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In our new episode we review Konverter Kolsch. A kolsch by Whitestone Brewery while discussing Ludacris in Austin, Vigilante Gastropub and Games, and Cutter trying to figure out the internet.
Music for the show:
Evil Eye/ The Stranger Rides Tonight by Daddy Long Legs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
Bottle of Beer by simon_mathewson is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.
Show Notes:
Kolsch
Tonight we are drinking Konverter Kolsch by Whitestone Brewery.
Konverter Kolsch is a year round offering from Whitestone.
They use Kolsch yeast along with Pilsner malt and noble German hops to brew a light, extremely clear, and crisp beer. At 4.7% ABV is has a mild malt sweetness and a low, earthy hop aroma. It’s goal is to convert one taste bud at a time.
Whitestone
Whitestone is located in Cedar Park on Whitestone Blvd. Apparently there is a large limestone quarry in Cedar Park. The stone is so ingrained in everyone’s life it’s in their homes, the place they work, and now their beer. Limestone is a signature of the community and that is what Whitestone brewery is striving to be.
Kolsch
Kolsch is a style of beer brewed in Cologne, Germany.
It is a clear, top-fermented beer, warm fermented and then conditioned by lagering, with a bright, straw-yellow hue similar to other beers brewed with Pilsner malt.
So Kolsch means “from Cologne”. In Cologne they have been brewing for at least a thousand years. But back in 1603 the brewers of Cologne decided to forgo the lagering brewing methods that were so popular in Germany at the time and passed a law stating that only top-fermented ales were to be brewed. A law just as strict as the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516.
No one is sure why they decided to go against the grain. Some believe that without refrigeration they did not have the proper climate to fine tune temperatures well enough for cold fermentation.
Maybe they just wanted to be different? You know those crazy Germans. So free-spirited and moving to the beat of their own drummer.
What makes a Kolsch a Kolsch is defined by an agreement between members of the Cologne Brewery Association also known as the Kolsch Konvention.
The Kolsch Konvention was started in 1986 to prevent foreign breweries from brewing faulty, fake, or watered-down Kolsch.
The Kolsch Konvention determines that Kolsch is not only a type of beer but also a designation of origin. Kolsch can only be brewed and sold by breweries within 50km of Cologne with the exception of breweries that had been brewing Kolsch for many years before the Kolsch Konvention.
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