Tasti

Watching the 2021/22 AFC Championship on a chilly Sunday afternoon (this seemingly endless backlog is wild! It's week 4 of the 2022 season as I post this!), I wanted something crisp and low-octane, so I opted for a 355mL can of Tasti, a kölsch-style beer from Toronto’s Eastbound Brewing Co. Tasti clocks in at just 4.5%. It’s a straw gold brew with a layer of white suds.

Tasti has a floral aroma with cracker and toast elements and just a hint of grain sweetness. The flavour is understated, but agreeable, with lots of grain, some sweetness, and a quick, dry finish.

Nice, refreshing, and light brewski.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Sunny Afternoon Lagered Ale

Granite Brewery’s FVX Series comes Sunny Afternoon Lagered Ale. The 4.7%, 27 IBU kölsch-style beer comes in 473mL cans and also from Toronto, Ontario. It’s a clear golden brew with a sudsy white crown.

Sunny Afternoon features honey and malt aromatics. It has a sweet flavour, characterized by honey and clover notes, and a short, dry finish.

This is a fairly charming little lagered ale. A bit too sweet, perhaps, but a refreshing brew. A great warm weather tipple.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Adaptation Sabro Dry-Hopped Kölsch

Brewed in scenic Gravenhurst, Ontario at Sawdust City Brewing Co., Adaptation Sabro Dry-Hopped Kölsch is a 5.5%, 20 IBU beer that also contains Magnum and Spalt hops. The beer, sold in 473mL cans, pours a hazy golden colour with a sudsy shock of white foam.

Adaptation a sweet and engaging aroma, backed with a tickle of floral hops. The beer has a smooth texture and an interesting flavour. It’s sweet, initially, progressing to an earthy, botanical finish. The dry-hopping adds a richness, but, it should be said, might impact the potential crispness of the underlying Kölsch-style brew.

I thought Sawdust City’s Adaptation was an enjoyable little beer with a quirky flavour and texture mix. I enjoyed my cans and I’d gladly buy it again.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Clean Cut Inspired by Kölsch

Clean Cut Inspired by Kölsch is, as you’d imagine, a Kölsch-style ale from Ottawa, Ontario’s Beyond the Pale Brewing. A 5% alcohol brew, CC comes in 473mL red, white, and blue cans. The beer inside is a cloudy straw gold number with a thin nimbus of white head.

The beer has a pleasantly crisp straw nose, backed with a gust of bitterness. The mouthfeel is a bit thin, but the flavour has grain and hay freshness. For finish, there is a slightly dry hops vibe.

I’d have expected this beer to be a bit clearer. It tastes fresh and fun, but not all that memorable.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Chesterfield

The Ontario beer scene is seeing a boom in kölsch-style ales, and I’m pretty damn fine with that. One such entry I’ve been seeing around lately is Chesterfield from Newmarket’s Arch Brewing Co. The beer comes in 473mL cans and contains a respectable 5.3% alcohol.

True to its pedigree, the beer has a nice golden colour. It’s slightly hazy and pours under a slim layer of white head. It has a clean yet toasty aroma. The flavour is quite mild—grainy with some toasted malt elements. The finish is extremely concise and not super flavourful.

Chesterfield is a comfortable, but not remarkable take on the pride of Cologne. I’ll buy it again, but I’m not really blown away—not nearly as enjoyable as Arch’s Dinner Jacket.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

1857 Kölsch-Style Lagered Ale

The latest in a spate of Ontario-born kölsch-style ales, 1857 Kölsch-Style Lagered Ale comes from Waterloo, where it’s nourished into existence by Abe Erb Brewing Company. A 4.8% alcohol potion, 1857 is a golden ale with a faint touch of haze and a bright white head. It comes in 473mL cans.

The scent is a somewhat pedestrian grain and malt combo, but the flavour has some life and a pretty respectable bitter kick as it closes out.

Pretty crisp and hoppily pleasant, I thought 1857 was a pretty decent take on the classic style from Cologne. A bit more booze would’ve been a welcome plus, but the flavour worked and the freshness quotient was solid. Not a beer I’ll seek out, but one I’ll doubtless buy again.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Adaptation: Mosaic Dry-Hopped Kölsch

For our fifth anniversary, the Bitter Wife and I took a little weekend trip to cottage country. While in Gravenhurst, we dropped into the Sawdust City Brewing Co. for a couple of cold ones to celebrate. While she knocked back some Little Norway Pale Lager, I alternated between a couple of different offerings, but the one that first caught my eye was called Adaptation: Mosaic Dry-Hopped Kölsch.

This take on the kölsch style showed up pale yellow-gold and mostly clear, with a thin cap of off-white head. It had a charming aroma that was both grainy and fruity. The flavour toed that same line, with some soft grain notes cohabiting with a peachy element. The beer culminated with a snappy, dry finish that had some modest hops crackle.

The idea of a dry-hopped kölsch-style ale seems like a strange bird--and to choose a juicy hop like mosaic, instead of a pinier option seemed like an odd choice--but the folks at Sawdust City clearly know their craft (beer), because this stuff was treat. I found it too thin, even for a kölsch-style, but the flavour combination was genuinely enjoyable.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

No Nonsense Lagered Ale

From Tecumseh, Ontario's Frank Brewing Co. comes No Nonsense Lagered Ale, a 5.4% alcohol kölsch-style beer. Sold in 473mL cans, No Nonsense pours clearly,  with a yellow-gold colour and a short-lived white head.

