Town Hall Smoked Helles Lager

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

This golden beer has a nice, clean grain aroma (sweet grain and a touch of light toast) to it up front, but this starts to yield to a smoky malt character that adds a richness to this brew. The smoke is light smelling but quite savory and almost seems like an apple-wood like smoke character; this has a salty smoke but also a fruity note to it at times.

The beer feels light as it first hits my tongue, but it picks up a savory richness to it as it slides across the tongue. The full smoke character of this beer doesn't get in the way of the pale malt grain notes that should be the center point of a Helles. Malt flavors of lightly sweet grain, pale biscuit notes and a nice, subtle, toasty edge towards the finish. This is extremely quaffable with just a hint of hop bitterness in the finish; the bitterness has to compete with the more noticeable smoke character, but it has, perhaps, a bit more longevity than the smoke in the finish.

I would love to drink this by the liter. It is a fantastic combination of base beer Helles characteristics and smoke malt. Neither is too dominating over the other and together they work to bring an extra flavorful balance.