No love for Kolsch?

Just picked up the Clown Shoes Mango Kolsch today. Will try it tomorrow or over the weekend, looking forward to it!

 

Top ten beers by sales dollars in 2013 in the USA (what I found quickly...):
Bud Light
Coors Light
Budweiser
Miller Lite
Corona Extra
Natural Light
Busch Light
Michelob Ultra Light
Busch
Heineken

Yup! There's your American preference for bold flavor!

 

Haha, absolutely right! Sorry, should've specified that I was mostly referring to BeerAdvocate types/likely craft drinkers as that was (I believe) the original intent of this thread.

 

Personally, I find it incredibly disrespectful to call a beer brewed outside Cologne Kölsch.

 

Only have had a few Kolsch style ales and the one I've liked the best I had by chance. My brother had a 12 pack sampler of Dundee beer at one of our family get togethers and I tried the Dundee Kolsch Style Ale. Haven't seen it around here since. I know Dundee doesn't get a lot of high marks on BA, but I thought it was a pretty good beer.

 

Oddly enough it was Berlin that I first found it also. At a store called Ambrosetti, great selection in there.

 

Disrespectful?

 

I saw a great quote today that fits my feelings about Kölsch outside of Köln:

Now, some of these odd recipe Kölsch fall into a pretty disrespectful (insincere) realm by using the term Kölsch or Kölsch-style.

 

I believe it's a bigger deal in Europe. There are cultures and traditions that have developed over hundreds of years; here in America, these sorts of culinary traditions just haven't developed due to the multiethnic nature of the U.S. as a whole. And yeah, some of the beers labelled a "Kölsch" in the US aren't even close to the style.

 

So it's OK for me to start making something called California wine in Germany?

 

Brewers in Cologne have gone to the trouble of creating a style of beer unique to the city. The American brewers come along and start slapping the name on all sorts of beers bearing little resemblance to the original. Seems pertty disrespectful to me.

 

Ahhh! "Clown Shoes Mango Kolsch" is one of my new Favorite Kolsch Brews,Just a Nice,Smooth,super easy drinking Beer,and totally Refreshing on a Hot,Humid summer day,get em here on the Eastern Shore of Md for $4.99 a Bomber,so it is priced right too!I think you will Really enjoy it my friendCheers!

 

Maybe California Style wine... but I'd bet it wouldn't sell.

 

I thought @Lurchus had some good thoughts on this topic:

No love for Kolsch?

No love for Kolsch?

No love for Kolsch?

 

No more disrespectful than any of the other dozens of European-origin style names that are used on thousands of American craft beers.

 

Another Kölsch Konvention debate*sigh*
The comparison with wine simply does not work. Because for californian wine, grapes from california are used. For Mosel wine, grapes from the mosel region are used.
But besides the water, which ingredients from cologne are used in the brewing of Kölsch??
Wine and beer labelling work very differently...
Aigan, as I see it, the Kölsch Konvention of the 1980ies was simply a business move from the brewers in cologne to annihilate the competition from outside(yet still the same region..)I guess you could compare it to the story of Salvator...

And: I'm having a Kölsch right now. Stößchen!

 

And the brewing water can be replicated as well. Simply start with RO water and add the necessary mineral salts to replicate the brewing water the Koln breweries utilize.

Cheers!

 

You've completely missed the point. It's about the bond between the beer and the town.

Respect the traditions of others.

 

I was in Cologne Germany last year where kolsch comes from. I enjoyed the Gaffel kolsch and its served to you in small glasses, and they keep comming until you put your coaster on top of your glass telling the waiter you are done. The Fruh kolsch which has a nice looking red and white label was not great.

 

Lighten up Francis