Tasting - Tagernseer Hell & Paulaner Original Müncher Hell

Here is a comparison between two beers of a very popular beer style here in Munich. Helles beers are omnipresent throughout the city, which is great because, usually, they are a great session beer. I tasted these beers in a decently lit room without any strong smells or other distractions that would disrupt my tasting experience.

Style tasted: Munich Helles - bottom fermented

Tagernseer Hell

Appearance:

Moderately sized creamy, white head. Clear straw color, probably 3-4 degrees SRM. Appearance fits in with the style well.

Aroma:

Grainy, slightly sweet aroma. The malt dominates the aroma, but there is a very slight spicy hop aroma. More than a slight aroma of DMS. The BJCP says that DMS may be present as a slight background note, but in this case I think there is an almost overwhelming amount of DMS.

Taste:

Moderate carbonation, light to medium bo

died. Slightly metallic mouthfeel, which is a little offsetting. Mouthfeel fits in with the style in all aspects outside of the metallic taste. Slightly sweet taste, and seems like the hop bitterness is strong for the style. Regardless, this beer is still driven by the malt, but it is offset with hop bitterness. Very slight DMS taste. Slight astringent aftertaste.

Overall impressions:

A decent beer. It is refreshing but seems to be slightly out of balance for the style. Also, the DMS aroma and metallic taste disrupt what would be a good tasting, easy drinking beer.

Paulaner Original Müncher Hell

Appearance:

Large creamy white head, which is noticeably larger than Tagernseer. Also, consider that the glass used for this beer is the same as for the last beer so the head retention, which was not very good, was probably caused by a slightly dirty glass. Same straw color, and probably 3-4 degrees SRM. Appearance fits

into style.

Aroma:

Clean, malt aroma. More of a grainy aroma than bready. Slightly caramel aroma, which is not an expected aroma for this style. Little to no hop aroma. No DMS detected at all. Aroma fits in relatively well. However, I would expect more hop aroma and less sweet caramel aroma. In comparison to Tagernseer, this beer's aroma is more malt driven and does not have any DMS.

Taste:

Moderate carbonation. Light bodied, almost watered down mouthfeel. Slight metallic taste, but not as pronounced as Tagernseer. Slightly sweet malt taste with very little hop bitterness. Aftertaste is astringent and almost grassy, not a pleasing combination. Again, this beer is more malt driven in the taste than Tagernseer. It also has a much more unpleasant aftertaste and seems to be less fitting to the style.

Overall Impressions:

Not my favorite beer. It does not fit in with the style and has some strange tastes that should never be in any style of beer. The astringency, lack of hop bitterness, and metallic taste all go against the style.