Helios Pale Ale - Upland Brewing Company

    Helios Pale Ale is an American Pale Ale brewed by Bloomington, Indiana's own Upland Brewing Company.

    Helios pours a hazy straw color with a small, off-white head with decent retention. The beer appears quite active with hundreds of bubbles that stay around for a good, long time.

    The ale has a nice, floral hops aroma with a little bit of the sweet, bready malts coming through.

    The Pale Ale has a medium-to-light mouthfeel with a moderate level of carbonation. It goes down very easily and would be quite refreshing on a hot day. Helios has a light alcohol content at 4.9% ABV.

    Helios's flavor is nice and summery with floral hops flavors and a slight bitterness. The malts keep this bitterness from becoming unpleasant with their toasted-bread like flavor and sweetness. When compared with the ale's scent, the flavors seem to be lighter than you would have expected. This almost watered-down character of the flavor really makes me wish the beer tasted as strongly as it smells, especially since the aroma has such nice floral notes.

Forward! We must bring light beer to the darkness!

    Helios was the personification of the sun in ancient Greek mythology. He would ride his fiery chariot across the sky, pushing back darkness as he went. The tagline Deus Sol Invictus (basically, "Sun God Undefeated") seems to suggest that Helios was quite strong. If the sun god was as weak as this beer's flavor however, I'm glad that he only had to fight darkness. I mean, how hard is it to chase away darkness if you're made of pure light? Basically you would just walk up to the darkness and it would go away. A child with a flashlight could do just as good of a job. Maybe Helios was undefeated because he never fought anything that actually posed a challenge?

    Even though I'm disappointed in Helios's lighter-than-it-should-be flavor, I still think that it would be a refreshing drink if you were sitting outside on a hot day. I could see the ale being a great "lawnmower beer", but it's not something I would choose to drink otherwise. Maybe Upland should have chosen a less wimpy figure from mythology (like Hercules perhaps?) for their beer...

Amulets and Ale Rating:

Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AmuletsAndAle!

Campside - Upland Brewing Company

    Campside is an American Blonde Ale brewed by Upland Brewing Company which is located in Bloomington, Indiana. While the beer is described as a Blonde Ale, it definitely has the hops profile and aroma of an American Pale Ale, making it an interesting choice for a summer session beer.

    Campside pours a pale golden color with a small bit of head. The beer has a slight haze to it. Though the head fades quickly, the beer's bubbles leave a slight ring on the glass which sticks around much longer.

    The American Blonde Ale features great floral hop scents. Citrus and tropical fruit aromas accompany slightly milder pine-like smells. The hops aromas are more subtle than those found in IPAs or Pale Ales, but still very nice. Light biscuit or cracker malt scents back up the florals with sweetness.

    Campside is medium bodied with a light-moderate level of carbonation. The beer ends quite crisply, but leaves an oily, bitter film in the mouth. The beer's alcohol content of 4.5% ABV is somewhat surprising as I get a slight bit of warmth as it sits in my mouth.

    The ale's flavor is hop forward with a citrusy bitterness. The bitterness level is actually somewhat surprising for a Blonde Ale. The floral hops flavors are present, though less pronounced than in the beer's aroma. The slight sweetness of pale malts just barely come through. I feel as though the beer's bitterness is out of balance with the malt flavors. I still really like the floral character of the hops, but there definitely needs to be a bit more of a malt backbone to mellow things out.

    Normally when I think of a session (especially a summer session) beer, I think of something with a low alcohol content, low bitterness, and high "drinkability". I'm really glad to see Upland trying to use more of the floral properties of hops, but Campside comes off as too bitter for the regular "session" drinker. I like Campside a lot when compared to other Upland beers, but I can definitely see how others may not feel the same way about the American Blonde Ale.

Amulets and Ale Rating:

Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AmuletsAndAle!

Winter Warmer - Upland Brewing Company

    Winter Warmer is a Barleywine brewed by Upland Brewing Company which is located in Bloomington, Indiana. We are definitely out of the Winter Warmer season, but this was sitting in the refrigerator and wouldn't stay fresh through the summer and into next winter. I picked up this bomber at the Upland tasting room in Indianapolis, IN.

    The ale pours a gorgeous garnet color with a decent light-khaki head. There are a lot of bubbles visible in the glass, seeming to hint at a high carbonation level. The beer leaves some light lacing on the glass. A warning to future purchasers: there is a good amount of sediment at the bottom of the bottle, so be careful to decant when pouring!

    Winter Warmer smells strong and sweet. There is surprisingly a decent bit of hops scent to the beer for this style.

    Upland's Barleywine is light to medium bodied with a similar level of carbonation. I'm surprised at how thin this beer is as barleywines are usually thicker than this. There is a nice alcohol warmth to the 8.5% ABV ale.

It warms you from the inside out!

    The Barleywine has strong flavors of an aged ale. Sweet caramel and toffee malts make up the majority of the flavor with a bit of an alcohol hit at the end. There is a slight piney hops flavor at the end of the flavor which sticks around as a bitter aftertaste.

    Winter Warmers are one of my favorite beer types. I love how the warmth of the alcohol is featured in a pleasant way in this style. Upland's Barleywine seems as though it is a bit lighter than others I have had. While the body is somewhat disappointing, the warming properties are done very well in this beer. It's not easy to balance alcohol character with sweetness to the point that the beer no longer tastes like jet fuel. Pleasant sweet flavors are the main feature of the beer.

    There is clearly a bit of fine-tuning needed to make this beer a great, but it's well on its way. I would love to have more of this on a cold winter, or even just rainy, day.

Amulets and Ale Rating:

Discuss this review and more on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AmuletsAndAle!