Altbier vs. Kölsch

I saw that yesterday. Saturday I was in Düsseldorf, and you can tell differences between the breweries. I think if I spent a day in Köln I could do the same. Now could I do it blind? I think I could pick out Uerige from a Kölsch just on the bitterness.

 

What does that mean?

 

You drink with your eyes.

Me? I drink with my eyes, my nose, and my tongue.

Interesting shot glass they were sampling from. No way to get a good mouthful, let alone a good nose-ful. They should have used much larger, full glasses.

I agree with hopfenmaltz, the bitterness and malt nuttiness of any Alt would give it away.

 

Ah, thanks.

I agree, I think it would be incredibly easy to tell the difference blind.

I'm not saying these beers taste like a Koelsch or Alt, but I imagine this would be like trying an amber Oktoberest and a pale Oktoberfest blind. Or an American Brown Ale and an American Blonde Ale. Or an adjunct amber ale/lager and a pale ale/lager...etc.

I could see having some trouble distinguishing between an English Pale Mild, and an English Dark Mild for example. The low ABV English beers are more nuanced.

To run with the German theme, a Munich Dunkel and a Helles would be easy to distinguish I imagine.

But as @steveh said, only having a shot of each likely increases the degree of difficulty. I've been visiting a lot of tap rooms lately, and the samplers give you 4 oz. samples. More often than not I'll discover a variety of differences if I have a 4 oz. sample at the brewery, and then have a can(s) later that day or as the week(s) go on.

 

Sounds absurd to me...but yet I've seen some crazy things at blind tasting events. Beers that are beloved being torn to shreds and "shelf turds" being declared to be flawless.

I tend to think I could pick a Uerige, Schumacher, Fuchschen, etc. altbier from a Reissdorf, Sunner, Gaffel, etc. but I've been wrong many times. I do tend to think the hops would be a dead give-away, though. Even the most assertive Koesch I've ever had lacked that punch and dryness. Even the large brewery versions (Like Schlosser) tend to be freakishly sweet as a give-away.

 

I think we as lovers of beers who know both styles and different examples of those (and could debate for hours on end about subtle little differences of different breweries) would all have no problem telling any examples in a blind tasting (with proper glasses and proper tasting measures) apart.
BUT that study is not about us. It's about randomly picked men from both towns who kinda never really tasted the "other" style. Huge difference there.
And for me, the results are not crazy at all, but pretty predictable given the setup.

 

Blind tastings are considered the most reliable.

 

Blind tastings do indeed eliminate biases and in that regard is the best way to honestly judge a beer.

Cheers!

 

Could be one of those situations where the taste testers are the "it tastes like beer" sorts. I'm sure we've all met someone who thinks anything that isn't a lambic or barrel-aged stout simply tastes "like beer." The blind range between koelsch and alt is tiny compared to some of the beers I've seen that were described that way.
I bet an everyday drinker of both could probably pick 'em a mile away, but a casual or occasional Warsteiner or Beck's drinker? Maybe not.

 

The study participants were “50 men of Cologne and 50 men of Dusseldorf between the age of 35 and 65”. The expectation would be that the 50 men from Cologne would be regular drinkers of Kolsch beer and the 50 men from Dusseldorf would be regular drinkers of Altbier. Do you disagree with this expectation?

Cheers!

 

So I guess we are to conclude that Koelsch "honestly" tastes like Alt?

 

I think it probably depends. If I took random 50 men from Chicago and 50 from St. Louis - would they be able to pick MGD and Old Style from Bud and Michelob?

 

I personally would not have an expectation that beer drinkers from St. Louis would be AB drinkers and those from Chicago would be Old Style drinkers.

I do have a differing expectation concerning Cologne (Kolsch) and Dusseldorf (Altbier) but things are indeed changing worldwide so maybe your observations are correct here?

Cheers!

 

Especially thimble-sized servings.

 

I could tell you the Bud right away -- because it would take about 3 minutes before I was sick from the malted rice.

Seriously, I haven't touched Bud in almost 20 years -- would have been longer if I hadn't been ambushed by the home-brewer attempting to "recreate" Bud in the HB-competition I judged.

Never made the after-party 'cause I was so sick.

Oh yeah -- Old Style isn't near as corny as MGD, and Michelob is much smoother in body than the others.

 

Wrong web site, this is Beer Advocate.

 

I feel pretty confident I could tell 'em apart (Coors, too - I drink a decent amount of Banquet) but I don't think I'm typical random beer drinker, either. There are probably 3-4 people like me and a whole lot of people that think Milwaukee's Best is the stuff at the bottom of the kettle that they can't legally sell as MGD. German beer drinkers might have a higher standard of what they call typical, but I bet most don't know a ton about beer, either. Not like they really need to.

None of the macros bother me or make me ill or anything like that, although their light cousins all seem way overcarbed and make me feel bloated really quickly.

 

LOL!

FWIW -- Capital made a Wild Rice beer some years back that would get to me too, just not as quickly as Bud (quantity? quality?), it would hit me the next day after only one. It's some sort of allergy I have to malted rice -- plain, cooked rice doesn't effect me.