Review: Hofmeister Helles Lager

 Evening all. As some of you will already know, I am not great with beer. Strangely (mainly through association), I actually know quite a lot about the stuff, and can generally pick out quite specific smells from the malt and hops, but can I drink it? Not a chance. I do this ridiculous face that makes me look like I am having some sort of episode. It's a weakness in my food and drink game. Maybe it's like olives, and I'll become accustomed to it as I get older (the olive thing literally just hit!).

However, when the lovely folk at Hofmeister asked me to review their Helles Lager, I knew the chap for the job. My homie Phil took up the challenge like a true warrior. Here's what he had to say on the matter.

Evidence of my own poor form

“Hey, how do you fancy doing a guest review? It’s for a lager! Think it’s called Hofmeister…”

“Hofmeister? Seriously?” Immediately I’m transported back…. the year is 1996 and as alcohol driven students we need a cheap lager to support our Rugby union based drinking activities (you get allotted 5 players each and every time your player touched the ball you are required to have a swig). So as a willing volunteer I trudged down to Threshers and immediately spotted 2 crates of 24 cans of yellow nectar (with a strange German bear emblazoned on it), but they were only £9.99 and 3.2% ABV. So I immediately purchased them (along with numerous bags of Nik Naks, Skips and several Chicken and Mushroom pot noodles) and somehow carried them back like a beast of burden.

As you can imagine I don’t remember much of the rest of that weekend but the crux of the over-elaborate tale was that the perception of Hofmeister 20 years ago wasn’t one of alcoholic delight, but more of being cheap and available.

Fast forward to 2017 and hearing the word Hofmeister again… as an older, wiser lager drinker I was ready to take up the battle again but in significantly less quantity.

So after that potentially unnecessary preamble, what was it like?

Well in summary Hofmeister Helles Bavarian Lager is pretty good. The branding is modern and it comes in a crown cap bottle. At 5% ABV it’s considerably stronger than the original incarnation, and it definitely tastes more grown up and interesting. Its appearance is clear and golden in colour with a light, not overly carbonated taste which makes it very drinkable.

The whole drinking experience feels more mature, and you can tell effort has been made to develop the brand and taste to stand up to the ever strengthening competition in 2017. It’s great to have Hofmeister back and I’ll definitely ‘follow the bear’ to see where there journey goes from here.

Everyone needs a drinking buddy

Buy Hofmeister Helles here