Roll-a-Style 3: 5A. German Leichtbier

If you follow this blog at all, you probably have read that I want to concentrate more on my BJCP Goal this year.

As of the time of this post, if I'm counting correctly, I've brewed 83 of the 108 styles in the 2021 BJCP Style Guidelines. Since the beginning of the year, I've already brewed 5 new BJCP styles (6 if you include Tasman Pilsner).

I have my Roll-a-Style list, which helps me keep track of styles that I still need to brew.

The idea is that I use a 20-sided online die to decide which style to brew next. However, sometimes, I have decided what I want to brew and "pretended" to roll the number I wanted to brew.

May is coming up, which would be a time to brew the "seasonal" Helles in a Hand Bock-sket, and I thought this year it would be fun to brew a lower ABV German Lager to replace the Hand Bock-sket beer.

The one lower ABV German Lager I still had on the list was 3, and I pretended to roll the online die ...

... which corresponds to 5A. German Leichtbier.

"A pale, highly-attenuated, light-bodied German lager with lower alcohol and calories than standard-strength beers. Moderately bitter with noticeable malt and hop flavors, the beer is still interesting to drink."

I came up with a recipe: Halfway to Helles.

For the name, I wanted to come up with a pun for "Helles", like I did for Helles in a Hand Bock-sket. Fortuitously, while listening to music, AC / DC's "Highway to Hell" came on.

And ... the name "Halfway to Helles" popped into my head. This beer is, after all, essentially half the ABV of Helles in a Hand Bock-sket.

I thought this was clever enough considering how bad I am at coming up with punny beer names, so I went with it.

Now my Roll-a-Style list looks like this:

Number	Beer Style
1	9B. Eisbock
2	3C. Czech Amber Lager
3	Re-Roll
4	9C. Baltic Porter
5	10C. Weizenbock
6	12C. English IPA
7	13B. British Brown Ale
8	28B. Mixed-Fermentation Sour Beer
9	32A. Classic Style Smoked Beer
10	29C. Specialty Fruit Beer
11	10A. Weissbier
12	29D. Grape Ale
13	33B. Specialty Wood-Aged Beer
14	6B. Rauchbier
15	16C. Tropical Stout
16	26C. Belgian Tripel
17	16D. Foreign Extra Stout
18	22D. Wheatwine
19	28A. Brett Beer
20	17D. English Barley Wine

My "Bench" now includes:

• Historical Beer: Roggenbier
• Historical Beer: London Brown Ale
• Historical Beer: Lichtenhainer
• Specialty IPA: Belgian IPA
• Specialty IPA: White IPA
• Specialty IPA: Brut IPA
• SheppyBrew Random Recipe

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