Helles Island

From tap at Departed Soles, Jersey City. Sweetish malty aroma with caramel, some toffee, touch of dried fruit. Moderate to medium sweet with a light bitterness. Body is medium. Decent, bit too much Märzen and not enough Helles for my taste.

16 ounce can. Amber orange pour. Large frothy beige head. Bready, yeasty toasted malt aroma. Flavor is toasted malt, caramel, dried fruit and toasted nuts. Tasty.

Deep crisp copper and bronze coloured body with an amber tint and a smooth, single centimetre tall tan head that shows well for quite a while on top. Aroma of malts, caramel, a touch of nuts, earth and a hint of grain with very little else, aside from some bananas and more pungent yeast components. Medium-bodied; Assertive and grainy malt and yeast flavours with a big bread and astringent rye and specialty grain flavours with some sweetness from pure caramelised sugars and a touch of light fruits, with a more nutty and grassy kick towards the end, but a good balance of sugars, malt and yeast - with no real hops to speak of, at all. Aftertaste shows the grain and nutty profiles of this one with a little bit of pungent yeast and sugars, with just about nothing else after that. Overall, a nice enough beer that sadly had way more character and depth than a true German 'Pale Ale', but this as an average or decent lager makes that one look like garbage. I sampled this 50 cL can purchased from Joe Canal's in Lawrenceville, New Jersey on 21-October-2018 for US$3,19 sampled at my house here in Washington on 03-December-2018.