Cologne is a bustling city on the Rhine river is known for its huge Gothic cathedral, Roman ruins, Carnival celebration (rivaling New Orleans' Mardi Gras), and most importantly, Kolsch. Kolsch is Cologne's own beer style and it is brewed by 21 different breweries. This makes Cologne the city with the most breweries in the world! (although Denver and Portland are catching up fast) What is unusual about this is that all of these breweries brew the same style of beer.

Kolsch is a pale colored ale of normal alcohol strength. It may contain some wheat, and has from 22 to 28 I.B.U.s of bitterness. German Tettnang or Spalt hops are typically used for aroma. It is made very much like a pilsner, except that it is fermented at warm temperatures with ale yeast. It is then lagered like a pilsner. It tastes very much like a pils, except for the subdued fruitiness of the ale yeast, the tang of the wheat (in some), and the lack of lager-like sulfur aromas.

It is customarily served in small (6.5 oz) tall cylindrical glasses. This makes it very easy to order another one, and hard to keep count. The waiter (known as a kurbis, and clad in traditional white shirt and blue apron) keeps count by marking your coaster for each one you drink. Traditional foods to have with a Kolsch are Kolsch caviar (a roll with butter), A halve hahn (a roll with cheese), sauerbraten, and potato pancakes with apple sauce (Wednesdays only).

Why should there be 21 Kolsch breweries? At first all the beers seem very similar. After spending some time in Cologne you start to pick up on big differences. Malzmuhle (my favorite) is the maltiest, Paffgen has a big hop nose. Fruh, by the Cathedral, is extremely delicate. Sion is soft and Sunner has a perfect hop balance.

So where can you taste a Kolsch? There are no Kolsches being imported into the United States. So you could fly to Cologne. A better idea is to come to Ballast Point Brewing Company and try our Yellowtail Pale Ale Kolsch. We make it with 5% Wheat, finish hop it with Liberty and Tettnanger hops, and ferment it with a yeast we borrowed from a brewery in Cologne. So come on in and enjoy a taste of the Rhineland!!

The Calico Amber Ale was inspired by the beers of England. In England most of the beer is some kind of "bitter".  Bitter is a style that became popular in the late 1800's. The most famous examples are brewed in Burton on Trent.  This hard water gives these beer a pleasantly dry bitter finish, hence the name "bitter."  A brewery usually brews several bitters of various alcohol strengths.  The lowest in alcohol (and usually flavor) is called "bitter" or "ordinary bitter."  A step up in alcohol and hop character gives us "best bitter" or "special bitter."  Finally a beer is made that is full of hop aroma and flavor, has a maltyness to match, and a generous amount of alcohol is called an "extra special bitter" or E.S.B. 

Although inspired by the British Ales  Ballast Point Calico Amber Ale uses distinctive American hops, which give not only the crisp bitterness to balance the malt, but also a hint of floral aroma. We brew Calico Amber Ale with 100% malt and use 4 different malts to give it a rich complexity.  The blend of crystal  malts give it flavors including toffee and caramel.  A blend of American Cascade and Centennial hops provide a counterpoint to the malt.  Finally our proprietary yeast provides a fruity background and a Madeira like richness that rounds out this gold medal winning ale.

India Pale Ale is a style of beer that was developed in England during the period of the British Empire. It is derived from bitter ales but contains even more alcohol and hops. This helped preserve the beer on its long sea journey around Cape Hope to India.
British troops returning from India brought their love of this beer back with them so breweries began brewing it for the home market as well. Sadly, the style had mostly died out in England by the late twentieth century.
American home brewers began to brew I.P.A. because of their love for the intense hoppiness of the style. In time American I.P.A. became much more aggressively bitter and hoppy than their historical predecessors.

Big Eye I.P.A. is our version of this wonderful style.  American Centennial hops are  used exclusively to bitter, flavor, finish, and dry hop the Big Eye. Its full hop flavor is guaranteed to please the palate of the true hop head.

Black Marlin Porter
(Dark, creamy, velvet smooth American style Porter we brewed this beer because we couldn't find it anywhere else!) 

Porters are a style of beer that developed in London in the mid 1800's.   It has a confusing and difficult to sort out history. We know that some Porters began as a bartender's blend of three ales that would be ordered as "three strands."  Breweries caught on to the popularity of the blend and began to brew beers having the characteristics of the blend. This popular beer became known as Porter, because railroad porters were its biggest fans. 

A typical London workingman's meal of the time might have consisted of Porter, bread, and oysters (which were then considered to be lower class fare).  As different styles of Porters developed, one of the most popular was dry porter, which emphasized the use of roasted barley. This type of Porter eventually became known as Stout.  Today the use of roasted barley distinguishes Stouts from Porters.

Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter is a rich dark chocolaty Porter with a distinctive American hop character.  It is a great beer to go with hearty foods and is surprisingly one of the few beers that goes well with dessert. One of our favorite combinations here at Ballast Point is Black Marlin Porter with apple pie a la mode.

White beers are an old Belgian beer style that come from a region near Liege centered on the small town of Hoegaarden. In the 1800's there were 30 white beer breweries in this region. Then Belgian brewing went through a period of consolidation and homogenization. By the early sixties there were no Wit beer breweries left. Pierre Celis reopened Hoegaarden's brewery in 1966 and began a worldwide revival of the style. Recently Celis moved to Austin, Texas and opened Celis Brewing Company, thus bringing this style to the United States. For a few months Celis White was distributed in San Diego, but then distribution was stopped. Avid fans like Ballast Point Brewmaster Peter A'Hearn and Yuseff Cherney were left to brew their own. Through long trial and error we developed a recipe that does justice to the old Belgian tradition, now sold in San Diego as Ballast Point Wahoo Wheat Beer. Ballast Point Wahoo Wheat Beer is created using the same ingredients that were once used in Belgium. Flaked unmalted wheat, oats and malted barley comprise the grain. The unmalted wheat has a high protein content, which causes the beer to be hazy, thus giving it a cloudy, or "white" appearance. A special yeast gives a refreshing tangy flavor that is different from both the sour Weiss beers of Berlin or the banana and clovey Weizens of Bavaria. The mild hopping allows the unique malts to show through and does not conflict with the subtleties of the citrus spicing. This unique citrus character is created by adding a blend of curacao (bitter orange), sweet orange and coriander to the boil. White beers are light and refreshing, yet provide a complex reminder that interesting high quality beer does not have to be bitter and dark. Ballast Point Wahoo Wheat Beer is the perfect beer for sunny San Diego.

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Tuesday, August 14, 2007 04:20:12 PM