Mr. Lembke, we are drinking the Brlo’s Helle. Perhaps it is unusual to talk to a Berlin brewer about Helles that comes from Bavaria. But I am particularly interested in your external perspective.
Helles was our first beer, we started in November 2014, back then as a gipsy or traveling brewer. At the beginning we rented medium-sized breweries, including the Neuzelle monastery brewery.
How do you get started with Helles?
To pick up the normal beer drinkers and not scare them off with lesser known styles. If they like our pale ale, we can also make the pale ale tasty for them, that was the idea. In the long term, we wanted to get her to drink something different. From the pale ale you can then move on to the IPA and the porter. Even today, the light is our top seller in the beer garden.
Do you still have to introduce craft beer in Berlin today?
In big cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, craft beer is now known. In rural areas, craft beer has fewer opportunities in the beverage markets.
Isn’t it actually absurd as a craft brewer to start with a light beer?
I don’t think so. The light is actually the domain of Bavarian private breweries. And actually almost all of them are “craft”. There is not that great variety there. But I can’t deny a brewery that has been making great beer for centuries that it works by hand.
Do you have to brew a light with special dedication? They say yes, with Hellen and Pils you will immediately notice every mistake.
Michael Lembke is responsible for beer and production in the brewery BRLO (the Slavic name for “Berlin”), which he co-founded.
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Photo: private
For me, Helles and Pils are Champions League. Breweries can be measured by this. In the case of heavily hoppy beers, mistakes can be better masked. With Hellen and Pils you can taste immediately if it is not what it should be.
How should it be?
Our light beer should be spicy, not as lean as a pilsner, a bit fuller, with a subtle bitterness. As craft brewers, we want to perceive hop aromas in Hellen. With us, that’s the difference to the Bavarian or Franconian Hellen. More aroma is somewhat at the expense of drinkability. The beer becomes more complex and stands out from the standard pals.
Their lightness is also cloudy.
Yeah right. According to the definition, a light should be clear and shiny. We recently registered for the World Beer Cup, and we were able to cancel many of our beers because they would have to have been filtered to fit into the relevant categories. When you filter, you always get the taste out, but of course we wanted to keep it.
A slight sulfur aroma is also part of the description of the variety. I don’t smell that here, it goes more in the direction of the hops.
Exactly.
Couldn’t your Helles be called a “cellar beer”?
Yes, you could also call it cellar light, but then it should actually be cloudy. If the beer is stored in a cool place for a long time, it will clear itself well.
What are you looking for when you want a real Bavarian light drink?
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