Helles for Sinners Smoked Helles Lager

Review Date 10/30/2023 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Rauchbier   Brewery: Logsdon   Country: USA   State: Washington   $ Per OZ: N/A   ABV: 5%

Here’s something you need to know: I’ve been drinking a lot of Rauchbier lately. I don’t know why you need to know that, but I thought that you should. Not long ago I tried the magnificent Schilling Schatzi. A few weeks ago I was in Helen and picked up some Göller Rauchbier (more to come on that one soon), and some Schlenkerla Märzen, Ur-Bock, and Eiche. You have to love the classics.

Anyway, I also bought a few beers from Craftshack this month, and one of them was Logsdon Helles for Sinners Smoked Helles Lager. One thing that sold me on this one was, duh, it’s a smoked beer. The other was the name. I mean, Helles for Sinners? Hard to get much better than that.

I could not find a listing for it on the brewery website, but Craftshack listed this under commercial description:

This easy drinking Bamberg-style Helles was brewed in collaboration with our good friend Russell Berger, 2019 Oregon State Homebrewer of the Year, as an homage to one of our favorite lagers from Germany. Brewed with 100% Weyermann Malts from Bamberg, German Noble hops and a classic Bavarian lager yeast. A touch of smoke from a restrained addition of Beechwood Smoked Malt lends complexity to this light colored lager, with bready malt flavors accompanied by floral and spicy notes from the hops, with soft bitterness.

Logsdon Helles for Sinners Smoked Helles Lager has an alcohol content of 5% by volume and I paid $1.85 for my can from Craftshack, though I used reward points to get it at that price.

Logsdon Helles for Sinners Smoked Helles Lager pours to a pale straw color with a thick fluffy white head and a gently hickory smoky, light malty nose. Taking a sip, the beer has a light bready maltiness appropriate to the style. Underlying that is a delicate, but omnipresent, hickory bacony smoke aroma. It is unmistakable, and delicious. It works wonderfully with the light malty character of the beer. A gentle hop character dries in the finish.

Now comes the strange part. I ordered my can of Logsdon Helles for Sinners Smoked Helles Lager with a few other beers, which arrived on a Friday from another vendor. I opened my package and exclaimed, “Hey! Where is my Rauchbier?” I double checked my order on Craftshack.com and discovered that the beer had separate tracking, and was scheduled to deliver on Monday.

Another surprise! FedEx showed up on Sunday and delivered my lone can of Helles for Sinners. In the fridge it went to be enjoyed immediately after the Patriots-Dolphins game, which was nowhere enar as enjoyable as the beer ended up being. I drank the beer that day and took the notes that you see above.

The next morning, I carefully peeled the label off my can so I could scan the image, and when I turned the can over to check for freshness dating I saw this stamped on the bottom:

CANNED ON 10/21/2020 BATCH #103

Egad! This must be some mistake! When I drank the beer the night before, it tasted fresh and delicious. I did not check the freshness date then because, well, I had no cause to. So, if this really is the canning date, I will say that this beer holds up very well over time. So, of course, I would drink it again.