Short & Shoddy | German Helles Exportbier

Author: Marshall Schott
Brewer: Jake Freshour

Germany is a country with a rich history of lager beer brewing, providing drinkers around the world with delicious lagers whose characteristics were in many ways defined by the region in which they were developed. One such style is German Helles Exportbier, or what many commonly refer to as Dortmunder Export, a pale lager first brewed in 1873 by Dortmunder Union in Germany’s Dortmund region.

While the original brewers took inspiration from the Pilsners found in the Czech Republic at the time, Helles Exportbier is noted for its minerality, which lent the beer a more pronounced hop bitterness that balanced the slightly sweet malt character. It also tended to have a somewhat higher alcohol content than other pale lagers of the day, hence the “export” connotation. The BJCP provides the following description:

A pale, well-balanced, smooth German lager that is slightly stronger than the average beer with a moderate body and a mild, aromatic hop and malt character.

Helles Exportbier was one of the first lagers I ever made. Having swallowed whole every step said to be “required” to produce a good example, from long boils to cool fermentation and extended lagering, my patience was definitely tested. Thankfully, the finished beer was great, which provided some validation of the arduous process it took to brew it. Of course, in no small part influenced by certain xBmt results, the skeptical part of me began to wonder if all those steps were really necessary. Could a tasty Helles Exportbier be made using less socially acceptable methods?

| BREWING THE BEER |

A huge thanks to Oregon homebrewer Jake Freshour for brewing this beer and bringing it to Homebrew Con 2018 in Portland, OR for data collection!

Short & Shoddy German Helles Exportbier

Jake started off by collecting the full volume of water for a BIAB batch a day ahead of time then weighing out his grain.

He further prepared by weighing out the hops.

Jake’s first order of business the following day was heating the brewing liquor, which he did with a heat stick.

While the water was heating, grains were milled directly into a fabric filter, which was eventually dropped into the hot water. After some stirring, Jake checked to ensure he hit the target mash temperature.

The mash was left to rest for an anxiety provoking 30 minutes.

At the end of the short mash rest, the grain bag was removed and allowed to drip until boil volume was reached, during which the wort was being heated.

Once a boil was reached, Jake set a timer for a nail biting 30 minutes, adding hops at the times stated in the recipe.

When the boil was finished, Jake chilled the wort to slightly warmer than groundwater temperature with his immersion chiller.

An initial  hydrometer measurement showed the wort was at 1.060 OG, a bit higher than planned, so in true Short & Shoddy fashion, Jake added some water to bring it down to the 1.053 OG target.

The wort was then racked to a fermentor without first letting it settle, meaning it included a good amount of kettle trub.

After placing the filled fermenter in a chamber controlled to 66°F/19°C, Jake pitched the Imperial Yeast L13 Global starter he’d thrown together about 12 hours earlier.

While fermentation activity was noted a few hours later, Jake had to swap the airlock for a blowoff assembly 36 hours after pitching, an uncommon occurrence for most lagers.

The beer was left alone for 2 weeks, at which point it was showing no signs of fermentation activity, so Jake took a hydrometer reading confirming FG had been reached.

The warm beer was then racked into a sanitized keg.

The filled keg was placed in Jake’s 38˚F/3˚C keezer where he left overnight before fining with gelatin. Since this beer would need to be transported to the convention center, Jake pressure transferred it to another keg a couple days before Homebrew Con so as to leave any trub behind.

| RESULTS |

A total of 22 people of various levels of experience participated in this Short & Shoddy evaluation. Participants were first asked to identify the style they believed the beer to be based on their perception.

Tasters were then instructed to rate how hoppy, malty, and dry they perceived the beer to be on a 0-5 scale where a rating of 0 indicated “not at all” and 5 indicated “extremely;” these ratings were then averaged.

Tasters were provided a list of common hop, malt, and yeast characteristics then instructed to select from each the one they perceived as being strongest in the beer.

Hop Characteristics

Malt Characteristics

Yeast Characteristics

Next, participants were asked to indicate whether or not they detected any off-flavors in the beer; those who did were provided a list of common off-flavors and instructed to select the one they perceived as being strongest. Out of the 22 participants, 1 reported perceiving a light-struck character.

Tasters were then asked to rate how much they enjoyed the beer on a 0-5 scale where 0 indicated they hated it and 5 indicated they loved it.

Finally, the beer style was revealed to participants and they were asked to rate how representative it was on a 0-5 scale where 0 meant “not at all” and 5 meant “exactly.”

Jake’s Impressions: Full disclosure– I’ve never tried a Helles Exportbier prior to making this beer. That being said, I was extremely satisfied with this beer overall. Aroma had a nice bready malt sweetness with some herbal hop. Flavor was well balanced, neither malt or hops really dominated, and it finished with just a touch of malt sweetness without being sugary sweet. Definitely a bit thicker and creamier body than a standard Munich Helles with a good level of carbonation to keep it refreshing. If I was going to change anything, I might try adding an additional 5 IBUs of flameout hops to add some increased hop complexity in the flavor/aroma (but not much to keep that Helles-like balance). I was amazed at how flavorful the malt character of the beer was overall, and I attribute much of that to the 100% grist of Mecca Grade malts which I’ve been using exclusively for my base malts the past year and a half. You definitely get your money’s worth with their malts! I was shocked using Global fermented at 66˚F/19˚C– I’ve read the other xBmts with this yeast fermented warm, but it’s still amazing to watch the beer take off like an ale and finish up tasting like a lager with no discernible off flavors…mind blown!

My Impressions: Having fermented a number of pale lagers with traditional lager yeast at ale temperature, I was relatively confident this Helles Exportbier was going to be at least decent, but in the end, I thought it was better than decent and represented the style rather well. In fact, the freshness of Jake’s beer made it quite a bit more enjoyable than commercial examples, which have usually been sitting on a warm shelf of a month or more. I perceived no esters or phenols, just a delicious bready maltiness balanced by an appropriate hop character and clean fermentation profile.

| CONCLUSION |

German Helles Exportbier… ahem, Dortmunder Export… is a style that seems to be somewhat overlooked despite it’s easy drinking credentials. Pale in color, light body, and crisp finish with just a hint more oomph than a more traditional Munich Helles. Given the generally simple list of ingredients, Helles Exportbier tends to present with a balanced malt and hop profile, making for a deliciously refreshing quaffer.

As a beer that’s traditionally fermented cool with a classic lager strain, the warm temperature Jake fermented his Short & Shoddy version at could be assumed to result in noticeable fruity esters. However, that really didn’t seem to be the case, as blind tasters overwhelmingly noted a cracker/bread crust malt character with supportive earthy and floral hop notes, about what one might expect from a typical German Helles Exportbier.

Taking into account the numerous past xBmt results on fermentation temperature when using the Weihenstephaner strain, which Imperial Yeast L13 Global purportedly is, along with the results from this evaluation as well as Jake’s and my personal experiences, I’m compelled to believe this German Helles Exportbier was a pretty decent example of the style. Not a single comment on DMS, diacetyl, acetaldehyde, esters, phenols, or anything else one might expect given the brewing process used to make this beer. One person did think they detected a light-struck character, which is certainly possible, though neither I nor any other person who tasted the beer that I spoke with picked it up at all.

Yet again, the dogma that lagers require cool fermentation temperatures is called into question. Of course, this was not a comparative evaluation, it’s entirely possible a cool fermented version of the same beer would have produced noticeably different results. But I’m becoming more and more doubtful, and I certainly plan to continue making tasty lager beers using these Short & Shoddy methods!

If you have thoughts about this Short & Shoddy brew, please feel free to share in the comments section below!

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