Yeah, the "declining after minutes in the glass" comment sounds like many beer myths spread by over zealous fans of styles. OTOH -- I'd be more wary of the Pasteurization import beers are subject to -- nevermind how it effects very delicate styles. Also, the store employee can tell you it just came in, but how long has the distro been holding it? Nonetheless, the majority of German breweries are very stringent with their quality, so I imagine the Früh will be very good. Maybe not as good as a Köln service proper, but I'll bet you'll enjoy it. Just remember it's not a very bold style and you shouldn't expect a palate blast. This will also be a good introduction to the style so that you can compare to the fresh stuff. If you have the dough to spend on the trip you're taking, is an extra $340 not worth it for a planned-out excursion?
As luck would have it, the wife and I have been on this Viking excursion. You're going to 4 different places, so the guide tries to pace the beer consumption. Even so, I thought it was plenty. At the last stop the guide purchased this local contraption that held several liters of beer, that allowed patrons to just help themselves (it had a couple of spigots as I recall). My point being, it was a lot of beer. The first place we went to was a brewery with a large beer hall. That's where we had dinner. To say the place was a bit lively would be an understatement. Anyway, during our meal there's a nearly constant stream of staff coming by topping off your beer. After the 4th pour I decided enough was enough, and so I placed a coaster over my glass so I could focus on my food. After I finished I had a couple more top offs. The next two spots I think I just had a couple of pours. The guide wasn't trying to limit our consumption, just the amount of time we were at each spot. We were out for almost 4 hours, so figure we were at the last 3 spots for around 45 minutes each. The final spot we could have stayed longer, but by that time we were pretty worn out. Our guide was fantastic. He was a local of course, but I think had worked at a local restaurant. So he knew most of the brewery staff, and could tell us the history of the various breweries. At the last spot, after half an hour, he indicated he planned to take off, but would be happy to buy us more beer before he left. No one was interested. I think this was on a Saturday night, and he wanted to go hang with his friends at some other bar. For us it was worth the extra money, but that's got to be your call. I'm sure you'll have a good time and find plenty of things to do on your own, and save some money at the same time, but our guide was great and we enjoyed the tour. We've gone on a lot of Viking tours, and one of the things we appreciate are the quality of the a la carte excursions. Still, they're not cheap, so that's always a consideration. Some of them definitely aren't worth the added expense imho, but I thought this one probably was. Have fun!
I'm going to give a somewhat controversial opinion here. Yes, I think you will enjoy a reasonable representation of it. First off, the whole Kolsch declines within minutes of being poured in a glass is silly. Technically, that's true of any beer due to oxygen exposure. Sure, let one sit poured for 30 minutes or more at room temp and yep you'll note some difference. But who lets a glass of Kolsch sit undrank for longer than ten minutes? Will the 8-month-old Kolsch be as good as 30 day or less one? No, you'd notice the difference. Will it taste bad or be undrinkable. Highly unlikely. Keep in mind those are in cans, which are the best packaging for keeping oxygen out. You'll still be drinking a high quality, well-crafted German beer. My experience with German beers at six or eight months has been good. Now days, I grab Kolsch style beers from my local breweries because they have really caught up and make outstanding versions that can be had within a few days or weeks of being made. But I guess you won't know for sure until you break those puppies open.
Completely agree. I know this will almost certainly be a controversial opinion, but the Kölsch style beers I've had locally were superior to the ones I tried in Cologne. Maybe it's just the quality of the ingredients, but the flavor profile was brighter. Not that the stuff I had in Cologne was bad... far from it.
Thank you, Steve, for all your points. I have been looking forward for quite some time to having Köln-brewed Kölsch. I've had only two examples of the style, from two Missouri-based brewers – Schlafly and KC Bier – and don't recall specific tasting details, since I don't make written notes on beers. Perhaps I should start. Oddly, IMO, our local brewer best known for German styles, Urban Chestnut, does not produce a Kölsch. I also challenged that store employee who observed the Früh just came in: "Really? It has a best-before date of Aug. 11, which isn't that far out. Is it the same distributor who dropped the Hofbrau Maibock in January that was already past the best-before date?" He checked his hand-held and confirmed they are different distributors. Which means, I guess, one distributor's awful and the other is barely doing its job.
Here's a Kölsch I rather liked-- from Reissdorf and tasted with lunch at Der Biergarten in Sacramento. Mild herbal green note. Not too sweet and not too tangy. This is a more robust beer, modestly hopped, and not the usual lighter style of Kölsch.
Wow! This is a wealth of GREAT information John. Just what I was looking for. We're booking this excursion, for sure. I only hesitated because we booked two other pricier add-ons when we signed up for the trip and I probably felt I needed to "regroup" after the initial outlay. It's our first cruise of any kind. We are signed up for all the free excursions, plus the Rothenburg ob Der Tauber and Salzburg. Plus, we're doing extensions in Amsterdam at the start, and Prague at the end. This is truly a great summary of what to expect. I peruse a couple Facebook groups for this particular Viking trip, but those are sprinkled with assorted nuts that make it difficult to draw trustworthy conclusions. Thankfully, BA never has any of that. If you are willing to share any other beer-centric advice (or tips of any kind) for this trip, I'd be all ears. However, I'm not sure how personal email is shared through BA. Thanks again!
