Beer 101: Styles - Munich Helles

In order to help the beer community at large become a more educated base, 502 Beer presents the first in a series designed to make us all better beer advocates. With the "Styles" portion of the Beer 101, each week we'll feature a different style of beer and give you the BJCP (That's Beer Judge Certification program) guidelines for that style. Eventually, we'd like to have monthly tastings featuring the styles that were featured for the month. But, we'll save that for later.
For our first beer, we will be doing one of our favorite styles, the Munich Helles. An often overlooked style, our very own Browning's Brewery (RIP) made one of the best American interpretations of the style. Light, clean and malty, the Helles is more malt forward than your typical German Pilsener. Tasty stuff. Enjoy.

Munich Helles

Aroma: Pleasantly grainy-sweet, clean Pils malt aroma dominates.
Low to moderately-low spicy noble hop aroma, and a
low background note of DMS (from Pils malt). No esters or
diacetyl.

Appearance: Medium yellow to pale gold, clear, with a
creamy white head.

Flavor: Slightly sweet, malty profile. Grain and Pils malt flavors
dominate, with a low to medium-low hop bitterness that
supports the malty palate. Low to moderately-low spicy noble
hop flavor. Finish and aftertaste remain malty. Clean, no fruity
esters, no diacetyl.

Mouthfeel: Medium body, medium carbonation, smooth
maltiness with no trace of astringency.
Overall Impression: Malty but fully attenuated Pils malt
showcase.

History: Created in Munich in 1895 at the Spaten brewery by
Gabriel Sedlmayr to compete with Pilsner-style beers.
Comments: Unlike Pilsner but like its cousin, Munich Dunkel,
Helles is a malt-accentuated beer that is not overly sweet, but
rather focuses on malt flavor with underlying hop bitterness
in a supporting role.

Ingredients: Moderate carbonate water, Pilsner malt, German
noble hop varieties.

Vital Statistics:
OG: 1.045 – 1.051
IBUs: 16 – 22
FG: 1.008 – 1.012
SRM: 3 – 5
ABV: 4.7 – 5.4%

Commercial Examples: Weihenstephaner Original, Hacker-
Pschorr Münchner Gold, Bürgerbräu Wolznacher Hell Naturtrüb,
Mahr’s Hell, Paulaner Premium Lager, Spaten Premium
Lager, Stoudt’s Gold Lager