Combining sessionability, heavy dry-hopping and community-mindedness, Helios Brewing have released Eos, a hazy pale ale full of El Dorado and Cashmere hops made in collaboration with Caboolture Sports Club.
Eos, sister of Helios, is the goddess of the dawn, and, like her brother, she rides across the sky in a chariot, blazing past the metallic sun rays that adorn this beer’s label. But there’s even more burning sunshine when this hazy is poured into the glass – it shines a steady fiery gold all the way through, giving credence to the names of Eos’ horses Firebright and Daybright.
The aroma brings chariotloads of fruit, as though Eos descended to race through a marketplace and knock over a fruit vendor’s cart in the process. Nectarines have been crushed under wheel, and apricots are splattered against clay walls. But when it comes to flavour, the sweet fruit is toned down just enough to let the malt through, like Eos has put some distance between herself and the fruit cart and is now charging through a bakery and scattering sacks of lightly toasted grain.
While this may all sound rather chaotic, her driving is smooth all the way along, although both the vendor and the baker are just a little bitter about it all.
(If that’s all too whimsical for you, you can hear brewer Charlie Hodgson give a much more grounded description here.)
Mick Wust
Published February 4, 2021 2021-02-04 00:00:00