Kölsch (beer)

A Kranz (wreath) of Kölsch beer.

Kölsch, also written Koelsch, is a local beer specialty brewed in Cologne, Germany. It is a clear beer with a bright straw-yellow hue, and it has a prominent, but not extreme, hoppiness. It is less bitter than the standard German pale lager. Furthermore, Kölsch is warm fermented at a temperature around 13 to 21°C (55 to 70°F) and then cold-conditioned, or lagered. This manner of fermentation links Kölsch with some other beer styles of central northern Europe, such as the Altbiers of northern Germany and the Netherlands.

Kölsch is strictly defined by the Kölsch Konvention, an agreement between the members of the Cologne Brewery Association. It is a pale, highly attenuated, hoppy, clear, top-fermenting beer with an original gravity of between 11 and 16 degrees Plato (1.044—1.065). In practice almost all Kölsch brands have a very similar gravity near the middle of this range.

History

In the year 1396, the Brewer Gaffel signed, with 21 other guilds, a document called the Kölner Verbundbrief, that set up a new democratic constitution of the free city, which terminated the rule of the nobles over the citizens, and held until 1796, when the army of Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Cologne. The term Kölsch was officially used for the first time in 1918 to describe the type of beer that had been brewed by the Sünner brewery since 1906. This type of beer developed from the similar, but cloudier variant Wiess (White in the Kölsch dialect). It never became particularly popular in the first half of the twentieth century, when the most popular beer was bottom-fermented, just as in the rest of Germany. Before World War II, there were over 40 breweries in Cologne, but in the aftermath of the devastations wrought by the war, that number was reduced to two.

In 1946, however, many of the breweries managed to re-establish themselves. During the 1940s and 1950s Kölsch still could not match the sales of bottom-fermented beer, but beginning in the 1960s it rose in popularity and achieved hegemony in the Cologne beer market. From a production of merely 50 million liters in 1960, Cologne's beer production peaked in 1980, when 370 million liters were produced. Due to recent increases in price and changed habits of alcohol consumption, the sale has decreased causing economic hardship for many of the traditional corner bars (Kölschkneipen) and for smaller breweries. In 2005, 240 million litres of Kölsch were brewed.

Thirteen breweries produce Kölsch in and around Cologne; the big four are Früh, Gaffel, Reissdorf and Kölner Verbund. Kölsch is the only beer that may not be brewed outside the Cologne region, as determined by the Kölsch convention of 1986. There is a grandfather clause for a few breweries in the larger area that were already established as of 1986. About ten breweries in Germany produce beer in Kölsch style, but do not call it Kölsch because they are not member of the Kölsch convention.

In 1997 Kölsch became a protected designation of origin, expanding this protection to the entire EU and several countries outside the EU. Kölsch is becoming more popular outside of Germany with exports to United States, Russia, China and Brazil. Exported Kölsch doesn't need to be strictly compliant with the Provisional German Beer Law, the current implementation of the Reinheitsgebot. Kölsch's popularity has risen in the United States to the point that microbreweries in New York city, Boston, Charleston, Philadelphia, Portland and Raleigh have started making Kölsch-style drinks.

brewery	established	annual output in hectolitre
Heinrich Reissdorf	1894	650,000
Gaffel Becker & Co	1908	500,000
Cölner Hofbräu Früh	1904	440,000

Wieß

Wieß ("white" in the Kölsch language) is a cloudy, unfiltered version of Kölsch. It had virtually disappeared from the market during most of the 20th century, but has seen a small resurgence in recent years.

Culture

Kölsch stands in direct competition to Altbier, the production of which is centred around Düsseldorf. The difference between the two types is indeed technically slight, Altbier being fermented at slightly higher temperatures than Kölsch and using dark malt, harder water and far more bittering hops, resulting in a nuttier, firmer and drier taste. The rivalry between the cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, bitter in the past but today mostly a humorous matter, is often expressed by the preference of one of these types of beer, and ordering the wrong kind in the wrong city has in fact resulted in abuse and even violence in the past, although today a couple of jokes about "immigrants" or "foreigners" is probably all that would result. Another interesting sociological point concerning Kölsch is that its consumption is deemed acceptable by women to a much greater extent than other beers in Germany, and also that it is often drunk in groups of rather mixed social standing — exclusiveness is frowned upon by the Kölsch drinking culture, and there is a deal between the breweries that no Kölsch will be sold with any of the extra titles that are popularly used with other German beers, like "Premium", "Special", "Extra High Quality" etc. Karl Marx once famously remarked that his revolution could not work in Cologne, since the bosses went to the same pubs as their workers^{[citation needed]}. Kölsch waiters (Köbes) in traditional pubs are encouraged, and indeed expected, to speak the local dialect which is called "Kölsch" as well and to use fairly rough, unrefined language, which might include crude jokes with the customers.^{[citation needed]} In keeping with serving tradition, the Köbes in such pubs will also continue to exchange empty Kölsch glasses with new ones unprompted until customers leave their glass half full or place the beermat upon the glass to signal that they no longer wish to be served.

A Stange (rod) of Kölsch beer.

Kölsch is usually served about 10°C/50°F in long, thin, cylindrical 0.2 litre glasses. This glass is known as a Stange (pole), but is sometimes also derisively called a Reagenzglas (test tube), or Fingerhut (thimble) because they are a lot smaller than the beer glassses used in most of the rest of Germany. Recently though, many bars (especially outside central Cologne) have moved to reduce the waiters' work load and to satisfy their more thirsty customers by offering larger, less traditional glasses, (0.3 L or 0.4 L) of the same shape. Connoisseurs would even drink Kölsch from smaller (0.1 L) glasses, called "Stößche" (Cologne dialect noun for a German noun "Stößchen" = little push), as the taste of Kölsch deteriorates rather quickly while it is sitting in the glass. Since 1936 Kölsch has also been available in bottled form, and nowadays some brands are even sold in cans, much to the chagrin of traditionalists.

See also

• German beer

External links

• Kölsch-Konvention
• Deutsche Brauer Bund description of Kölsch
• Brewery tours in Cologne