Review: Harbour Brewing Cornish Helles Lager

I heard a rumour on Twitter that you can now get Früh Kölsch at Morrisons. Naturally, I made a beeline, to the Morrisons in Welwyn, but it turned out they didn’t have any. Fortunately, I didn’t come away empty handed, as they have a modest range of continental lagers. On offer, three for £5, were some 660ml lagers. I’d have gone with Warsteiner, Krombacher and Staropramen, only I’ve recently discovered that the latter is brewed in Burton-on-Trent these days. So instead I swapped it out for a Cornish Helles Lager from Harbour Brewing Company.

Cornwall is hardly known for its lagers, but times are changing. In fact, this is one of two lagers from the county available in Morrisons – they also have Korev from St. Austell Brewery. Harbour Brewing Company seems to be a smaller concern, though they have the capacity, and connections, to supply at least one national supermarket chain. Harbour are based in Lanivet, just outside Bodmin. “The beer defines our lifestyle…” according to the brewery’s website, and from a video also posted there, they seem to be living the life – skateboarding round the brewery, and heading to the beach for a surf when brewday is over. But they are clearly serious about beer, with an impressive range, mostly of IPAs and stouts. They have also recently opened an annex, called Hinterland, where they brew lambics and sours, the separate building allowing them to avoid cross-contamination.

But this Helles Lager is their flagship, and it is an impressive beer. “Helles” suggests a Bavarian connection, but at 4.3%, this is a lighter beer than you’d be served there. Bavarian Helles is a malt-forward beer, carefully balanced against perceptible but not dominant hop bitterness. Harbour Helles dials the hops further forward. Saaz is used, exclusively I think, giving light lemon notes. Malt-wise, I’ve just read here that “Lager & Sucrose malts” are employed. I’m not sure what that means, but the beautiful orange hue suggests a healthy dose of Munich malt.

A bit of a fusion, then, but a nicely balanced, and dangerously drinkable beer – although at 4.3 you can safely put away a good few of these big bottles. It’s not a beer for purist devotees of the German traditions, but the clarity and purity of taste come across as Teutonic virtues. And if the hops have been ramped up to appeal to the IPA generation, well why not? This is Cornish Helles after all – so perhaps a new tradition has been born.