Mishawaka Kolsch
Mishawaka Brewing Company

Poured an excellent golden color, very clear and slighlty bubbly, with nice head and excellent lacing. Very nice clean and crisp scent, with a good sparkly malt sweetness. Excellent flavor, a nice clean maltiness with a wonderful citrus-spice hop finish that added to the end flavor, but did not dominate. Goes down exceptionally well, clean and slightly dry. Great beer.

Had on tap at The Pub.

A- Poured a clear golden yellow color. One finger light white head which dies down right away. No lacing on the sides of the glass.

S- Artifical aroma when it actually smells like something. Some bigger buttery notes that shine in this beer once it warms...not a good thing. Light bready notes and even lighter lemon note. Dead aroma overall.

T- Not a kolsch beer but hey I didn't brew it. Big buttery flavors overall. Light bready malts do show up along with a extract like flavor. Bland tasting with no real good flavor overall.

M- Medium mouthfeel. Carbonation is dead like most of the life of this beer. Flavors are bland and well once again...dead. Buttery flavor with a artifical taste on the palate with a light alcohol flavor in the aftertaste. No drying on the palate.

D- A poor take on a normally easy to drink style. I don't know why I keep coming back to this place just to have subpar beers. This place keeps going downhill and well their beers are doing it but at a faster pace.

Picked up a couple bottles at the brewery on a whirlwind stop through town. Crystal clear gold color, thin white head disappears in seconds.

Graham crackers and a bit of buttered popcorn on the nose. Taste was similar, but I couldn't get past the buttery flavor. Medium body, good crispness.

Certainly not one of the better kolsch or kolsch-style beers I've had, far from it.

Tasted on 7/19/08.

On-tap at the brew-pub, also in some bottles we brought home, both about the same but the on-tap was slightly better, and reviewed here.

Actually this is one of the few US "Kolsch" attempts that comes close to many of the authentic traditional Kolsch Cologne/Koln beers. For some, Kolsch-style is an acquired taste. But this is the first US-made "Kolsch" which has actually taken my mind back to Cologne and made me feel like I was sitting on a sidewalk outside a brauhaus and drinking it.

A= very pale yellow, cloudy, almost no head, no lacing, no hints of bubbling rising.

S= "Old Europe." Hints of a fresh bakery nearby. Corn evident.

T= mild, a bit watery, the taste of city water although maybe that's what gives this beer its seemingly more-authentic Cologne-Kolsch taste. Bready, a little weak but the taste continues to linger on the tongue. Banana, corn. Maybe slight nectarine hints. Yes it's "weak" but rather traditional, and there are a lot of more subtle hints and flavors here than would be obvious to most suds-gulpers.

M= a little watery but pleasant, with the lingering yet mild tastes to savor.

D= very drinkable en-masse but I suspect most beer-affecionados will turn to something else after trying one, unless they're sessioning on the side while mostly dining.

12 oz into my big Mason jar.

A: Huge two hand head that ranneth over my quart jars brim. Cloudy and golden straw color. Head settle to a nice film with a dollop of foam in the middle. Very nice lacing.

S: At first i though this beer might be bad it smelled a bit sour. But that changed to a medicinal breadiness with unripe green green grapes.

T: Super crisp and clean with a sour-grape-lemon flavor. Tastes kinda like Grape leave rolls with lemon juice.This beer would be awesome on a hot summer day after pitching some bundles of wheat on the wagon. Kind of medicinal. And i can taste a bit of the orange-beeswax hoppiness.

M: Pretty light but i thinks its perfect for a refreshing beer like this.

D: I was kind of taken aback with the first gulp of this beer thinking I wasn't gonna like it at all, but the flavor really grown on you. I think it a really good beer and very drinkable.

Had this on tap at the MBC Pub.

Served ice cold in 14 once pint glass. Do not know if this was an unflitered Kolsch, but this beer had plenty of chill haze and very little head. The aroma was faintly musty with a faint malt smell. Went down like water -that is it tasted like a Lite Beer. No malt or noble hops anywhere in the taste profile. Just one big BLAH.

Don't know where they get calling this a Koslch. I drank plenty of this type of beer while living in Germany. And, while Kolsch is lighter than the Helles or Export brands, there is still quite a bit of charachter to them. Kolsch Ales should have a delicate balance between the malts and hops, and leave a clean dry aftertaste. German Plisner malts and noble hops are mandatory. There was absolutely no German charachter to this Ale.

MBC Kolsch should either be re-branded as a Golden Ale or some such thing. MBC should stick to the few English Ales that they brew well.

Poured from a 12oz bottle into a shaker. This beer poured a very pale golden color with very lively carbonation bubbles floating around and a huge white head that would not go away. It took about five minutes to get the whole bottle into the glass due to the overwhelming amount of foam. The aroma was made up of sweet pale malts and some light citrus and lemon. The flavor was very light and crisp with a slightly sour lemon note. The mouthfeel was expectedly thin with good deal of carbonation. Average at best.

12 oz bottle. The beer pours a vibrant straw yellow color with a finger of bubbly white head. The clarity is excellent, and there is an intense carbonation working towards the surface. Nice looking beer here. The nose is lightly grainy, with a honey-kissed pilsner malt-like sweetness. There is a little marshmellow-like lacto character in there. It is almost like it has a vanilla character. Not what I expected. The flavor is not bad. There is a nice strong grainy character, with a finish heading towards nice herbal noble hop with a mild bitterness. There is just a hint of lacto/vanilla character in there. Mouthfeel is on the light end of moderate, with a moderate carbonation that seems to just die after the first few sips. I actually think this one is not so bad. The lacto character really doesn't belong in in this style, but it is more dominant in the nose than the flavor. I don't think it has an lactose in it, but I think something is giving me the impression of the aroma and flavor I associate with it. I would have this again.

Pale yellow look. Little white head and lace. Not much nose to be detected. Slightly sweet taste. Kind of weak tasting. Nothing offends.. but nothing stands out. Quite bland on the taste. A good into beer for someone just trying craft brews, but if you like some substace try another one of their brews.
Tasted at the brewpub.