What is Kölsch?
: and why are you so obsessed with me?
While crisp, clean beer may still not be at the top of everyone’s most-exciting beer list, hear us out. When you brew a super hazy ipa, or a puckery sour, or a deep, rich, malty stout, there are many ways to pack tons of flavour in. Don’t get us wrong, we love them all. But Kölsch is different; it relies on subtlety. There is nothing to hide behind. A good Kölsch can only be made well. This pale-straw coloured, low-ABV delight is pure and only gold can stay, right Ponyboy?
Kölsch is not only a nod to the traditional lagering style of German beers, where the cold fermentation over many, many weeks (typically a minimum of 8 weeks) allows everyone to make friends in the pot. (Yes, it’s an ale yeast, yes it’s lagered - but relax James May, and leave it to the Old-World to toe the Bavarian-line of beautiful beer.) Kölsch utilizes ale yeast (top fermenting yeast) - born from a law created in Koln (Cologne), Germany in the 1600s - for reasons that aren’t terribly clear yet, maybe due to poor refrigeration available or the desire to be different. Ales were the only type of beer that were allowed to be brewed. So Kolsch is a hybrid: it could be described as both a top-fermented beer and fermented at warm temperatures (ale), but it also shares traits with lagers as it spends anywhere form weeks to a few months at colder temperatures (lager). Germans even have a word for top-fermented lager beers, obergärige lagerbier. It’s one of the reasons that if you think “ales” or “lagers” are strict categories unto themselves, you’re wrong, and just have to let yourself float in the sensory deprivation tank of beer styles have have them flow over you.
It’s flavour is subtle, delicate, slightly fruity yet with a distinct Pilsner malt character, crisp, moderatly bitter finish and brillitanly clear golden colour. Likely modelled after the popular Pale Lagers that were available through Bohemia in the 17th century, it wasn’t until the 1980s* that Kölsch regained a strong foothold in the popular beer culture of Germany. It was during this time that brewers not only outlined its glassware, a 20cl stange, meaning “rod”, ideal for viewing the clarity of the beer, having a cool temperatured beer always, and the freshest pour possible, but also that its true form was only to be brewed in Koln.
But that doesn’t stop the rest of the world wanting a piece of this golden ticket to happiness. Bring forth “Kölsch-style”, it’s like sparkling wine is to champagne, or Klik is to Spam. While it’s not brewed in the designated town, we need the good stuff too, and local brewers are keeping our kranz trays stocked!
* a formal document called the Kölsch-Konvention was adopted in 1986 (the link above takes you to the German Wikipedia entry - we would translate, but … grade 10 French class really didn’t provide much in that way, so thank the gods for Google Translate extention!)
Read even more (pun intended) about Kölsch at morebeer
