If you’ve ever opened a bottle of Bordeaux, Champagne, or Vouvray or poured a dram of Scotch you’ve experienced something we don’t often talk about in the craft beer world: appellations. Appellations exist in many different formats and industries, and they are essentially rules defining a product. They limit various aspects of the products they define including ingredients, process, and the amount that can be produced, but what almost all of them have in common is a geographic region where they can be made. Kölsch–named after Cologne, the Rhine Valley German city it comes from–is one of the very few appellations we have in the beer world (see Trappist Ales for another), and the motivation for its existence is rooted deeply in the history of Cologne and a desire for the best quality beer.

Cologne was the site for some of the very first labor organizations in Medieval Europe. From the early 1100s through the late 1300s, various groups of tradesmen began organizing into guilds to gain political and economic power. This may have been in part a response to the laws and taxes of the time, which encouraged brewers to make weaker beer because they were taxed based on the amount of malt they used. Beer quality suffered (anybody want a 1% ABV beer made with birch bark, dead leaves, and soil?…good because we won’t be pouring any of that) and by the beginning of the sixteenth century several laws began defining purity standards for beer. The iconic 1516 reinheitsgebot or “beer purity law” of Bavaria is the most famous example, but Cologne had its own law in 1495 banning gruit (a precursor beer that was bittered with herbs).

Fast forward several centuries–and several devastating wars and foreign takeovers–and Cologne’s brewers gradually merged into a single brewing lane during the middle decades of the last century. What emerged was a light-bodied, crisp, and dangerously crushable beer brewed with ale yeast but lagered like most of the beer brewed elsewhere in Germany. In 1986, 24 breweries within a 50K radius of Cologne Cathedral formed another guild of sorts, signing the Kölsch Konvention that continues to define what Kölsch is, who can make it, and even how it should be served: in a 200ml (6.5-ounce) thin glass called a Stange (we asked…and no it doesn’t come with a sippy cup lid) that must have the word “Kölsch” on it. 

Cologne bartenders place 12-24 empty Stange glasses in a round serving tray called a “Kranze” (or wreath) and rotate / fill all glasses from a tapped 30 liter keg.  Wait staff won’t ask if you want another. They will replace any empty Stange with a full one unless you place a coaster over the top of your Stange.

This is one of those beers that thrives on elegant simplicity. Ironically, this makes it one of the most difficult styles to brew because one small change in ingredients or process and you’ve missed the bull’s eye. It’s hard to imagine Kölsch’s powerful appeal unless you’ve been to Cologne and drank a few (dozen) stanges full, but pull up to the bar and try ours…we think it’s a damn close second.