New Belgium Summer Helles
Light, bright and easy drinking, now is your chance to drink in the festival season. First brewed to celebrate 40 years of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, it has since become Planet Bluegrass’ signature New Belgium offering (under the name Summer Bliss). This Summer Helles pours a brilliant gold, with soft, white foam. The aroma is fresh grains and honey with a spicy-herbal twang. This danceable lager carries the pleasant sweetness of pale and German Pils malts, and levels off with the light and noble bitterness of Hallertau and Tettnang hops. Summer Helles finishes crisp and dry, and is sure to refresh even the thirstiest reveler. Grab your banjo, crack a bottle and let the pickin’ shine. Planet Bluegrass (located in Lyons, Colorado) was decimated by September 2013’s record flooding. New Belgium is donating $10,000 this year to Planet Bluegrass for rebuilding. You can help by volunteering or donating. Visit lyonsfightsback.com for more information.
3
221 reviews
Fort Collins, United States
Community reviews
It poured a clear pale yellow color with a small white head. The aroma was of yeast, light grain notes, light lemon and spice. The taste was similar with a light body, crisp and dry aftertaste.
Draught. Pours a clear golden color with a moderate white head on there. Nose has some corn elements to it as well as some slight wheat. Taste is slightly sweet and moderately corn-filled, but only OK at an overall evaluation. Really just reminds me of a run-of-the-mill lager.
bottle. Poured clear, very pale yellow with a white receding head. Sweet hay aroma. Body is light and dry, crisp carbonation. Flavour of grainy wheat with a sour note, sticky dry finish.
Not really subtley spiced, as they say. Hoppy and grassy and floral. Really nice for the style. The hops make the beer stand out a little where it wouldn’t otherwise..."
Earlier Rating: 8/15/2014 Total Score: 2.3
"Not a huge fan of this either. It’s passable but I agree theres an odd vegetal aspect that threatens to drown out the spicy noble hops. OK at best as part of the NB mixer..."
Bottle @ BBQ. Clear golden yellow pour with white foam. Nose is kind of heavy on the popcorn...a bit on the stale side as well. Grass, lemon meringue, and potpourri. A bit grainy, too. Flavor is quite sweet and grainy. Weird floral note. Slight butterscotch and a lot of popcorn. Mild grass and chalk bitterness. Disappointing.
Earlier Rating: 10/6/2013 Total Score: 3.3
On tap @ Black Bottle. Clear golden pour with a white head. Sweet apple, pale malt, and grain. Slight biscuit, yeast, and slight grass. Flavor is apple, pale malt, corn, and biscuit. Slight grape, grass, and a slight tang.
Pours a light yellow with a medium white head. Classic light lager aroma of sweet bread and flowers. Flavor is light and sweet with a medium body and just crisp enough finish. It’s more or less a creamier and smoother Miller Lite. A good hot weather beer.
Pours a light yellow with a moderate head. The head lasts a while. Maybe I got a bad one or maybe it's the style, bit there's auld funk/skunk I his beer. Light, refreshing, and better than most big brewery's, but there are better lagers out there. A rare disappointment from NB.
This style always gets a lot of crap but I like it a lot so I’m excited for this beer. 12 bottle with a best by date of 12/28/14 served in a pint glass. Pours a clear yellow gold with a huge foamy white head that sticks around for a while before it just coats the top and leaves decent lacing. Aroma is biscuits, hay, and something skunky. Taste is typical for the style, but very light. White bread, sour malts, and a bit of chewy citrus flavors are met with basically water. That is the best way I can describe the flavor and palate. Once again..light and watery. I really want to like this beer, but it is just too light for the style and although it could be a session beer, there are other beers of similar lower abv that are far better.
Very very pale; barely any color at all. Bubbly white head with light lacing. Aroma of bread and light beer. Taste is light grain and water; just a slight hint of hops. Light bodied. Super plain, but better than most similarly situated.
shockingly good palate. Everything is isn’t good. Light. Some interesting citrus and cereal. Really odd nice palate. Otherwise, nothing worth discussing.
12 Fl. Oz. Bottle. Poured clear, light yellow, nice white head, no lacing. Aroma of cereal combined with a bit hops. Taste is a bit watery, some hops and some grain a little bitterness towards the end. Crisp and refreshing, nice summer beer.
Bottle. Pours a clear light yellow color with white head. Cracker, light malty aromas. Light cracker, noble hop flavors. Light, easy drinking, but not a lot of flavor. I was really excited about this one, but it’s another New Belgium letdown.
12 oz. bottle. It pours a very pale clear yellow color with a small white head that disappears rather quickly. The aroma is bready with some multi-grains and some oatmeal like creaminess. Little to no hop aroma. The flavor has some neutral bready malt and cement mix that I imagine comes from a high mineral profile in the water. There isn’t much hop flavor, but a decent amount of neutral bitterness in the finish. No DMS or diacetyl. A pretty decent summer refresher, but kind of boring.
