De LUX

Over the past weekend, we were in a beach area restaurant where it was hotter inside than it was outside - and it was plenty hot outside.  The Beer Rovette and I shared a Ninkasi Helles Lager (which I'm guessing was Ninkasi's Lux).  It was served cold in a legitimate glass, and was the correct antidote for the sweltering weather.  The beer had a classic pilsner/lager taste, a flavor that evokes "beer" in my memory.  The thousands of Buds, Coors, and their pilsner derivatives that I drank in my twenties left a deep mark.  The pale, straw-colored beer was refreshing and crisp, with minimal hop bitterness.  Lux was light, a bit dry, and had a yeasty, bready flavor.  After the initial memory jolt, I was bemused by the beer's overall sweetness, which made me wonder if the macro beers of my youth had a similar saccharine strain, not that I ever put much thought into their flavor profiles.   A heat wave is not the time to over think the intricacies of a Helles lager other than to realize that on a hot night a well made Helles lager is a perfect beer.