Chicagoist's Beer Of The Week: Surly Hell

By Jason Baldacci in Food on Jul 11, 2014 8:30PM

This week, we're taking a look at one of our favorite beer styles. It's not something that every beer nerd in the world gets excited about, but we'll argue that they should as long as we possess the ability to speak (or type).

Surly Hell is a Helles-style lager from Brooklyn Center, Minn. It pours a pale, cloudy golden color in the glass and we picked up bready malts on the nose along with a whiff of herbal hops. On the palate, this beer is just about as crisp as can be. There's a hint of sweetness that hits up front from the pale malts but they come across as more biscuit-y than anything. Those herbal hops from the nose lay in towards the back end and lend a little earthiness to keep the finish dry overall.

Helles is a traditional German style of light lager, "helles" being the German word for pale, and it's generally a little cleaner, breadier and less snappy than a pilsner. While the American hops that Surly uses in Hell definitely add a little bit of a twist, they are relatively subdued and, at 4.5 percent alcohol content this one is absolutely crushable. Surly get bonus points for not filtering the beer. Despite the fact that most German breweries don't serve their helles cloudy, we like what it does for Surly's version.

Now, we've been on this soapbox before, but we'd like to take this opportunity to remind the beer-drinking public how special a brew like Hell can be. Many people don't think of light lagers as the sexiest beers in the bar, but we beg to differ. Just because a beer doesn't smack you across the face with bold flavors and loads of alcohol content, that doesn't mean it isn't any good. A helles lager is brewed to be easy-drinking and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. If the brewer makes a single mistake, there's no way any kind of off flavor can be covered up in a beer like this. It's delicately clean and subtly complex. It's a beer that anyone can enjoy, but only a connoisseur will truly appreciate. If you ask us, that's the opposite of boring.

Surly Hell is available all over town these days in 16-ounce, tall-boy cans. Check beermenus.com to see where you can grab some this weekend.