Shipping to 30+ countries

Shipping

Hoptimaal offers a wide variety of beers both in-store and online. If you can place an order, we usually have the product in stock (though mistakes can happen, unfortunately). Products that are in stock will be shipped the same day if ordered before 3:00 PM.

If we make an error with stock levels, you will be notified within 24 hours. In that email, we will offer you an alternative product, the right to a full refund, and a new delivery time. It's up to you how you'd like us to resolve the issue.

We ship all orders with DPD from the Netherlands. You can choose between:

  • Home delivery or delivery to your work
  • Delivery to a DPD pickup point near you

Shipping costs and the free-shipping threshold for your country are in the table below.

Deposit

On cans and bottles we charge the Dutch deposit (statiegeld): €0.15 per can and €0.10 per bottle (a little more for some bottles). It shows as a separate line in your cart. The deposit belongs to the Dutch deposit system: you can return the packaging in the Netherlands, not in deposit machines in other countries.

Shipping Costs by Country

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CountryShipping costReduced rateFree shipping from
Netherlands€8.50–€75
Belgium€8.95–€100
Germany€13.50–€100
Denmark€15.95–€150
Austria€15.95–€150
Bulgaria€47.50€25 from €150not available
Estonia€17.50–€150
Finlandpickup point €24.95
home €29.95		home: €10 from €200pickup point €200
home €250
France€16.95–€150
Greece€29.50€15 from €150not available
Hungary€21.95€10 from €150€200
Ireland€15.95–€150
Italy€16.95–€150
Croatia€47.50€25 from €150not available
Latvia€17.50–€150
Lithuania€21.95€10 from €150€200
Luxembourg€12.95–€150
Poland€15.95–€150
Portugal€19.95€10 from €150€200
Romania€27.50€10 from €150not available
Spain€18.75–€150
Czech Republic€15.95–€150
Swedenpickup point €24.95
home €29.95		home: €10 from €200pickup point €200
home €250
Norway*Coming soon
United Kingdom*Coming soon
Switzerland*Coming soon

Delivery

DPD generally delivers within 24 hours after receiving the parcel. So if we have received your order before 15:00 on working days, in 99% of cases you will have your order at home the next day. It may sometimes happen that they need one day longer. You can follow this via the Track & Trace details you receive from us, so you can see exactly where your order is. DPD also gives you a time window of 2 to 4 hours in which your order will be delivered. Not at home? No problem! You can indicate yourself whether you want them to come by again tomorrow or whether they should deliver it to the nearest post office.

Do you have a question about the delivery of your beer? Feel free to contact us: customer service.

Returns

You have a cooling-off period of 14 days after you have received the product. Within this period you can register the product for return. The email you received stating that your order is on its way contains a link that you can use to easily and free of charge download and print a return label. Returning is free: we provide the return label and the shipping costs of your return are at our expense. After registering your return, you have another 14 days to send the product back. If you bought multiple items at once, the period starts after receipt of your last item.

How do I return or exchange a product?

  • Fill in the return form within 14 days after receipt. If you are unable to print the return form, please write at least the order number and your name on a piece of paper and include it with your return.
  • Register your return with our customer service. You can do this by sending an email to: info@hoptimaal.nl or by calling 085 -130 1591. Or print your return label yourself via the link in the email titled "Your order is on its way".
  • After registering your return, you have another 14 days to send the product back.
  • Then send your return back in its original condition and with the packaging. Products that are damaged or incomplete are not eligible for exchange or refund.

Please note: after the 14-day cooling-off period it is no longer possible to return your product.

What can you expect after returning your product?

After receiving your return, you will receive a confirmation from us. This can take 3 working days, but in general we process your return on the day we receive it. We will check your return to see whether your product meets our return conditions and will then get to work on the solution you want.

Do you want your money back?

  • We will refund the purchase amount within 3 working days after confirmation of receipt to the account with which you paid. If you want to receive the purchase amount in another way, please contact us about the possibilities.
  • In case of visible signs of use, missing accessories or missing packaging, you are no longer entitled to a refund. If the packaging is not returned entirely in its original condition, we won't make a fuss and you will in any case get 75% of the purchase amount back. This is very rarely the case; usually the full purchase amount is simply refunded.

Do you want to receive a new product?

After receiving your return, we will send the new product right away. If the product is no longer in stock, we will refund the purchase amount to the account with which you paid.

  • Is the new product cheaper? The remaining amount will be refunded to your account within 3 working days.
  • Is the new product more expensive? You will receive a payment request for the remaining amount. After receipt of payment, we will send the product immediately.
  • Do you want to receive the new product at a different address or on a different day? Please contact us.

Exceptions

Beer that has been opened will not be taken back. We also do not take back beer that you ordered at a discount because the shelf life is almost expired. Of course we state this clearly on the product page, so that you are not surprised by a limited best-before date.

The item may be returned to the address below:

Hoptimaal
Leeghwater 5
3825MR Amersfoort
Netherlands

Order before 3:00 PM on weekdays, shipped today.
Break-proof packaging

Your beers are always carefully packaged. If there is any damage during transit, we offer a guarantee. Not satisfied, money back.
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Beer School › Lager & Pilsner · Smooth & Rounded

Helles

Helles is a golden-yellow lager from Munich: softly malty, with little bitterness and a soft, dry finish. 'Hell' refers to the pale colour, not to low alcohol.

  • Alcoholusually 4.7–5.4%
  • Entry levelEasy to start with

How it usually tastes

Bitter
Sweet
Sour
Roasted
Fruity
Full

Average for this style; every beer has its own accent.

What is it?

