Pils Hellas
Brewed by Hellenic Brewery of Atalanti – EZA
Style: Pale Lager
Kyparissi, Atalanti, Fthiotis, Greece
Pils Hellas, brewed by Hellenic Brewery of Atalanti, is an “authentic Greek beer” dating back to 1996. Hellenic Brewery of Atalanti is also commonly known as EZA!
Review: 0,5l can of Pils Hellas: 4.5% vol.
Another Greek beer I had on my holidays in Corfu.
As it says on the can, this original product of Greece, has a “tradition since 1996”. To be honest that is not much of a long tradition, but I guess you have to start somewhere.
The colour is a nice golden yellow, and we get a nice small frothy white head but it does die a death.
A good bit of carbonation bubbling along but it doesn’t seem to be doing any good as the beer has a general flat appearance in total.
A faint light malty, grainy and lagery smell on the nose, but overall its pretty odourless.
The taste is not bad, first impressions are all good. A light tasting lager, with a slight creamy taste on the tongue. Not a huge amount of stand out tastes or flavours but it is doing the job of keeping me happy, going down easy enough, all smooth.
Get the barley malt, and lots of it! A bit watery at times too but not enough to be annoying, cant imagine if it was served warm, luckily mine was in the fridge and came out all cool.
On the company’s website they mention that the beer “has an intense hop flavour”, that’s quite funny, I couldn’t detect that.
An inoffensive beer, soft and light bodied and smooth enough. Overall, overloaded with nice sweet malts.
Finally, it is ok, does the business, But nothing to shout home about, a holiday beer.
The brewery sells a wide variety of beers and also does a good trade in seasonal and iconic brews. They have taken on some interesting brews with an eye on what is happening in the local area. When the Basel Antiquity Museum had a Tutankhamun exhibition in 2004, this inspired the brewery to bring out The Tut-Anch-Ueli, brewed according to an ancient Egyptian recipe of barley malt, emmer, hops and dates and found ripping heel. They did likewise when Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso had exhibitions in the local art gallery. For Van Gogh they actually had a sunflower flavoured beer in their Van Ueli beer, while for Ueli Beer Pablo they brewed a powerful beer with Absinthe, as “Powerful as a work by Picasso”. And for the annual Basel carnival, they have their own specially themed Bock beer, and they also produce a Christmas beer in the run upto to the end of year festivities. In total, more than 50 such specialty beers have been brewed, each available for a specific occasion or seasonally, there really is no occasion without a Ueli beer at hand!
Famous for their specialty beers, Brauerei Fishcerstube, as part of the current “Salmon Comeback Campaign” in the city of Basel, have teamed up with WWF Switzerland to create the “Ueli Laggs special”. The upper Rhine used to be overflowing with Atlantic Salmon about 50 years ago but alas no more, so the WWF are hoping to bring them back. So with every bottle of Laggs you purchase, 50 cents goes towards this great project. I will drink to that!
On the nose I get the sweet malts and the odd fruit aroma, but also the strong smell of hops. They smell a bit stinky, I wonder is that to mimic the smell of a fresh salmon! 
Originally as a pilot project by the brewing plant manufacturer BrauKon GmbH, but with success came demand to where now the brewery produce a variety of popular beers, from their IPA’s to traditional Helles and Weissbier’s to their ales and stouts, all brewed with a care and passion that defines the Bavarian ideals of brew making. 
Found the bottles to be quite heavy for some reason, a bit strange!
Not much in bottle, which is always a disappointment.
“Brasserie du Dzô” is a contraction of the word “Dzojè”, which means Joseph in the Fribourg dialect, a nickname given to the local residents. 
Coming in a small lovely shaped bottle, with an interesting logo of the brewery, a lamb, in black and white with a fork like weapon! Apparently its based on the old family coat of arms. It is pretty cool though. 
Bit of a shock initially, a bit of a “eh, what!”. Very hoppy at the start, took a while to get used to that strong taste.