Chamomile Kölsch
Founders Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On tap at the brewpub

A - Straw yellow with a small layer of white head.

S - Very in-your-face chamomile nose with not much else coming through at all.

T - Chamomimle dominates, especially in the first few sips but tones down a little bit after a while. Some bready malts become evident along with a very mild hop bitterness.

M - Light body with a nice chew. Moderate carbonation.

Enjoyed as a limited edition on tap, cracked by Nate and Jeremy as a present to the BA group who attended the Western Michigan BA gathering at Founders on Jan.29th.

Pours out to a slightly hazy pale straw golden, forming a modest white head with good retention and mild lacing. Carbonation is moderate to mild. The aroma is like sticking your head into a bag of Chamomile at the Celestial Seasoning factory. I am not a lover of Chamomile tisanes, but this is just awesome in a beer. Mouthfeel is spicy, zesty and tart with a light body and chamomile astringency in the finish. The taste is all about the chamomile. It's potent and full, followed by a delicate pale malt body which adds a little sweetness and balanced by a mild floral bitterness. The finish is astringent with chamomile and the belches are ripe and pungent. Cleanly fermented, but with all this chamomile in it, I don't think I'd notice any faults:)

Inspired by John Maiers Chamomellow Ale (which I had as Test Batch #1 at the Portland Ale House), but infinitely more potent. Still, this is good stuff and one glass is plenty for quite a while.

At first i was somewhat skeptical of the chamomile ale. But after i had a few, i really took a liking to this beer. While it is not a beer that you will probably want to drink all the time, it is a nice change from the average beer. It helps me mix it up a little. I personally talked to the head brewer about this beer, and he said it was his first time and he brewed it with a little too much spices, but says that given some time to age, it should even out and mature and the taste will even out and compliment each other. I would defeintly reccomend giving this beer a try if nothing else, whats 3 bucks for a new beer experience?

I must first start off by saying that I am glad that Founder's is continually trying to be original and push the envelope with their beers. This is truly a world class brewery. However, this beer is something I would not advise anybody to get.

It had a decent bronze color but the head was very large and there seemed to be a lot of carbonation going on. The smell was flowery and had lots of chamomile tea to it. The taste was somewhat sweet with a honey flavor upfront but chamomile tea again takes over and is very, very intense. The finish is like peppermint toothpaste. This isn't too nice to me. The body is kind of spritzy and doesn't have much substance. Maybe if somebody really, really liked chamomile tea or were really, really stressed out they should try this but most people shouldn't.