Kölsch
Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe

 

Pours a pale amber colour, with small dense white head, quarter-inch thick and leaves some decent sticky lace around. Quick, steady stream of carbonation heads up the brew. Looks fairly average, beer-y.

Sweet and grainy nose with hints of honey and cereal malt. Minor hop notes on the back, slightly piney and light. Not a lot to this aroma but a fair balance, not overly sweet like so many kölsches I've had, the hops are welcome but not overly strong. Decent.

Taste is fairly clean; bitter throughout with notes of grassy hop starting quite early. Hints of barley and a mild citric note midway provide the majority of the flavour, but it mostly has a decent herbal bitterness and finishes clean with a mild acerbic character, maybe a hint of mint and a slight soapy character. Not unpleasant; in my view this is the best kölsch going. It's the only one I can stand, really. It's flavoursome enough but it's clean, bitter, beery. Mouthfeel is a bit fizzy but not overly so. Has a good body, and goes down easily as a session beer.

Good for an after-work thirst-quencher, really.

I find that, in Australia at least, Kölsch is highly variable. If you compare offerings from Hunter Brewing, with, say Colonial, you get vastly different 'fruit' profiles.
The Redoak Kölsch sits firmly in the middle of the road.
In fact, I see this beer as being almost (almost) like a Premium Australian Lager or Pale Ale.
Having drunk this beer with died-in-the-wool TED drinkers, the response has been "maaate...this is noice !!"
There are style subtleties in this beer such as a slight green apple flavour note, and a clean, uncomplicated malt profile.
Albeit of German origin, this example is pitched straight at the Aussie drinker, and the tap gets a work-over at Redoak.

Pale gold in colour, medium stream of bubbles/ Strong head, Great clarity. Fair head retention and good lacing on the glassware. Presented in standard ale glassware unfortunatley instead of a stange glass.

Subtle friut aroma, white grapes, apples, pear, a fruity white wine sweetness but little malt aroma. White wine chracter is strongest in this one but is balance very well by a range of fruity characters which stops the wine elements from being too hash.

Malt sweetness up front leading to a white wine character, puckery with a slight fruity sweetness. Light hop profile. A little dryness on the palate, very clean.

Smooth very easy down the throat, thin with a light body but full of flavours. medium carbonation.

A great beer from Redoak. A solid example of the style but perhaps a little unique to drink alot of.