Helles is brewed with pilsner malt, German hops and a clean German lager yeast. The malt comes first: you smell and taste grainy-sweet, sometimes slightly biscuity malt, with some spicy or floral hops in the background. The bitterness is low to medium-low, but the hops should remain noticeable. A helles is malty without being sweet and ends soft and dry, not sharp or biting. The body is medium.

Compared with German pils, helles has more body and malt, and fewer hops and less bitterness. Very fresh helles is fuller in malt and hops; that fades over time, which according to the BJCP is often noticeable in exported helles. A slight sulfur note from the yeast is allowed according to the Brewers Association.

Related styles: - Helles Export (Dortmunder): slightly stronger (5–6%), more bitter and drier; according to the BJCP it sits between pils and helles. - Helles bock / Maibock: a stronger, pale bock (6.3–7.4%), see bokbier (Dutch bock).

Myth or fact?

Myth

‘Helles is a light beer with little alcohol.’

'Hell' means light in colour. A helles usually has 4.7–5.4% alcohol, about the same as a pils, and a helles bock even reaches 6.3–7.4%.

Myth

‘Helles is a light beer with little alcohol.’

The German 'hell' is about colour. For the heller bock, the Brewers Association explains that 'helle' means light in colour, and CraftBeer.com, also from the Brewers Association, translates helles as 'pale in color'.

It has nothing to do with strength. According to the BJCP, a Münchner Helles has 4.7–5.4% alcohol and a German pils 4.4–5.2%. The Brewers Association gives 4.8–5.6% for helles. The helles bock, also a pale beer, is even at 6.3–7.4% according to the BJCP.

A helles is light in bitterness, though: according to the BJCP it is low to medium-low. Light in colour and in bitterness, then, but not light in alcohol.

Sources

Myth

‘Helles is the centuries-old beer of Munich.’

Helles is younger than pils. According to the BJCP it originated in 1894, and in Munich dunkel remained the favourite beer until the Second World War.

Myth

‘Helles is the centuries-old beer of Munich.’

Munich is an old beer city, but helles is relatively new there. Beer historian Ron Pattinson relies on the historiography of Wolfgang Behringer. According to him, around half of Munich's beers in the 1840s were still 'wine-yellow', but a few years later they were all dark. That remained so until helles arrived in the 1890s.

The trigger was competition. According to the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, in the last quarter of the 19th century pale beers from, among other places, Dortmund, Pilsen and Radeberg came into fashion, and Bavarian brewers also had to broaden their range. In the last ten years of that century they developed the 'bayerische Helle'. The BJCP names 1894 and usually the Spaten brewery. Pils (Pilsen, 1842) is thus more than fifty years older.

Nor did it happen in one go afterwards. According to Pattinson it took a while for the people of Munich to embrace helles, and dunkel remained the favourite beer in Munich until the Second World War.

Sources

Myth

‘Helles is simply the Bavarian name for pils.’

They are two styles. Helles is about soft malt and has little bitterness; German pils is drier, hoppier and clearly more bitter.

Myth

‘Helles is simply the Bavarian name for pils.’

The BJCP compares the two directly. A helles has more body and malt than a German pils, but is less fresh and has less hop character. A pils has more hops and bitterness and a drier, fresher finish. The bitterness shows the difference: the BJCP gives helles 16–22 IBU and German pils 22–40 IBU; for the Brewers Association it is 15–25 versus 25–50 IBU.

In Germany itself they are separate categories too. The Deutscher Brauer-Bund calls pils the market leader with almost 50% and the hellbiere number two with about 12%. According to the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, after the First World War pils became the favourite beer in the north of Bavaria (north of the Altmühl), while in the south the bayerische Helle gained the upper hand.

They are related, though: both are pale German lagers with the same kind of malt. According to the BJCP, pils from Bavaria is also somewhat softer in bitterness and maltier than pils from the north, but still hoppier and fresher than a helles.

Sources

Where does it come from?

Helles is younger than you would think. According to beer historian Ron Pattinson, around half of Munich's beers were still 'wine-yellow' in the 1840s, but a few years later they were all dark, until helles arrived in the 1890s. The Historisches Lexikon Bayerns describes how in the last quarter of the 19th century pale beers from, among other places, Dortmund and Pilsen came into fashion. Bavarian brewers had to keep up and in the last ten years of that century developed the 'bayerische Helle'. That was not easy: the hard Upper Bavarian water suited dark beer better and first had to be softened.

According to the BJCP, helles originated in Munich in 1894, as a competitor to the pale pils beers; the credit usually goes to the Spaten brewery. It took a while for the people of Munich to get used to it: according to Pattinson, dunkel remained the favourite beer there until the Second World War. Today hellbiere are the most popular in Germany after pils, with about 12% of the market (Deutscher Brauer-Bund, 2026).

How to pour it

A good starting point: 7–10 °C in a narrow, tall glass (CraftBeer.com recommends a flute glass), and as fresh as possible.

Did you like this? Then try Bock →

Similar to: Lager & Pilsner, Pilsner

Terms

Bottom fermentation (low fermentation)
Fermentation with lager yeast at lower temperatures, in which the yeast sinks to the bottom, as with pilsner and other lagers.
Malt
Grain, usually barley but for example also wheat, that has been steeped, germinated and dried so that sugars become available for the yeast; the more strongly the malt is roasted, the darker the beer.
Mouthfeel / body
How a beer feels in your mouth: how full or thin it is (the body), how much carbonation it has and whether it is, for example, creamy or rather astringent.
Finish
The flavour and aroma that linger after you have swallowed the beer, for example a long-lingering bitterness.
Lagering
Letting beer, especially bottom-fermented beer, mature cold for a time after fermentation, so that yeast and proteins can settle and the flavour improves; the word comes from the German 'lagern', to store.
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