Kaufbeuren Aktien Hell

Brewed by Aktienbrauerei Kaufbeuren
Style: Dortmunder/Helles
Kaufbeuren, Germany

Serve in Lager glass

Bottle. Smells sweetlz of malt and floral aromatic hops, almost perfumey. Yellow-golden with a short white head. Crisp, overly sweet, and malty; bready notes are low in the mix, as is the graininess that eventually leads to a dry finish. Some acidity. Not great.

Soft yellow body with a sudsy, pure white head. Aroma of sweet, nutty and buttery Continental malts with lager yeast characters of lime citrus and bread dough plus mild grass. Flavor is malt-focused with negligible hop character. Mild bitterness with some honey-like sweetness and texture. Not an interesting example of the style nor something I would look to revisit.

(500 ml bottle: $2.59 at Hollingshead Deli in Orange, CA) The month is notched out for April, but there is no year on the label, so I have no idea how old the bottle is but I just bought it last month. The bready and grainy malt is readily apparent, but to a lesser degree, so is the metallic and oxidized finish. Not much in the way of hops or bitterness here, maybe just a hint in the mid-palate. Grainy nose is not enticing. Medium bodied with average carbonation. Clear, medium-yellow body is topped by a small, whitish head that settles to a ring. One small patch of lace remains on the glass. Drinkable, but not all that enjoyable and it will not be memorable in any way.

UPDATED: FEB 29, 2008 This beer is okay; light, without much aroma. Not complex, but not quite boring, this is an easy drinking brew. I must have had a bad bottle last time. Original score 1.4 Maybe I had an old bottle, but I think this tastes as bad as every other really bad lager. I once went to a bar in Germany called Hell and if they served me this, it truly would have been.

Grainy malts and lightly spicy hops in the nose. Clear pale golden body is topped by a low, fizzy, fine bubbled, white head that recedes to cover. Grainy, somewhat stale, metallic flavour with some floral hop notes and very low bitterness.. Light-medium body with moderate carbonation. Lager glass. Fridge temperature. Bottle (State Line Liquors, MD, Oct-05).

From the bottle pours a light golden color, very clear with a tall white head. Very nice floral aroma with a bit of hop spiciness to it and a light background maltiness. This was a nice crisp and refreshing helles with a slight apricot fruitiness in the finish and a great hop play. One of the more hoppy helles i’ve had a very well made.

(500ml bottle) Crystal clear straw body with medium white head. Aroma is medium sweet, cookie dough, some floral, fruity. Taste is medium sweet, bread, some floral, fruity, light herbal/grassy. Watery light body, some crispness. Not bad, just generic.

Crisp and sweet with a big, malty flavor. I have never had this style before this one, but it was good.