Helles or hell is a traditional German

pale lager Pale lager is a very pale-to- golden-colored lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid-19th century, when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale bre ...

beer, produced chiefly in

Southern Germany Southern Germany () is a region of Germany which has no exact boundary, but is generally taken to include the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, historically the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia or, in a modern context, Bavaria ...

, particularly

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

. The German word ''

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

'' can be translated as "bright", "light", or "pale".

Flavour profile

Helles-style beers typically are full-bodied, mildly sweet and light-coloured, with low bitterness. The beer is clear due to filtration prior to bottling, although some restaurants and breweries do offer an unfiltered version.Schanzenbräu Hell
/ref> Munich-style helles is a yellow beer brewed using

cool fermentation Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brew ...

with a

lager Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storag ...

yeast such as ''

Saccharomyces pastorianus ''Saccharomyces pastorianus'' is a yeast used industrially for the production of lager beer, and was named in honour of Louis Pasteur by the German Max Reess in 1870. This yeast's complicated genome appears to be the result of hybridisation bet ...

'', bitter hops such as

Hallertau hops This is a list of varieties of hop (''Humulus lupulus''). As there are male and female plants, the flowers (cones) of the female plant are fertilized by the pollen of the male flowers with the result that the female flowers form seeds. These s ...

, and an original specific gravity (prior to fermentation) between 1.044 and 1.053 (11 to 13 degrees plato), and between 4.5 and 6%

alcohol by volume Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol ( ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) ...

. Helles has a less pronounced hop flavour than pilsner beers.

History

Until the 1960s, Helles was universally available in German-speaking regions. In many regions, Helles was slowly replaced by

pilsner Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (german: Pilsen), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Bre ...

-style beers, which was also driven by changing consumer preferences from draft beer to bottled beer. In regions outside of Southern Germany, Helles is regaining popularity, particularly

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, where the beer's traditional image has become trendy.

Distribution

Helles enjoys great popularity in the

Southern German Southern Germany () is a region of Germany which has no exact boundary, but is generally taken to include the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, historically the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia or, in a modern context, Bavaria ...

regions of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper ...

, and

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

. It can be referred to as , , , "Munich lager", or "export". No clear distinction is drawn between lager and export, although export typically is closer in style to Dortmunder Export, which has a slightly higher

ABV Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

of 5.5% for extended shelf life.

Examples

* Andechser Hell * Augustiner Bräu Lagerbier Hell * Ayinger Lager Hell * Bayreuther Hell * Chiemseer Hell * Dinkelacker Hell *

Erdinger The Privatbrauerei Erdinger Weißbräu Werner Brombach GmbH (also known as Erdinger Weißbräu) is a brewery in Erding, Germany. Its best-known products are its namesake Weißbiers (wheat beer). History Erdinger is the world's largest whea ...

Brauhaus Helles * Flötzinger Hell *

Giesinger Giesinger is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * (born 1947), Austrian politician * Max Giesinger (born 1988), German singer-songwriter * Stefanie Giesinger (born 1996), German model {{surname German-language surnames< ...

Münchner Hell *

Hacker-Pschorr Hacker-Pschorr is a brewery in Munich, formed in 1972 out of the merger of two breweries, Hacker and Pschorr. Hacker was founded in 1417, nearly a century before the enactment of the ''Reinheitsgebot'' beer purity law of 1516. As one of six bre ...

Münchner Helles * Hofbräu München Original * Kichesippi Beer Co. Heller Highwater * Löwenbräu Original * Oberdorfer Helles * Nashville Brewing Company's Nashville Original Lager *

Paulaner Paulaner is a German brewery, established in 1634 in Munich by the Minim friars of the ''Neudeck ob der Au'' cloister. The mendicant order and the brewery are named after Francis of Paola, the founder of the order. Paulaner is one of the ...

Münchner Hell * Spaten Münchner Hell * Schönramer Hell *

Stiegl Beer in Austria comes in a wide variety of styles. There are many small breweries across the country, although a few large breweries dominate the market. The most common beer is ''Märzen''. Breweries Styrian breweries, in the south, include ' ...

Hell *

Tegernseer The Ducal Bavarian Brewery of Tegernsee (German ''Herzoglich Bayerisches Brauhaus Tegernsee KG'') is a brewery in Tegernsee, Bavaria, Germany, located inside the north wing of former Tegernsee Abbey and owned by Maria Anna, Duchess in Bavaria, y ...

Hell *

Weihenstephaner The Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan (''Bavarian State Brewery of Weihenstephan'') is a German brewery located on the site of the former Weihenstephan Abbey in Freising, Bavaria. In 2014, the total output was . The brewery advertises itse ...

Original * Ølsnedkeren Sikkert og vist *

Penn Brewery Penn Brewery, also known as the Pennsylvania Brewing Company, is a brewery and restaurant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Tom Pastorius in 1986, and is located at 800 Vinial Street in the Troy Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, on ...

Gold * Tonewood Brewing Lumberyard

References

{{Beer styles German beer styles German cuisine Pages translated from German Wikipedia

Flavour profile

History

Distribution

Examples

See also

References