Beer of the Weekend #355: Innstadt Original-Hell
Last weekend I went camping with the crew at Cottonwood. We occupied two sites at the top of the secluded trail deep in the woods. The two other sites at the bottom were occupied by another party and, as we passed, Mervgotti and I scanned the cases and boxes of beer near their picnic table.
“Ooh,” said Mervgotti, admiring an empty Millstream box. “Looky there.”
“There’s a Summit box back there, too,” I said.
“Bastards.”
There was also a case of Miller Lite, but neither of us wasted air to acknowledge it.
Later, Mervgotti left to grab something he forgot in his car and returned to our site, grabbing a couple bottles of O’Fallon’s Kite Tail Summer Ale (which I have not tried).
“Hotek’s down there,” he said. “That’s Hotek’s site.”
Indeed, John’s bier guy Joe Hotek was camping at Cottonwood, too. I said hello that evening but refrained from any serious beer talk. Mervgotti, however, exchanged beer with the guy. Hotek got a couple bottles of Kite Tail and maybe some O’Fallon 5-Day IPA (which I also have not had) and Mervgotti ended up with a couple German brews and an oatmeal cream stout — none of which, I learned tonight, he wanted. “You can have ‘em,” he told me. Gladly. (I have been admiring them longingly in our fridge all week.)
That was a roundabout way of explaining that the beer tonight is Innstadt Original-Hell, brewed by the Innstadt Brauerei of Passau, Germany.
Serving type: 500 ml bottle. There are cryptic notches corresponding to numbers and letters on the back label but no discernable freshness date.
Appearance: Poured into a pilsner glass. The color is reminiscent of lemonade and is a touch hazy. Two fingers of buttery, eggshell-colored head dissipated to leave a thin layer of foam.
Smell: The first whiff is very vinous and reminds me a lot of champagne. However, it thankfully fades (or maybe it was just me) to reveal sweet helles grassiness and pale malts. There is a little herbal spice, like grass gone to seed, but the grassiness and pale malts dominate. Very simple.
Taste: Crisp and malty with a nice, grassy hop bite to coat the mouth — exactly what I would expect from a helles. Very simple and clean.
Drinkability: This is simple yet very tasty stuff. It is what it is. Frankly, it is kind of quintessential.
Fun facts about Original-Hell:
-Style: The beer is not listed on BA and the brewery website is in German, but I think it is safe to say it is a helles.
-Price: I have no clue. It is apparently being sold at John’s and, according to the Sioux Brew blog, way the hell across the state in Sioux City.
-Serving temperature: 40-45º.
-Alcohol content: the beer’s webpage pegs the ABV at 4.9 percent.
-Food pairings: Typical Bavarian fare. An intro page for the Innstadt site features sexy women in dirndl’s (some seductively munching on weisswurst and candied apples) and men in lederhosen. At the top of the main page is “Grüss Gott!” You cannot get more South German than that.
-I am going to do my best to add this beer to BA. BA members are always welcome to do that, but in the past I have had a lot of trouble adding a picture of the bottle. BA is very strict regarding file size and I have never been able to adjust anything worth a damn. The only picture I have ever added to BA is an awful pic of Millstream’s Hefe‘r’weizen.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.
“Ooh,” said Mervgotti, admiring an empty Millstream box. “Looky there.”
“There’s a Summit box back there, too,” I said.
“Bastards.”
There was also a case of Miller Lite, but neither of us wasted air to acknowledge it.
Later, Mervgotti left to grab something he forgot in his car and returned to our site, grabbing a couple bottles of O’Fallon’s Kite Tail Summer Ale (which I have not tried).
“Hotek’s down there,” he said. “That’s Hotek’s site.”
Indeed, John’s bier guy Joe Hotek was camping at Cottonwood, too. I said hello that evening but refrained from any serious beer talk. Mervgotti, however, exchanged beer with the guy. Hotek got a couple bottles of Kite Tail and maybe some O’Fallon 5-Day IPA (which I also have not had) and Mervgotti ended up with a couple German brews and an oatmeal cream stout — none of which, I learned tonight, he wanted. “You can have ‘em,” he told me. Gladly. (I have been admiring them longingly in our fridge all week.)
That was a roundabout way of explaining that the beer tonight is Innstadt Original-Hell, brewed by the Innstadt Brauerei of Passau, Germany.
Serving type: 500 ml bottle. There are cryptic notches corresponding to numbers and letters on the back label but no discernable freshness date.
Appearance: Poured into a pilsner glass. The color is reminiscent of lemonade and is a touch hazy. Two fingers of buttery, eggshell-colored head dissipated to leave a thin layer of foam.
Smell: The first whiff is very vinous and reminds me a lot of champagne. However, it thankfully fades (or maybe it was just me) to reveal sweet helles grassiness and pale malts. There is a little herbal spice, like grass gone to seed, but the grassiness and pale malts dominate. Very simple.
Taste: Crisp and malty with a nice, grassy hop bite to coat the mouth — exactly what I would expect from a helles. Very simple and clean.
Drinkability: This is simple yet very tasty stuff. It is what it is. Frankly, it is kind of quintessential.
Fun facts about Original-Hell:
-Style: The beer is not listed on BA and the brewery website is in German, but I think it is safe to say it is a helles.
-Price: I have no clue. It is apparently being sold at John’s and, according to the Sioux Brew blog, way the hell across the state in Sioux City.
-Serving temperature: 40-45º.
-Alcohol content: the beer’s webpage pegs the ABV at 4.9 percent.
-Food pairings: Typical Bavarian fare. An intro page for the Innstadt site features sexy women in dirndl’s (some seductively munching on weisswurst and candied apples) and men in lederhosen. At the top of the main page is “Grüss Gott!” You cannot get more South German than that.
-I am going to do my best to add this beer to BA. BA members are always welcome to do that, but in the past I have had a lot of trouble adding a picture of the bottle. BA is very strict regarding file size and I have never been able to adjust anything worth a damn. The only picture I have ever added to BA is an awful pic of Millstream’s Hefe‘r’weizen.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.
