Aecht Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier

Brewed by Brauerei Heller
Style: Dortmunder/Helles
Bamberg, Bayern, Germany

From a 500 ml bottle. Nice hint of smoke in a well executed helles bier. Loved the combo, but the helles bier as a base was a bit lacking. My least favorite of the Schlenkerla line (but I still would get one from time to time despite the price).

The color was very light golden. The head was creamy, thin, and white. The aroma was very light grape. The flavor was smokey. The palate was lively. The finish was abrupt.

Pours a very pale golden with a fizzy white head. The aroma is grassy, sweet, hay, crisp, a little smoke. The flavor is similar, crisp, sweet, grassy, a tad smokey. Not too blown away by this one.

A nice helles (smoked!) always hits the spot come baseball season, so I was pleased to see this on the shelf. Pours a slightly cloudy medium gold with quickly dissipating white head. Nose is light, slightly sweet, with floral notes...quite nice! Flavor is initially not too smoky, but the smoke builds throughout the first half of the beer before fading again in the second half as the palate becomes used to it. A mild hops bitterness accompanies it, to make this a nice beer, overall.

Crystal clear golden coloured body with a very thin white head - nothing too impressive. Aroma of yeast, wheat, corn, peat and a tiny bit of metal & fruity sweetness. Medium-bodied; Highly astringent in mouth with an interesting malty flavour at first then fading to a super mild smokeyness. Aftertaste is bitter from the smoke and malt, with a tiny bit of respite for some sugars - but not much. Overall, very odd for the style and not really good in any sense of the styles it tries to represent. I wish I’d try some of their other beers before this one - but this really isn’t recommended at all. I sampled this 500 mL bottle purchased from K&E Discount Beverage in New Paltz, New York on 12-April-2008.

Pours quite clear and golden with a big fluffy white head. Honey, malt, light smoke and floral hops in the aroma. Sweet malt and mellow smoke in the flavor. Strange way to make a smoked malt just from the house flavor and not actual rauch malt. Has a bit of oxidation and a metallic note. Could be a little bigger bodied. Still, a clean enough lager with a satisfying bitter finish.

Not a rauchbier really, altough it depends on your definition, but not a rauchbier. Gorgeous pale golden colour. Beautiful lightly smoked aroma with some lovely malt and a crisp, smoky, refeshing balanced flavour, excellent finish - nice and hoppy. Superb with fish (not the most delicate however) and sausages. Tends to oxidise fairly quickly in bottle in my experience so possibly not always accorded good enough score in the US. Would it not be better to try an rate a beer on it’s merits as opposed to rating it against something (ie Rauchbier Marzen or Urbock) that it really doesn’t share much in common, styilistically, other than a brewery name? Always got to put it in a box....

Light golden color with a medium white head. Aroma is malty, sweet, and lightly smoky. Flavor is of a medium bodied Helles with a nice hint of smokiness. Clean finish - good for a Helles, subpar for a Rauch.