by Cölner Hofbräu P. Josef Fruh
Here’s a new brewery to our beer club, though it has been around a while. Commencing operations back in 1904, Peter Joseph Früh was the man responsible for starting the Colnër Hofbräu P. Josef Früh brewery in the city of Cologne. Ironically, his first brewing project was started a few years earlier in 1895, but the Cologne administration failed to grant his dispensing licence due to lack of demand!
Now managed by the 5th generation of the family, the brewery continues to supply its flagship kolsch not only to the locals of Cologne, but to beer citizens of the world.
Kolsch is such an uncomplicated beer: beautifully simple, clean and (hopefully) fresh. It is a beer that is easy enough to drink all afternoon, but still flavoursome and interesting enough to have pint after pint.
The aroma is of grassy hops, grainy malt and a little citrus. In the flavour there is the early malt sweetness, crisp and light but still inviting. Well carbonated, it dances across the taste buds drying out as it continues back and offers hop bitterness and a little spicy tingle in the aftertaste.
A plate of cheese and crackers, or a big pretzel if you’re really lucky and this beer can transport you to a German beer hall, at least for as long as its lasts.