#3 Kolsch

Hoping to be ready for the arrival of summer with a lighter bodied, refreshing beer, we at Flightless Bird decided to try our hand at a Kolsch. Cologne, Germany is the home of this specialty German beer that many describe as a cross between an ale and a lager. It looks, and has similar tastes as a lager, but is top fermented like an ale.

My inclination to have this be our next brew came from memories of one summer when I was still an infant in the beer world. I happened upon Goose Island's Summertime, a kolsch. Nothing had tasted that good to me yet, especially with a juicy bratwurst in one hand, and a Summertime in the other.

Our very own kolsch didn't exactly turn out the way my memory would have liked. First and foremost, it was opaque; a sort of faded straw color with a slight orange hue. Kolschs are straw color and crystal clear. The hop head in me found it a bit lacking in that department as well. We also tried something new for us; substituting some of the malt extract in the recipe for dextrose (corn sugar). This is done to increase the alcohol content of the beer. We think it worked. Although the brewmasters out there say that adding dextrose will not add any sweet flavor to your beer, I still felt there was a bit of sweet bite to it. Perhaps we have not let it bottle condition long enough to let the yeast fully convert all of the sugar. Anyways, it was an experiment we tried on our fourth beer as well, but will probably not attempt again. I know, I haven't described much of the taste yet, but it has been over five days since I've had one. You'll probably have to catch me some other time for that. Apparently it didn't leave much of an impression. All in all, not a failed batch by any means. I've enjoyed drinking it and think it will only get better as it ages a few more weeks or months. Time will tell. -nhc