There. I said it. It needed to be said. It’s basically a helles made with cerevisiae. Nothing more, nothing less. Hack the truth to pieces if you must, but to me and my inferior palate, this is truth.
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I wonder if it’s one of those things that has gotten magnified in the retelling…one example at one point was slightly fruity (probably a badly aged and slightly oxidized version in the 1990s of American microbreweries), and it got taken up as a trope. As I read some style guidelines, they emphasize the subtlety of the fruit character, which is not the way it’s often talked about in some circles.
I feel the same way about people’s perception of Belgian styles. Most are not loaded with the esters homebrewers try for.
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If you’re trying to get a lot of esters in your Belgians, then you’re probably trying too hard. Most Belgian yeasts produce the “right” amount of esters regardless of efforts. Some produce way too much banana, but fortunately, banana is very short lived. But of course, we digress…
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If you use the right yeasts and treat them right, you get the right level of esters.
And I have never really thought of kolsch as being especially fruity. Maybe a bit white winey.
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After a week of Koln and visiting all the breweries, I’d say that Denny’s perception is correct. A lager-like, low level of esters and occasionally some can have a hint of wine-like esters. Clean, fresh, eminently quaffable.
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Which breweries did you visit? I have been to Koln a couple of times and have tried to vist all the breweries.
Personally I tasted Fruh, Gaffel, Muhlen, and Sion. Long ago I’ve had imported Reissdorf in bottles. I think my favorites have been Sion and Gaffel, with Fruh a very close third place. Didn’t care for Muhlen as much. Fruh was perhaps the “fruitiest” with just the faintest hint of white grape, but certainly not “fruity” in any real manner.
I refer to kolsch, alts and anything I make with wyeast 1007 and fermented cold as a “lagerale”
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Had Reissdorf on draft and it was not fruity. Much better than every other Kolsch I’ve had and by far the cleanest. All the others were a domestic “Kolsch style”. Not sure how that draft related to being there but wanted to share.
The last time there the Früh was an outlier, fruity in not a good way. We moved on to the next brewery.
1007 at 52F makes great beers
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I was there a few years ago and went to six breweries and I agree; not fruity. What surprised me was how hop forward some of them were. Also, the bitterness of some were much more than “moderate” as described in the guidelines. I’m not too surprised that a bottled version would lose hop character over time, but the fresh beers had much more hop character than I was expecting.
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I too was surprised at the spicy peppery character and bitterness. Most examples are firmly bitter and well attenuated, not sweet, though Fruh was a little milder than some others.
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Good to know! Reissdorf’s on my list now if I ever make it out there. Funny how “style” beers overthere rarely taste like the actual thing once its been recreated somewhere else.
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Pretty much been saying that for a couple of decades and more
Hit me again for Czech Lagers esp on draught. I was blown away at the flavors while in the Czech Republic this spring. I can count the breweries on one gnarled hand that come CLOSE here in the US.
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Well.. yes it makes sense. The soft water and slow lagering are so specific to the place, no wonder it doesn’t travel well. What blew you away most, the malt or the balance? Been meaning to explore that side more. And sure I would like to hear your experience as I plan to visit there again in October.
Personally I was slightly surprised at the firm bitter edge of many of the examples, and the peppery hoppiness. I thought the bitterness and hop character would be more restrained, but they were present, and in balance with a crackery cereal-like maltiness in many cases, which were all pleasant surprises. I never thought of Kolsch as being a super exciting style in the past, and maybe it really isn’t, but each example is also quite unique from the other offerings, and that was another pleasant surprise. Mostly I was happy with how great the real Kolsches are, especially when compared with USA “Kolsch” examples which are mostly meh.
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I too made the trek to Cologne (last September) and tried nearly every Kolsch rendition. I stayed at Fruh and came to favor that version with its very light wine note and overall smoothness. Of course the ambience had a lot to do with it. My biggest take away, in addition to the noted firm bitterness of most examples, was the diversity within what otherwise you might think of as a narrowly defined style. Every version I tried was distinctly different.
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