There simply isn’t such a thing as a “whale” within the world of kolsch, and outside a few German breweries of note, there aren’t even “famous” examples of the style. Nevertheless, the humble nature of kolsch means the style stands out for one more unusual aspect: its complete absence of hyped beers. Regardless, this was (for once) a smaller field than expected, but still one with plenty of quality. Or maybe breweries are still just hungover (as are we) from our massive blind tasting and ranking of 324 IPAs. Perhaps we’re still one year too early, in terms of conducting this ranking. It may be that despite the style’s increasing popularity, the majority of kolsches are still seasonal or limited releases, and thus not always available. It was this robust number of entries at GABF that honestly left me a little bit surprised that we only received 41 kolsch entries for this particular Paste blind tasting. That’s more entries in kolsch than in session IPA, robust porter, German hefeweizen or “classic saison,” just to name a few. The style’s number of entries at the Great American Beer Festival tell the tale-in 2017 it was up to 154 kolsches, making it one of the fastest-growing categories at the festival. Kolsch has quietly but steadily been surging in popularity in the last few years, both as a summer refresher and as a canvas for flavor experimentation, incorporating everything from fruit, to coffee, to Americanized hop rates that would typically be more at home in pale ale or IPA. Kolsch is the beer we would consider the perfect middle ground.Īnd as it turns out, a lot of American craft breweries now think the same. Or in other words, it’s the perfect “light beer” option for someone who prefers not to drink industrial light lager, and isn’t looking for the assertive hop rate of a comparable craft lager style such as pilsner. The result: A style that blends the more robust, slightly fruitier character of warm ale yeast fermentation with the crispness of a lager. In a sense the “anti-steam beer” (which is a lager, fermented at ale temperatures), kolsch is a classical German style from Köln that uses top-fermenting ale yeast, but then conditions at cold lager temperatures after the initial fermentation. Well then, it sounds like kolsch (or Kölsch) is the style for you. Think “golden ale” sounds particularly lame or outdated? Still don’t want to brew a light lager, andī. However, what if you want a friendly, light-colored beer on your menu, but:Ī. It’s an area of success that was long written off by breweries as being either financially impossible or against the spirit of the industry itself, and yet here we are-consumers are proving that they’re willing to buy light, drinkable styles from craft breweries, and pay a bit extra to do it. It would be hard for a drinker paying attention to the craft beer market to miss the concerted effort that has been made in the last few years to “reclaim” light lager, as it were-when breweries like Founders are suddenly cranking out almost as much light lager as they are IPA, then you know a trend is afoot. “Lightness” and “approachability,” meanwhile, go hand in hand. Session beer styles provide that kind of subtlety. As craft beer has moved further away over time from solely defining itself as an alternative to “macro beer,” and experienced drinkers have hit the zenith of their own personal explorations-which typically involves a period of drinking 15% ABV, barrel-aged monster stouts, in my experience-they have rediscovered an appreciation for subtlety. “Repeatability” is of course a reference to the popularization of session beer styles, and indeed the term “session beer” itself. It’s there’s one prevailing, overarching trend in all of American craft beer these days, it’s this: A move toward lightness, approachability and repeatability. Click here to view all entries in the series. This list is part of a Paste series of bottom shelf liquor and craft beer style tastings.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |