Kölsch Is the Beer You Should Be Drinking This Spring

Kölsch isn’t a beer style that elicits excitement from many drinkers, or even brewers. The beer is often thought of as a light, lower-flavored beverage. But that trend has been changing in recent years as brewers new and old have taken a closer look at what separates a great Kölsch from a decent, easy-drinking beer.

What they’ve learned, and subsequently translated into beer, is that the style can show variation, and the delicate complexity can be a real joy for drinkers.

Kölsch has often been used as a catch-all term in the United States for any ale brewed with a Kölsch yeast, no matter the malt or hops used, and sometimes with the addition of fruits and spices. In Cologne, Germany, the birthplace of Kölsch, it’s a bit more defined.

Brewers in Cologne take the style so seriously that they even created a Kölsch Convention in 1986, which stated that Kölsch has to be pale, dry, hoppy and bright. This generally holds true today, though the definition of “hoppy” may be loosely used by some of the larger breweries in the city.

Within the confines of “pale, dry, hoppy and bright,” there is a surprising amount of room for one to play. Few locals know this better than head brewer and operating partner of Idaho Springs-based Westbound & Down Jake Gardner. “I spent about a week in Cologne with the [sole] purpose of drinking different Kölsch around town,” he says. “It’s pretty diverse in terms of flavor. You have Päffgen, which is pretty hop-forward, pretty bitter. Then you have Malzmühle, which is very malt-forward.”
Gardner, along with Bierstadt’s Ashleigh Carter, developed the recipe for Chicago Peaks Kölsch, a beer that won silver at the 2022 Great American Beer Festival. It has a clean bitterness and moderate hop flavor, thanks to the early addition of noble German hops Hallertauer Mittelfruh and Tettnanger, the former helping rein in some of the lemony notes from the latter.

The beer is fermented around 55 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Gardner says restrains some of the pear esters from the yeast. The beer is then treated like Bierstadt treats its lagers, a slow and cold fermentation, followed by a gradual step down, before spending some time at lager temperatures near freezingand eventually getting a run through the filter. The beer is always made at Westbound (Bierstadt doesn’t make ales at its brewery), and customers can expect to see it a few times a year.

One beer that has enjoyed year-round success is Joyride Brewing’s Ice Cutter Kölsch. Prior to founding the Edgewater brewery, owner Dave Bergen experimented on a home-brew scale with a Kölsch recipe. That beer eventually turned into Ice Cutter, named after a little bit of local history.

According to lore, over 150 years ago a local farmer, Thomas Sloan, tapped into a water aquifer while digging a well to irrigate his farmland. This caused a massive flood that turned into what is now Sloan’s Lake, which sits across the street from Joyride. Sloan needed income to replace his farming, so he cut ice from the lake in the winter and sold it to local brewers, many of which were of German descent.
Ice Cutter is consistently a top-three seller for Joyride, which is impressive given the thirst for hoppy beers in the market. Head brewer Tyler Bies feels like its turning point came a few years ago, when the brewery began filtering it, helping bring the delicate flavors into focus. “Unfiltered Kölsch is great, it’s tasty, but the filter brings the beer more toward what I feel a Kölsch should be,” says Bies.

Ice Cutter is a bit maltier than Chicago Peaks, owing to the fact that the beer uses some Vienna malt in the grist. “It adds a little bit of malt complexity,” says Bies. "It darkens it up a touch, while still being able to stay dry.” Both of these beers use pale malt from well-known German maltster Weyermann, and like Chicago Peaks, Ice Cutter is using German noble hops as well. (100 percent Hallertauer Mittelfruh, to be exact.)

Two other Kölsch beers from Colorado that show the range of the style include 8 Second Kölsch from Elevation Beer Company in Poncha Springs and Colorado Kölsch from Steamworks Brewing Company in Durango. These two beers are reminiscent of some of the lighter, smoother, less hop-focused versions in Cologne, like Gilden and Sion. Both are available year-round, and while the breweries are in the mountains, the beers can be found in liquor stores all across the Front Range.
Traditional Kölsch Service

Over in Cologne, Kölsch is served in a tall, thin, 200-milliliter (about 6.8 fluid ounces) glass called a stange. It’s usually the only beer you can get in the brewery, and it is continuously served by a waiter, known as a köbes, in a tray called a kranz. This is what has come to be known as “Kölsch service.”

It is quite the experience in Cologne, and the köbes will continue to replace your empty glass with a fresh one automatically, putting a check mark on your coaster each time, until you signal “stop” by placing the coaster over your glass.

Several breweries in Colorado have done a very good job of replicating this service. Fritz Family Brewers in Niwot began early last summer with Cuckoo for Kölsch, followed by 4 Noses Brewing Company in Broomfield with Kölsch Night.

This year, Burns Family Artisan Ales kicked off service in March with Wilkommen!, a 5.9 percent ABV collaboration with Great Divide that is well worth seeking out.

Visit Burns Family at 2505 West Second Avenue from 3 to 7 p.m. on Sundays to experience Kölsch Service. Fritz Family is starting its Kölsch Service on Wednesdays from 5 to 7 p.m. beginning May 3.

While many breweries see Kölsch as a beer to fill a spot on the menu for an "easy, drinkable, light” option, especially for the typical BMC (Bud/Miller/Coors) customer, rest assured that select brewers in Colorado are taking the style seriously and creating some delicious pale, German-style brews.