Comparing Helles Beers

Listed below are my observations about two different Muncher Helles beers.  This style of beer was developed in Munich, Germany.  The lager style beer is a bottom-fermented beer meaning that the yeast acts to ferment the beer at the bottom of the fermentation tank.  This type of fermentation occurs at lower temperature than top fermenting beers.

According to Mosher, the flavor of this style of beer is a rich, caramelly malt with a small hint of hops.  The aroma is characterized as a clean malt odor with a good dose of herbal hops.  This style of beer is supposed to score between a 4-5 SRM and has low levels of bitterness (18-25 IBU).

I have compared both of these beers in the setting of the hotel nook.  This is a fairly neutral room that does not have any distinct smells.  This is a pretty good setting to taste beers.

Augustiner Helles:

Appearance: Transparent golden color.  This beer has an SRM value of 4.  The beer has clearly been filtered because it is completely transparent.  Large, bubbly, foamy white head. 

Flavor:  The flavor of the beer is a light malty flavor with very little bitterness

Aroma:  The aroma of the beer is fairly bready with a hint of hops.  The aroma of the beer also has a hint of cooked vegetables, which is the presence of dimethyl sulfide.  According to Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), helles beers tend to have a slight cooked vegetable aroma from the presence of dimethyl sulfide.

Mouth-feel:  This is a light to medium bodied beer with moderate carbonation. 

Paulaner Original Muncher Hell:

Appearance:  This beer has a golden hue and is completely transparent.  The beer has clearly been filtered because it is completely transparent.  The head is small, but foamy and white.  This lack of head could be due to the fact that the glass being used was not completely clean.

Flavor:  The flavors of this beer do not reflect the characteristics of the helles styles.  There is very little malty flavor, and almost no presence of hops.  The most distinguishable flavor of the beer is a grassy flavor and the beer tends to dry out your tongue as you swallow.

Aroma: The aroma of the beer is malty with caramel notes.  The aroma of the hops is almost indistinguishable and there is no cooked vegetable smell.  This means that dimethyl sulfide is not present in this beer.

Mouth-feel:  This is a fairly light bodied beer with moderate carbonation.

Overall, I found that the Augustiner Helles followed the style characteristics set out by Mosher and BJCP.  I also found the Augustiner beer to be much more pleasing to the senses than the Paulaner version.  I found comparing two beers within the same style to be a challenging task.  I had the tendency to try and fit each beer to the specified characteristics set out by Mosher or the BJCP.  In the future, I will review each beer separately and then compare them to the standards set out by each of these sources in order to determine the similarities and differences.