Kaufbeuren Aktien Hell

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

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.

With a label this cool, this Germanic, this should have been better. My sample might have been old--though it was a recent arrival to my store, it had a "04.04" marking on the bottom of the label, suggesting it was over a year old. There were no other signs of age, but I have noticed frequently that the delicate malt of a Helles can simply evaporate with age. Perhaps this accounts for the faintness of the malt here. The malt profile was good, but it was at times tough to find. There was, however, a light but very nice spicy hop fragrance. This might be a very good beer in proper condition. As it was, it seemed like a lighter version of Spaten or Lowenbrau. Not worth the cost.

500 ml bottle. Towering meringue white head sits atop a lively clear golden body. The aroma shows a wee bit of cookie and some floral. The flavor is not too bad but I have had a much better helles before. The malts are weak with only a bit of that lovely cookieness I associate with the style. Its not at all offensive a would make for a good session lager.

Bottle (now labelled as Aktien Hell). Sweet syrupy corn malt aroma. Light golden yellow with little head. Sweet sage flavor primarily - light malt with no hops flavor that I can detect. Medium body. One of the best Helles I have ever had but I really like sweet sage - you might try it and hate it - I guess that’s why we average.