Here are the notes from our

Kölsch tasting which we ran at Alan McKay's house on September 17, 2000. Present were :

Alan McKay	Beer Geek Homebrewer since 1995 lived in Köln 2 years
Andrew Perron	Beer Geek Homebrewer since age 2 accomplished gadgeteer
Drew Avis	Beer Geek Homebrewer since 1987 (beerlover since birth) BJCP Judge author of Strange Brew brewing software
Lorne Porter	Newfoundlander legal Beer Drinker since 1984

We tasted 8 different kinds of Kölsch, which were mailed back to Canada by Alan specifically for this purpose, while he was there on a 2 week beer trip in August 2000. The beers were tasted in the following order : Kueppers (500ml bottle), Reissdorf (500ml bottle), Peters (2 x 333ml bottle), Zunft (500ml bottle), Gaffel (500ml bottle), Frueh (500ml bottle), Dom (500ml can), Gilden (500ml bottle).

Since Alan possibly already had some preconceived ideas about some of these beers, while the others had never heard of any of them, we decided to do a single-blind test where Alan (and coincidentally Lorne) were never to know which beer was presently being drunk. We considered a double-blind test, but the only way to resonably do that is to pour all the beers at once, and (a) we didn't have enough Kölsch Stangen (glasses), and (b) even if we had them, the whole session lasted about 2 hours, so it would have been unfeasable to pour all the beers that far in advance, and expect the last ones to retain their head during that time. So Lorne and Alan would always leave the room while Andrew and Drew poured the next round of glasses.

The following are the beers in the order chosen by Andrew and Drew and drunk by all four of us. Note that since Lorne was not a beer geek, we did not ask him to keep notes, though he did have some valued comments.

Kueppers -> Reissdorf -> Peters -> Zunft -> Gaffel -> Frueh -> Dom -> Gilden

General Comments by the Tasters

Drew Avis

The current style guidelines for Kölsch published by the BJCP very closely describes the eight beers that we sampled. I would, however, suggest these slight changes based on the samples we tasted:

1. Appearance: These beers were uniformly brilliantly clear, straw coloured to light gold, with a tight white head that did not last. The BJCP description that the “white head lingers as Belgian lace on the sides of the glass” was not at all apparent with these beers. And to be honest, I do not see how such a light bodied beer could produce a lasting head and Brussels lace. None of the samples we tried had a head that lasted more than a couple of minutes.
   
2. Aroma: The BJCP description of a fruity hop aroma applied in only two of the samples we tried. The aroma was almost uniformly squeaky clean, a generic “beery” aroma that speaks neither of malt nor hops.
   
3. Mouthfeel: The BJCP description is “light side of medium body”, whereas the samples we tried ranged from light body to watery. In one instance the mouthfeel was slightly creamy, but this was probably due to a higher carbonation level

Alan McKay

Going into this I thought it would be fun to try to guess which each beer was, but realistically I knew that my short two weeks in Köln wasn't even enough to try every type of Kölsch (though I hit around 20), let alone memorise them all. I figured if I got 3 of the 8, that would be doing extremely well. I nailed the Dom with one sip, and that was to be my glory! Though I did get "2nd choice" on two others. The big suprise here was Gaffel, as all 3 of us agreed it was a fairly lifeless beer. The suprise is that on tap in Köln I drank it quite a bit and labelled it the "most assertive" Kölsch for it's brash "almost-aleness" when compared to most other examples of the style. I can't wait to finish that last bottle to see how it compares.

Though there is a fairly wide variance between certain examples of Kölsch, from the very-lightest-of-the-light like Frueh and Kueppers, to the rare examples brewed with 10% Munich Malt to create the beginnings of coppery colours in a beer where this is normally verboten, most of the ones in this sample of 8 were in-line with probably 70% of all Kölsches. Don't misunderstand that to think that they all 8 taste alike, either, because each one had it's own distinct character, and I doubt there were two among them which could be mistaken for each other.

The healthy majority of all Kölsches I have tasted are a straw to golden straw colour, that are highly attenuated which usually though not always leaves a dry little hop "pucker" at the end. The official definition is that it is "Hopfen betont" or "hop-accentuated", though this is not quite always the case, it is the majority of times. Though it seems impossible in a highly-attenuated beer which should be dry, about 10% to 20% of Kölsches I have found to have a sweetness to them, usually found right up front. Dom I have found to be one of the more pronounced, and our sample was no exception (though the metallic twang from the can was quite noticable after Lorne mentioned it). But remember that "pronounced" for a Kölsch is like "tall" for a child.

One brewmaster insisted that Kölsch should have absolutely no hop aroma, though there are 1 or 2 examples which do break with tradition on this. As for bittering, roughly 20 to 26 IBUs in my experience, though with some of the dryer ones it can seem a bit more than that. A good number of Kölsches have a nice fruity aroma, however, and distinguishable fruit flavours, as well. I have tasted a lot of Apples and Pears, as well as the odd Cherry and even Banana. All in just the subtlest amounts, of course, being a Kölsch and all. This is an extremely delicate beer, in which none of these characteristics should dominate. Light colour, thinner body, and very much a so-called "lawnmower beer", meaning it can be drunk in quantity (and how!).

The 9th Kölsch I brought home with me from my trip was Malzmuehle (Maltmill) Kölsch a.k.a. Muehlen-Kölsch, brewed at the pub visited by Bill Clinton in 1999. I only had one bottle of it, and decided to share it with my wife the first night back. I almost regret this now, because it is one of the 2 or 3 Kölsches which really swing wild and like to define themselves. Another here is the famous Paeffgen, served at the cult pub Lommerzheim, as well as in its own brewpubs. And a 3rd would be the "Lecker Kölsch" (literally : "yummy Kölsch"), brewed at the Weiss Braeu.