Montag, 30. November 2015

Kölsch und Altbier: Neither Ale nor Lager

Discuss.

Okay then, I will. As a Yank, I grew up knowing that these were ales, since they’re top-fermented. The Yankee brewing universe has two basic kinds of beer: ale and lager. The absolute split between top- and bottom-fermenting yeast defines a beer as one or the other. Thus, bock, schwarzbier, Pils, hell(es), dunkel/dunkles are all "lagers" and pale ale, stout, porter, barleywine, bitter, and the various top-fermented German beers are all "ales".

But then as I started to get more familiar with British views on beer, I started hearing the bizarre idea that Kölsch and Alt are in fact "lagers". They’re lagered, you see, cold-conditioned, and this over-rules the type of yeast used.

And, I think, "ale" has a more specific connotation to Britons than it does to Yanks. Something more to do with style, perhaps. "Ale" is British in origin, "top-fermenting" is technical.

Living in Germany, I’ve asked numerous people about this, both men in the street (more accurately, in the Biergarten) and those that know a thing or two about beer. None have said Kölsch is a lager, rather, a top-fermented beer.

It seems to me that Germans just don’t have the same distinct idea of "ale" as a separate entity to "top-fermented beer", in fact, the word doesn’t really properly exist in German outside of a British context. There’s "obergäriges/untergäriges Bier" (top/bottom-fermented beer) and then there are the various styles of top-fermented beer like Gose, Weizen-/Weißbier, Alt, and Kölsch.

To Germans, "Lager" is a sort of group of styles of bottom-fermented beer consisting of what would be considered Hell, Dunkel, and Export here, within a range of 10 - 14° Plato, but not including well-hopped beer like Pils, nor particularly roasted-malt beer like Schwarzbier. At least, that’s been my experience talking to brewers and drinkers.

So a German would never say Kölsch is an "ale", because that would imply it’s British, assuming the German in question even knows what ale is. But nor do they say it’s a "lager", since that would imply it’s bottom-fermented and grouped with Hell & Export. And so Germans have a distinct classification for them: Kölsch and Altbier.

So that’s settled then.

 (Adapted from a post to a ratebeer discussion forum.)

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