Sep 09 2008
Having to Rethink Kolsch
One thing that Internet users like is lists. I’m not that fond of writing them but I try to give my users what they want. So from time to time I pull together a “top ten” list for my About.com site.
In this case I’m reconsidering my Top Ten German Beer Styles list. I included Kolsch, not because I’m such a fan of the style but because it’s relatively popular and has a compelling story. But it is also not very widely exported outside of Germany – or Koln (Cologne), come to think of it.
Anyway, I was reading today and came across a factoid that while I knew it I’d never considered it with respect to this list. Kolsch, which also refers to a dialect of German spoken around Koln, is a regional specific term. It was deliberately chosen by the brewers of the area to describe the beer that they make and they made it clear that they were not interested in seeing beers brewed elsewhere baring the same name. (Think Champagn or Scotch.) Obviously American brewers have chosen to ignore this.
And in my list I gave an American brewed Kolsch as a commercial example of the style. It is. And I think that this is more likely that one of my readers will be able to find it. So should I leave it or not? I tend to respect things like regional food names but I want to give my readers the information.