Bottle. Pours clear light yellow with white head. Aroma wheat, lagerish, vanilla, a touch of fruit. Taste is crisp, dirty, really weird. Not good.
Pours a pale yellow with a typical, but fairly long lasting head. Smooth tasting, light lager. Nothing special, but a nice summer thirst quencher.
Bottle. Sweet barley malt aroma. Clear pale gold with a moderate white head. Slightly sweet barley malt and spicy/grassy hops flavor. Body on the light side of medium, lively carbonation.
12 oz bottle- Pours light hazy golden with a one finger white head. Aroma is spicy, crisp, grains, some floral components. The taste is similar, grainy, crisp, clean and refreshing. I enjoyed this much more than I thought i would, i have been putting this off for over a month, pleasantly surprised!
Bottle from Hollywood: Simply plain aroma of grain like malt. Golden liquid with a foamy head. The drink is crisp and refreshing and taste better than other brewery companies attempts at helles style. Light notes of hay and grass and went nice after a brief 10 minutes of yard work.
Descent beer, basic lager with some malt and barnyard foot funk ish smells. It is fine for a lighter beer, but I just don't think I am a lager person as they generally have off putting flavors to me. It is a crisp beer and I could see how it can be refreshing, but not for me.
As light as they come but in no way offensive! Smooth & goes down easy while not providing any depth in flavor. Blah - a whatever beer.
12 ounce bottle. Pours a clear pale golden color with a thin fizzy white head. Poor head retention. Aroma of pale malt, grain, doughy malt, herbal and mildly grassy hops. The taste is grainy malt, raw malt, earthy hops. Thin-medium bodied. Uninspiring.
It pours straw in color with a healthy head that produces a little bit of lacing and it recedes. It has the pleasant smell of grassy hops with slight floral compliments. It has a quality pils taste brings out certain grass and floral elements. It’s somewhat crisp on the way down. Overall it’s fairly good.
Sampled May 2014
A steady pour into my New Belgium globe glass produces a two-finger thick, pale, white colored head, and even leaves some thin lacing on the sides of the glass. The beer is a bright golden color and shows a brilliantly clear, pale golden hue when held up to the light. The nose smells of hay, light herbal notes, and a solid lemon grass like character towards the middle and finish. As the beer warms up the dried hay / dried-grass character seems to be the dominant note in the nose.
Light bodied as it first hits my palate, the beer picks up an effervescent texture as well as a bit of chewy malt texture as it rolls across the tongue. The finish starts with a hay like malt character, picks up a light bitterness and sees a lingering herbal-lemon note end things off. Clean, crisp, with a slight tin-like metallic character, this beer is light, refreshing, and too easy to drink, but has a nice character to it as well.
This is definitely a go to pale lager; I love that I got it on sale, the only problem is that one is clearly not enough and a six pack disappears way too quickly. This really does have a nice texture to it; soft and creamy, yet light and eminently quaffable.
Beats drinking a macro but there are far more flavorful and thirst quenching brews around I’d rather drink while relaxing by the pool.Sweet malt with a touch of hops.
On tap. Pours a clear pale straw color. Faint head leaves some ok lacing. Aromas and tastes are sweet cereal grain and pale malt. Finishes with some grassy hops.
On draft at the New Belgium cafe in DIA. Pale yellow in color, heavy carbonation with a white frothy head with moderate lacing. Sweet start with a clean finish. Easy drinker.
Notes of sweet breads, and a hint of spicy hops on the nose. Pale yellow color, frothy white head and high caronation on the pour. Sweet bread/malt i s the first taste. Bitterness comes in, grassy/peppery in nature, not to complex. Rich malt on finish, peppery bitterness mingles in at the end and lingers a bit. Fairly simple but refreshing.
From a bottle in Grand Haven MI. Pours a clear yellow with a small white head. Aroma is light corn and grass. Flavor is bright and clean. Nice hoppiness. Very nice refreshing light beer
Pours a clear yellow with a small white head. Musty aroma with hints of hay and maybe some herbs. Decent taste of bitter and sweet considering the aroma. Light body with a slight sticky texture and a faint bitter finish. Nothing about this beer screams summer and it’s really not even a good lager.
Sample at the Dumb & Dumber Beer Tasting & Movie at Studio 35 on 07/20/2014: Clear bright yellow color with a medium white head that recedes steadily. Strings of lacing. Aroma of pale malt, fruit and hops. Light-bodied with flavors of toasted malt, fruit and grassy hops. The finish is fruity up front with a grassy hop aftertaste. Average overall.