Kolsch Style
Black Gold Brewery

473 mL can from the brewery; coded KOLS1082 and served barely chilled.

Pours a beautiful, bright sunny golden colour, capped off with an inch of foamy, bumpy white head that lasts for the better part of five minutes. It leaves behind plenty of gorgeous lacing - a couple of rings, as well as a messy curtain draped above a creamy collar. Wow, this looks great! Bready, slightly doughy aroma with lesser notes of grain, honey cereal and grassy hay.

It does have a tasty, whole grain bread flavour profile, with hints of doughy malts and honeyed sweetness, as well as some pilsner graininess. There's also a decent whack of grassy, leafy, earthy hops, which add some noble hop bitterness to the grainy, bready finish; mildly malty aftertaste that lingers a little longer than I'd like. Fairly light in body, with low carbonation that results in a smooth, relatively flat mouthfeel - a little more zip would be nice, but it still drinks just fine. This glass was empty before I finished the review, which is generally a good sign for a 5% pale lager/ale.

Final Grade: 3.57, a B grade. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, or so the saying goes... but I feel the same way about a handful of beer styles, this being one of them. An authentic, quality, spot-on kölsch is not easy to brew, and if I'm being honest, most Canadian attempts at this style, or at least those that I've tried, don't manage to get there. The same is true of Black Gold's Kolsch Style, but that doesn't mean it's not perfectly enjoyable for a glass or two - preferably while washing down some pub grub. Reminds me of a blonde ale mashed together with a helles lager: in other words, it's quite approachable, but lacks the nuance and subtlety of a genuine kölsch. I'd drink it again.