Ten Seconds To Helles is a German-style helles lager brewed by Bombs Away Beer Company, a veteran-owned brewery and taproom in Albuquerque’s Skyline Heights neighborhood. Untappd lists it at 4.7% ABV and 18 IBU, and it was on the brewery’s tap list as of its September 2026 menu update. It is a pale, gentle beer from a brewery whose current lineup leans hard into lagers.
- Style: Lager, Helles (German style)
- ABV: 4.7%
- IBU: 18
- Brewery: Bombs Away Beer Company
- Where to find it: the Bombs Away taproom, 9801 Acoma Rd SE, Albuquerque
What is a helles?
A helles is a pale lager that comes from Munich, where brewers began making it in the 1890s. The name is German for “light” or “bright,” and it refers to the color, not the strength. A lager, for anyone new to the term, is a beer fermented with yeast that works at cooler temperatures and is then conditioned cold, which tends to give a clean, smooth result.
What sets a helles apart from its better-known cousin, the pilsner, is balance. A pilsner puts its hops forward, with a firm bitterness and a floral or spicy edge. A helles leans the other way: soft bread and cracker malt in front, just enough hop bitterness to keep it from tasting sweet, and a clean finish. Classic examples sit around 5% ABV and are brewed to be easy company with a meal or a long conversation.
That is the general style. Here is how Bombs Away describes its own take.
How Bombs Away describes Ten Seconds To Helles
The brewery’s description opens with a playful line: the beer is extra pale in color, “but not in flavor.” The rest of the write-up, on both Untappd and the brewery’s own beer menu, explains where that flavor comes from.
- The malt. The grain bill is all extra pale pilsner malt, which the brewery says gives the beer a malty, lightly caramel sweetness. Pilsner malt is the palest, most delicately kilned base malt a brewer can use, so building a beer entirely on it is a classic helles move.
- The hops. Bombs Away uses Ariana, a German hop variety, and says it adds them “with extreme caution.” The result, by the brewery’s account, is a subtle fruity and citrusy note in the flavor and aroma rather than a bitter one.
- The body and finish. The brewery calls it light-bodied, with mild bitterness and a clean finish.
Those numbers back the description up. At 18 IBU (International Bitterness Units, a measure of how much hop bitterness a beer carries), Ten Seconds To Helles sits well below the IPAs on the same tap list, three of which the brewery’s menu lists at 90 IBU or more. At 4.7% ABV it is also one of the lighter beers Bombs Away pours.
What Untappd drinkers think
Ten Seconds To Helles has been listed on Untappd since August 2021. As of October 2026 it is rated 3.75 by more than 300 Untappd users, across nearly 400 check-ins. Untappd also lists it as in production, which matches the brewery’s current menu.
You can read the full listing, including recent check-ins, on the Ten Seconds To Helles page on Untappd.
A lager-forward tap list in Skyline Heights
Ten Seconds To Helles has plenty of company. The September 2026 beer menu on bombsawaybeer.com lists a run of lagers alongside it: Proximity Pilsner, a Czech-style pilsner; a single-malt, single-hop S.M.A.S.H. Pilsner; High Speed Low Drag, an amber lager; Detonator Dark Lager; and an Oktoberfest märzen for the fall. If you like comparing styles side by side, the helles and the pilsners make an easy lesson in how much hops can change a pale lager.
The names say something about the place, too. Bombs Away describes itself as veteran owned and operated, and its beer names borrow from military and ordnance vocabulary: Detonator, Counter Charge, Low Order, Actuator. Ten Seconds To Helles fits right in, with a pun on the style name doing the rest of the work.
The taproom is at 9801 Acoma Rd SE in southeast Albuquerque. The brewery lists itself as open daily, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Its menu runs to pretzels, Frito pie, hot dogs, and panini, which suits a malt-forward lager well. Tap lists change, so check the brewery’s current beer menu before you make a special trip for one beer.
Ten Seconds To Helles: quick answers
What kind of beer is Ten Seconds To Helles?
It is a German-style helles, a pale Munich-style lager. Untappd lists it as 4.7% ABV and 18 IBU, and Bombs Away brews it with extra pale pilsner malt and German Ariana hops.
Is a helles the same as a pilsner?
No. Both are pale lagers, but a pilsner is built around hop bitterness and aroma, while a helles puts soft malt flavor first and keeps the bitterness low. Ten Seconds To Helles, at 18 IBU, sits on the gentle side next to Proximity Pilsner’s 33.
Where can I drink Ten Seconds To Helles?
At the Bombs Away Beer Company taproom at 9801 Acoma Rd SE in Albuquerque, where it appeared on the September 2026 tap list. Check the brewery’s beer menu for what is pouring now.
Find it on the map
If a clean, malty lager sounds like your kind of beer, Ten Seconds To Helles is a good reason to put Skyline Heights on your next Albuquerque outing, and a rideshare makes the trip easy. You can find Bombs Away, along with the rest of the state’s New Mexico breweries, on the New Mexico Breweries map, from Farmington to Las Cruces.
Beer details from Untappd.
