Traditional Helles Recipe Help

[TheGerman]

Hi Fellow Homebrewers,

In my pursuit in trying to brew an authentic "oldschool" German/Munich Helles, I have come across a few questions during my beer style research that I wanted to bounce off of the homebrew community for the experts and experienced among us.

If I have read correctly, an original "Helles" was brewed exclusively with the lightest colored/kilned malt (today: German Pilsner Malt) and most likely exclusively one type of noble hop (Hallertauer Mittelfrüh, Spalt, Hersbrucker, Tettnanger, etc.). In essence, this would have been a SMaSH brew, right?

Additionally, I am assuming these beers were decocted, either triple or double. I have read here on the forums that many will add some Munich, Vienna, or Melanoidin in a Helles Recipe to an infusion mash to add a "decoction" character, which has however been greatly debated whether or not this is actually true.

I do know for a fact that some Bavarian breweries will brew their Helles/Original/Lager with 100% Pilsner malt, even those that infusion mash (multi-step of course) and produce some tasty brews. They are for the most part filtered, and I assume that the oldschool Helles brews were however unfiltered.

What my questions to the community are:
1. Can you make a tasty SMaSH Helles, true to style?
2. Would you keep a Helles unfiltered?
3. Will the color still be within acceptable style range using only Euro Pilsner malt with the lack of a decoction mash?

Thanks in advance for advice!

 

[porterpounder]

1) Absolutely
2) Never filtered mine. Extended lagering clears it right up. Crystal.
3) Depends on the pilsner malt. Some are darker than others, but the difference between straw-yellow and light golden is close enough to be pretty much the same.

That all being said I add about 4% light munich and about 2 oz of melanoidin to my current 6 gallon iteration of M. helles using Weyermann pils as a base