[gordonstrong]

Kolsch will most likely become one of my house beers. The simplicity coupled with great flavor won me over immediately. Now that we're going into summer a big batch is in order.

+1

I need to brew one up for the summer. Great on a hot day.

+1, or a cream ale.  Which I make depends on the ambient fermentation temp.  Warmer, I make the cream ale.  Cooler, I make the Kolsch. (Yes, I've always known it needs an umlaut; how do you insert one in this interface?  HTML codes and alt codes don't seem to work)

[tschmidlin]

(Yes, I've always known it needs an umlaut; how do you insert one in this interface?  HTML codes and alt codes don't seem to work)

I find it easiest to just copy and paste it from somewhere.

[oscarvan]

Alt U works for me..... But it's a Staples USB keyboard on a MAC.....

[gordonstrong]

(Yes, I've always known it needs an umlaut; how do you insert one in this interface?  HTML codes and alt codes don't seem to work)

I find it easiest to just copy and paste it from somewhere.

"When in doubt, use brute force."  -- Ken Thompson

[anthony]

Last summer/fall, I had the opportunity to taste all of the "classic" examples of pub Kolsch in Koln and I think the biggest difference between most homebrew versions and those versions is the clarity...

I only wish more judges would make this trip because the style does have a lot more range (not in appearance/color so much as flavor/esters) than most judges (or their scoresheets) would have you believe....

[hopfenundmalz]

Yes, Koelsch can be very different between the breweries.  Altbier can also be very different from place to place in Duesseldorf.

Herr Strong may have something to add. 

[malzig]

(Yes, I've always known it needs an umlaut; how do you insert one in this interface?  HTML codes and alt codes don't seem to work)

I use "option-u", then "o", but I've never been able to find a way to do it in Windows within a browser without cutting and pasting from Word.  However, "Koelsch" is perfectly acceptable by German spelling conventions and not uncommon.

[anthony]

Yes, Koelsch can be very different between the breweries.  Altbier can also be very different from place to place in Duesseldorf.

Herr Strong may have something to add. 

Yep. We hit all of the classic pub Alts in Dusseldorf too.. I'd highly recommend anyone visiting one of the two cities consider just visiting both since they are just a short train ride from each other.

[pfooti]

(Yes, I've always known it needs an umlaut; how do you insert one in this interface?  HTML codes and alt codes don't seem to work)

I use "option-u", then "o", but I've never been able to find a way to do it in Windows within a browser without cutting and pasting from Word.  However, "Koelsch" is perfectly acceptable by German spelling conventions and not uncommon.

Windows extended character set entry is a lot less intuitive. What you have to do is make sure your numlock is on, hold down alt, and hit 148 on the numpad. Then release the alt, that should stick in a ö at the insertion point. 153 gets you Ö. There are tables on the interwebs for alt kepad entry codes for ascii characters.

[gordonstrong]

(Yes, I've always known it needs an umlaut; how do you insert one in this interface?  HTML codes and alt codes don't seem to work)

I use "option-u", then "o", but I've never been able to find a way to do it in Windows within a browser without cutting and pasting from Word.  However, "Koelsch" is perfectly acceptable by German spelling conventions and not uncommon.

Windows extended character set entry is a lot less intuitive. What you have to do is make sure your numlock is on, hold down alt, and hit 148 on the numpad. Then release the alt, that should stick in a ö at the insertion point. 153 gets you Ö. There are tables on the interwebs for alt kepad entry codes for ascii characters.

Using a windows laptop without a separate numbers pad.  Tried using function keys to get the alternate keypad, but that didn't work.

I have it set up in Word to do an autocorrect whenever I type Koln, Kolsch, Dusseldorf, etc.  So I'm used to typing them that way.  Adding an e after everything is something I'll almost always forget to do.  On a Mac at home right now, so the option-u/o works: see ö.  So Köln, Kölsch, Düsseldorf...  Windows sucks but I don't get a choice to use what I want where I work.

[gordonstrong]

Yes, Koelsch can be very different between the breweries.  Altbier can also be very different from place to place in Duesseldorf.

Herr Strong may have something to add. 

+1

OK, I guess you wanted something more?  Yes, they were all quite different.  I was amazed at how different Kölsch was from place to place.  There were a few attributes that people would change, but they would only vary by small amounts.  However, those changes would make a completely different beer.  I took very detailed notes because I was trying to bound those various attributes to put into the 2008 BJCP guidelines.  So if you look at things like hop aroma, hop flavor, esters, malt flavor, body, dryness, etc., you'll see ranges.  That's what I learned from going around to all the various breweries in Köln.  Same thing in Düsseldorf.  Same trip.  The interesting thing there was that most breweries had small variations like in Köln, except for Zum Uerige.  They were way different.  The older (pre-2004) BJCP guidelines were written for that one beer, but most examples there aren't like it.  It's an amazing beer, but it's sort of like the Fuller's ESB of Düsseldorf.

So basically what I learned in those two cities shows up in the 2008 BJCP guidelines.  If you see the changes between 2004 and 2008, the difference was that I went there to validate what was actually produced at the source.