For sure, I've been satisfied more often than not with the German imports I've purchased, though I'm pretty selective based on dates. And because of that bit of "advice" from whomever those Kölsch purists were, I was a little more on-guard than usual. It hit the mid-80s here in St. Louis today -- a couple of those Frühs would have hit the spot!
I was coincidentally drinking a wonderfully big Adambier from Bombastic in Idaho just now…and saw your post. Awesome! I haven’t had a remarkable Adambier since the old Hair of the Dog days with “Adam”. This particular brew was a huge rich brew of complex dark fruit, caramelized wort that sparkled in the glass with dark raisiney browns / garnet accented highlights that went extremely well with some braised brisket, spuds and a Mustard Horseradish sauce I made. It was perfectly smooth with only slight carbonation. Went so well with my meal. Don’t really know this brewery, but they are way on my radar now!
Welcome to the BA group attempting to keep German style beers relevant! Wow what a great contribution to the thread. Adambier is so rare around me. That's something I would like to try one day. I can't think of any breweries near me that have made one recently. What is it you like about them?
Kölsch has gained a lot of momentum here in the South because it is such a great summer beer style. We even have a couple of breweries doing the Kölsch service here. It just hard to beat in a steamy summer day.
I sort of wonder if Florian, as a native German, isn't honoring the Kölsch Konvention by not brewing the style outside of Köln. I'm sure his take on the beer would be very good.
@67elbirdos -- a footnote: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24764/557925/ I think I actually tried this when my brother brought some back from Southern Illinois, but I honestly don't recall my impressions.
I'm not sure this is still the case, but Florian (UC owner/brewmaster -- for those keeping score) used to personally answer questions about beer posed on the website query page.
More than happy to, if I can remember. There's actually a Prague thread over in the European section that I'd recommend. There's a lot of good information there. If your trip includes a stop in Regensburg, I think there was a combination beer and sausage making excursion we thought was great. There's a regional white sausage there that's quite good, and there's a local beer bar that is famous for their rendition. We washed down our creations with copious amounts of helles lager, pils and bock beer. It was a great time! If your trip includes a stop in Bamberg, of course visit Schlenkerla. Again, I think there's a Bamberg thread over in the European/German forum that has all kinds of info. There are several brewery pubs there that are also worth a visit. The beers from those other breweries have at most light smoke, if you find that off putting. Viking has an included Bamberg excursion, which just involves a walk around the old town area (you'll likely walk right by Schlenkerla). There's not a lot of time there (before getting back on the bus), and we didn't feel it was a particularly interesting tour. They give you just over an hour of free time after the walking tour, which is enough time to visit Schlenkerla but not much else. Last time we just blew off the walking tour and visited several breweries instead. In Amsterdam we just visited museums and did the included Viking tours. It's a great city, but quite sizeable as well. Unless I knew where you're staying, it's difficult to provide recommendations. I just recall that where we stayed last time there was a large shoppimg/Cafe area nearby that we walked around in. There were all kinds of great little bars and bistros there. I'm sure you'll find plenty to do and plenty of places to explore. Have fun!
Very interesting (in best Arte Johnson voice). I've seen the Zoo Bier in a few locations in summers past, but never grabbed it because it was identified as a "light lager" (on the can label and in press releases/news mentions). Just didn't need one more lager in my summer rotation. After a little research inspired by your memory, it looks as if UCBC did indeed do a Kölsch in partnership with the St. Louis Zoo. For the first three years of the partnership (2019-2021), it was a Kölsch. UCBC made it a pilsner in 2022, and since 2023 it's been a light lager. Maybe AI will feed the UCBC decision-makers some kind of algorithm triggered by this thread and we'll get a Kölsch again for 2026. But that beer's probably in the tanks by now, provided the partnership is intact.
Maybe I'll ask about that Kölsch (see my reply in #99). Since the new investors came in, I haven't seen Florian's name in any local articles, other than the one announcing UCBC's emerging from Chapter 11. That story reported he'll remain very involved in the daily operations, along with founding partner David Wolfe. I mentioned recently in another thread that UCBC recently discontinued their "Euro bottles" (500ml) for their core beers, making the transition to 12-ounce bottles (along with 16-oz cans, which have been available for a while). A quote from the new lead investor, Brian Travers: “Our sense is that consumers like drinking out of a 12-ounce bottle. There’s a romance there, harkening back to the Anheuser-Busch experience that everybody is rooted in [in St. Louis]. When you talk about a bucket of bottles, the first thing you think about is a bucket of Budweiser. But these lagers have a different flavor and do it the UCBC way.” Urban Chestnut was founded by Wolfe and Florian Kuplent, both with roots at Anheuser-Busch.
