato, 4.8% ABV, 80% apparent attenuation. The biggest variation is in the degree of attenuation, which ranges from 74% to 85%.

Though by limiting the gravity to 11.9 º Plato, I did, of course, dictate that the beers would be generally similar.

Pils next time.

2 comments:

Magnus Bark said...

That slackened parsnip on the label. What's with that?

Barm said...

It's a radish, a traditional Bavarian beer snack.