Kölsch Rant

Tasting session 6

Beer 1 Choices: Kölsch, American Lager, German Pils, Munich Helles

Beer 2 Choices: Belgian Dubbel, Fruit Lambic, Oud Bruin, Flanders Red Ale

Score: 1/2

Beer 1 things to look for:

Kölsch: fruity yeast esters

American Lager: neutral hop/yeast/malt profile

German Pils: hop bitterness

Munich Helles: German malt character dominant/less bitterness

Notes:

This tasting poses a lot of challenges: Kölsch can lean very bitter, very fruity, very malty, or evenly balanced depending on which brewery it came from and how old it is. We don’t have access to fresh Kölsch in the States, and the imported versions don’t travel or age well, so the generally accepted idea in the US is that a Kölsch drinks like an estery lager type beer.  Some of the breweries that make Kölsch do feature esters predominantly in the balance, but in my experience, just as many were hop or malt forward. So for this tasting I had to forget about the hoppy and bready Kölsch I drank in Köln, and think of Kölsch only as a lighter pale beer with a subtle fruity ester character. 

After smelling and sipping, I determined that the beer had no detectable fruity ester character, so I eliminated Kölsch. There also was no prominent bitterness, so I was able to eliminate German Pils [note: some versions of Kölsch like Sünner Kölsch are quite bitter, but as beers age, hop character and bitterness diminish so Kölsch in the US usually lacks hop character]. The malt profile was a bit more rich and complex than an American lager, so I eliminated that and went with Helles because the beer had no yeast character and was balanced slightly toward malt sweetness.

I was pretty shocked and disappointed in myself to see that it was a Kölsch during the reveal as I just got back from an epic Kölsch adventure in Köln; but then again, this beer had to travel across an ocean and sit in the depths of a room-temperature export section of a gigantic alcohol store. The subtle hop and yeast character fell off and the malt (which was also diminishing in flavor) became the predominant falvor. What was once a bright and flavorful beer was no longer. It just goes to show- most beers are best enjoyed fresh!

Beer 2 things to look for:

Belgian Dubbel: no acidity

Fruit Lambic: funk, earth, fruit, complexity

Oud Bruin: acidity and malt character

Flanders Red Ale: clean acetic character, no funkiness

Notes:

For this exercise, the differences in the styles presented were a bit more dramatic. After smelling the sample, I detected lots of acidic character so was able to eliminate Dubbel right away. It smelled like a simpler/cleaner acidity, and a taste test confirmed the lack of earthiness and Lambic complexity, so Fruit Lambic was able to be crossed out. What differentiates Oud Bruin and Flanders Red Ale is that Oud Bruin usually has noticeable caramel/toffee notes in addition to the acetic fruity flavors found in Flanders Red. I did detect some of this malty character, so chose Oud Bruin.