No love for Kolsch?

I'll second that! Recently had it on vacation in Charleston. Easily in my top 5!

 

Love Captain Lawrence Kolsch and COAST 32/50 Kolsch. Mother Earth Endless River is a close third.

 

My German friends in Koln told me on my last visit that in order for a beer to be called a Kolsch, it had to be brewed in visual line of sight of the twin towers. So, even if the brewery was in Koln, if you can't see the towers from it, you can't call the beer Kolsch. Any truth to this? I figured they knew, they are from Koln.

 

Rogue's honey kolsch is really good

 

"Kolsch? How about a nice Altbier instead."

 

Always wondered how a Motueka-hopped Kolsch would turn out. Seems like it'd be a good fit for the style.

 

While visiting home, I've put down several COAST 32/50s. Great beer for the hot/humid Charleston summer, fall, and spring.

 

love me some real kolsch
just had clown shoes mango why bother calling it a kolsch if you are going to turn it into a fruity pale ale

 

Not quite , but it certainly has to be from the Koln area.Half the posts in this thread aren't about Kolsch but about beer wrongly called Kolsch as the first requirement of the style is the location of the brewery.
I can go through all the motions, brush stroke by brush stroke , using the appropriate materials, and faithfully copy a Rembrandt.And that's just what I gat, a copy , not a Rembrandt.

Exactly.It's either arrogance or ignorance. Either way, why pretend it's something it isn't ?

 

I tried a Kolsch today specifically because of this thread.. Full Circle is the one we carry.. It was like a bud light with a ball sack, or an IPA with-out the ball sack. Right in my ballpark.. ish. Looking forward to trying others!

 

I mean I see the point of not labeling it a Kolsch, but if a beer is a faithful representation of a style (having never had an American Kolsch I have no idea if such a thing exists) is it a huge deal to talk about them alongside the beers that can be rightfully called a Kolsch?

 

I heard that a Kolsch can only be considered a Kolsch if it consumed while standing only on your left big toe while looking toward the northeast.

 

To sell more beer. If someone new on this website clicks on the top beers for a style, you're likely to have your "Koelsch" (fruity pale ale) rated higher, and may even top the list for that particular style.

If you label it a pale ale or an IPA, it will get lost in the shuffle.

 

In Germany, where the name Kolsch is limited to beers from Cologne, it is possible to call a German beer that is not from Pilsen a Pilsener, is that not correct?

 

No. There is a paragraph in the Kölsch Konvention called Bestandsschutz- when a Kölsch has been brewed before the Kölsch Konvention was signed, it can still be legally called Kölsch although it is not from the cologne city area. Case in point: Zunft Kölsch, which is brewed in Wiehl, Bergisches Land, over 50km away from cologne.
Anyway, the thing about "you have to see the towers of the cologne cathedral"is a myth which is clearly Kappes- you can't see the cathedral from Kalk(Sünner),Mühlheim(Dom,Küppers,Sion,Sesters,Gilde etc...), and so on and so on.
I personally am, as already mentioned elsewhere in the forum, not a huge fan of the Kölsch Konvention, mainly for two reasons:
1. It defines the Style Kölsch legally, which not only makes further development of the style difficult, it also makes the traditional historical Kölsch beers "illegal" to be called Kölsch nowadays, which is just silly. it freezes the style to the state when the law was signed...
2. For me, the drink itself has not really terroir- Hops and malts are mainly, with very few notable exceptions,imported from god knows where, no wild yeast is used which only grows there, and the cologne water does not give it a unique character......
The thing which constitutes the terroir for Kölsch is the culture in which it is consumed, the people, the pubs- that, I salute.
The Konvention is just a bad case of "Kölsche Klüngel",which I despise.

As for the Pilsner thing: The DDR and Czecheslovakia had some debate about the name Pilsner on DDR beer bottles made for export- they wanted them to stop calling radeberger Pilsner Bier. Funnily though, in Trains from East germany to czech, the word Pilsner was taped over on Radeberger bottles at one point...

I myself would argue that "Pilsner Bier" in german speaking countries means simply a Vollbier,4.8% abv, which has a thin body and is noticeably hopped. In the czech republic to this day, "plzenske pivo" refers to a beer from plzen-which can be strong or weark, pale or dark.........

 

Anyone in Seattle dig on Reuben's Brews? They have a Kolsch that is phenomenal! Drank an entire 64oz growler by my lonesome on Father's Day because the rest of the family took one look and went for Mac & Jack's. Excellent stuff!

It is such a hybrid style it is hard to master. Plus, a lot of breweries overly hop or malt it which offsets the taste. Maybe that's why there's no love. Just sayin'...

 

For the same reason most Alt attempts taste like simple Brown Ales, and India Pale Lager tastes like another IPA -- no knowledge or respect for the true style. And yeah, it's a shame because there are so many different types of beer to choose from why muck up the playing field with pretenders.

 

While not my favorite "style" of beer, I do enjoy a good Kolsch every now and then.

 

It's also far from an in-your-face type of beer -- which get more attention around here than most.

I was in a good beer store over the weekend and another customer was waiting for Ayinger Brau Weiß to come in -- he wanted to buy the whole case. I was impressed that someone was going more traditional and off the main stream for their beer choice and asked if he'd ever had the Zunft (a bottle in my hand). "Yeah, I've tried Kölsch, not for me." I knew then that his beer had to smack his palate around more to be enjoyable.

 

I take your point but feel that if you want to brew a similar beer to Kolsch but elsewhere it's easy enough to label it "Koelsch style". But as the name comes with baggage, and the founders of the style wished to preserve its identity, then even a "Koelsch style" beer should adhere to the Konvention.They didn't really want it to develop ,the Konvention doesn't stop you brewing anything you want as long as you don't misuse the name; in this sense it isn't restrictive but does ensure that what you're drinking will have certain characteristics.
Neither should a French vineyard offer a wine labelled "Napa Valley"