No love for Kolsch?

Victory sampler packs just arrived at my store, and have the Kuhl Kolsch! Gotta gotta gotta try it and get me some! Really dug the last Victory produced Kolsch I had way back when.

 

Late arrival?

 

could be didn't check dates, as I haven't bought em... yet or perhaps they made more!

 

Ethan, I hate the be the bearer of bad tidings but that variety pack is a bit 'mature' right now; it was a spring seasonal release.

Hopefully your retailer stored it cold?

Cheers!

 

could be true! More importantly I checked my last rating for a Victory Kolsch... what's that!? Didn't rate it as high as I thought! Harrumph!! What would I do without the Internet...

Now I don't want this beer no more...

I am moving on

 

FWIW, I was told that Kuhl Kolsch is not an exact rendition of the former beers labeled as Kolsch.

I really enjoyed drinking the Kuhl Kolsch and discussed it on NBS back in early May: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-532.287689/#post-3606946

Cheers!

 

I never met a kolsch I liked until Clown Shoes Mango

 

Reischdorff Kölsch is a very good example of a real, true kolsch. Sunner is another good brand worth trying. Too often the kolsch's don't move fast and tend toward skunking. Find good fresh examples that haven't been sitting too long on a shelf or in a warehouse. Cheers!

 

Didn't I just say that?

 

Yup, just adding the detail of "ten other breweries".

Cheers!

 

Alaskan Summer Ale is great kolsch.

 

It's a year round offering. Shouldn't be too hard to come by in VA.

 

Ah, okay -- good to know! For some reason this site's listing for it has it marked as a summer seasonal.

 

I don't know if there's a QC issue with this beer, but I recently tried the Schlafly Kölsch and not only did it not taste like anything even remotely similar to Reissdorff or Gaffel, it tasted like absolute garbage that I wouldn't give to my dog!

It could be, granted, that I had a six-pack that was left to sit at 73 degrees on the shelf for too long (and somebody in the distribution chain did a poor job of making sure their product was properly cared for), but after that experience I'm not about to go out and try anything Schlafly makes, let alone their so-called "Kölsch"...

 

Oh, you mean it's not a Russian Imperial Stout? WELL THEN. I GUESS IT MUST SUCK.

God I hate Russian Imperial Stouts. Try drinking that maltified wine-tasting swill night-after-night on a desert island with your popcorn. I'd eat my .45 if I had to drink some chocolate-brown swill every time I had a hankering for a dry, clean beer.

 

I would second your point here that the entire concept of "terroir" is essentially bogus when applied to most beer. Frankly, with modern winemaking practices being what they are, the concept of terroir is even bogus when applied to most production wines, wherein the magic largely happens within the winery rather than in the vineyard. But with the Great Democratic Beverage of Beer, the assertion of terroir is even more dubious, considering the nature of 21st century supply chains. Sure, water sources are very important, and certainly Belgian lambics and sours have a sense of place that derives from their native wild yeast strains, but a modern craft brewer can (in theory) adjust the water, choose all the other ingredients up and to including the yeast itself, and produce a product that is, in the end, an entirely manmade creation with no sense of place whatsoever(!).

I will say that the Kölsch Konvention has brilliant business sense insofar as much as it protects the signatories thereof from competition in certain markets. Same as with Champagne in France -- if you want to export it, you actually have to have an officially sealed Champagne certificate to accompany your export paperwork for customs. I'll agree that French Champagne is still the best, even if Spanish Cava is produced the same way, and I'll agree that Kölsch is still going to be the best and most authentic in Cologne (of course), but let's not confuse the legalistic concept of authenticity with the chemical and gastronomic concepts of authenticity.

 

You sound like a pleasant human being who's generally fun to be around, and who doesn't ever try to shove their opinions down their friends' throats.

No wait, you sound like the opposite of those things.

I like a good Imperial Stout. I like a good kolsch. They work well for different occasions, and that's fine by me. Personally, the fact that "beer" can taste like so many wildly different things is why I like it more than any other kind of alcohol.

 

The first time I had the Schlafly Kolsch, it tasted lemony and pretty bad. Knowing that they use Gaffel's yeast and that they cold condition the beer, I had the intention of trying it again at a future date. The last time I had it, it was both delicious and spot on - perhaps the most "authentic" tasting version I've had from an American brewery. Was the first beer abused or poorly made, or was I in a different mindset? I'll never know. There's no reason for you to continue to spend your money on anything that Schlafly makes, but keep in mind that you might not always have the same experience with the same beer. I'll still buy a sixer of Gaffel over it because 95% of the sixers of Schlafly Kolsch on the shelves by me are way way past their best by date. It's not a strong seller in the cluttered market.

 

I like sierra Nevada kolsch

 

Smuttlabs Kung Fu Hobo was solid! I hope that they bring it back or kill Star Island and start putting them into the mix 12s and into regular spring summer lineup.