Kölsch: a great summer beer (as well as for other seasons)

Hello all,

First: THANK YOU to all who contributed to our Indiegogo crowd funding campaign! With your help we’re getting closer to opening this fall.

Yes Kölsch, an elegant style of beer emanating from Cologne, Germany that is great for warm weather (and colder weather, for that matter)!

The namesake Parched Eagle Golden Ale, our lightest year-round beer, is a Kölsch. Crisp, refreshing, light-bodied, yet full-flavored in a subtle way.

Here’s what the German Beer Institute says about Kölsch:

“Kölsch is the local brew of the city of Cologne (“Köln” in German). It is one of the palest German beers made. It is Germany’s answer to the British pale ale. It shares a history with the copper-colored Altbier made in Düsseldorf, some 44 km down the Rhine from Cologne. Just as the British pale ale emerged from the British brown ale in the 19th century, when pale malt became readily available, so did the Kölsch separate itself from Altbier around the same time.”

In Cologne Kölsch is served in a cool-looking narrow/tall glass called a “Stange”. We might have to have those at the Parched Eagle!

What I like about the style is the delicate balance of flavors: fruity esters from Kölsch yeast coupled with subdued maltiness and German hop flavor and bitterness for balance. Thirst quenching and flavorful at the same time!

I recently brewed the pilot batch of the Parched Eagle Golden Ale and will have it on tap for a party later this month. Hopefully it will turn out as well as I think it will so the recipe will be dialed-in for production batches in a few months!

Prosit!
Jim

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