Beer Review: Victory Helios Ale

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 7.5 percent

Appearance: Helios Ale has an appearance that's close to that of honey. It's a very similar shade of gold. There's also a noticeable haze that's most likely from the yeast used in this beer. The head is a vivid white and has somewhat weak retention. It sinks back into the beer fast and doesn't leave any lacing at all. There was also a ton of small bubbles that quickly rose to the top of the glass. As I've started to notice in saison brews, the yeast used in the process helps the bubbles to travel in lines. They appear to be following each other towards the top. Aside from the weak head on top of this beer, this is a very pleasing beer to look at.

Smell: The aroma of this beer is certainly yeasty. There was quite a few more layers behind that. There was definitely an interesting hop backbone, too. I also sensed an overload of spice and/or pepper. It sort of tingled in the nostrils. It was somewhat enjoyable, but I'd rather not have it smothering the citrus notes as it was in this particular instance.

Taste: The yeast was very present in the taste as expected. The next strongest flavor on the tongue was definitely the spice and/or pepper that I noticed. That gave me that zesty sizzle on my tongue that I love to write about in brews that I'm able to try. I got a bit more citrus (which I was able to identify as both orange and lemon) in this section than I did the smell, but it was still overpowered by the pepperiness. The carbonation I noticed after the pour resonated in my mouth. This beer had an awesome texture with all of those bubbles.

Overall Rating: 

I had high hopes for this beer, but it fell just short. There were some great qualities in this one, though. I surely didn't like the weakness of the head and the overabundance of the spice/pepper, but these two things were far from ruining this beer.