There is a bumpin' toasted malt and sweet grain aroma to greet the nose. The flavour runs along the same lines and the mouthfeel presents a fairly refreshing crackle. The beer finishes somewhat dryly, though not particularly bitter.

I've observed that summer 2017 has seen an explosion of kölsch-style brews hitting the market in Ontario. Frank Brewing's take on the style is a pretty decent interpretation. It has decent strength, a crisp feel, and a nice scent. I'd have liked the flavour to stretch a bit farther and the finish to be a bit hoppier, but despite the minor critiques, I'm likely to buy the stuff again.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Brown Van Kölsch-Style Ale

Brown Van Brewing's Kölsch, or more appropriately their Kölsch-Style Ale is a 4.8%, 23 IBU number from Ottawa, Ontario. It's a crystal clear straw gold ale hat pours with a slim cover of white head.

This kölsch-style brew has the slightly sweet aroma of toasty grain. The flavour profile meanders from sweet and grainy opening notes toward the finish line: a short, dry, and unexpectedly bitter back end.

Because of the sweet to bitter progression and the curtness of the finish, this beer manages to have exemplary crispness without sacrificing much flavour. While perhaps not as style-typical as some of the classics from Cologne, I find Brown Van's version of the tricky little brew to be a novel and noteworthy take. A bit more booze would be nice, but with its current strength, clarity, and brightness, this is the kind of craft beer that might turn heads among the macro lager crowd.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10

Brown Van Kölsch

Brown Van Brewing's Kölsch, or more appropriately their Kölsch-Style Ale is a 4.8%, 23 IBU number from Ottawa, Ontario. It's a crystal clear straw gold ale hat pours with a slim cover of white head.

This kölsch-style brew has the slightly sweet aroma of toasty grain. The flavour profile meanders from sweet and grainy opening notes toward the finish line: a short, dry, and unexpectedly bitter back end.

 

Because of the sweet to bitter progression and the curtness of the finish, this beer manages to have exemplary crispness without sacrificing much flavour. While perhaps not as style-typical as some of the classics from Cologne, I find Brown Van's version of the tricky little brew to be a novel and noteworthy take. A bit more booze would be nice, but with its current strength, clarity, and brightness, this is the kind of craft beer that might turn heads among the macro lager crowd.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10

Rhine Stone Cowboy

The back of the 330mL bottle of Big Rock Brewery's Rhine Stone Cowboy does a better job of describing its label than I ever could, so I'll repeat it here: "A lederhosen wearing, bedazzled 'pardner', strolling along the Rhine ... oh and there's a rooster too." Strange and oddly specific, but that's what you get from this Calgarian kölsch-style ale. 

At 4.6%, it's just a tad below standard, but RSC makes up for that with an assertive nose that blends hearty grains with brown sugar sweetness. Though the nose is burly, the flavour is a little less muscly. It's driven primarily by sweet corn and grain, with a waft of bitterness at the end. The beer poured golden and slightly cloudy. In fact, there was a wisp of yeasty sediment, though that might have been the result of my having left the beer in my fridge for an uncommonly long time.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Kirby's Kölsch

Kirby's Kölsch is an Ontarian Kölsch-style ale brewed with a measure of peach juice. From Bracebridge's Muskoka Brewery, the stuff is gently hazy, straw gold, and topped with an extensively fluffy white head. Sold in bright orange cans containing 473mL of the 4.6% suds, this beer has a relaxed motif--there's a hammock and a lake right on the can.

The beer has a potent grainy aroma that only hints at the inclusion of peach juice in the brew. This beer really didn't taste as I expected it to. I was anticipating a juicy, artificial peachiness. However, I underestimated the skill and subtlety of the brewers at Muskoka. Instead of saccharine and overpowering, this stuff has a peach flavour like a barely audible whisper. Instead, the grainy kölsch flavours are the driving force, leading to a crisp, sensible finish, built around just enough hops to keep things balanced.

This beer is the antithesis of a pubescent teen layering on spritz after spritz of noxious body spray--it uses peach juice sparingly and with a disciplined hand. A little sweet early on, but not worth complaining about. This beer won't necessarily enter my regular repertoire, but I'm confident that I'll revisit it before the warm days are gone, and I'll hope to see it again next summer.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Haters Gonna Hate

A totally new style to me, Haters Gonna Hate is an Imperial Kölsch. At 8% alcohol and 40 IBUs, this lagered ale from Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. has some fiendish heft. According to the label (which features a hipster cat walking a tiny dog), this beer is an extra strong rendition of the Vankleek Hill, Ontario outfit's popular Lug Tread Lagered Ale. Sold in 600mL bottles, this murky orange grog pours with a fluffy white cloud cover.

Haters Gonna Hate is No. 46 in Beau's Wild Oats Series. It has a tremendously engaging nose--one that is thick and sticky with tropical fruit, but also boisterously boozy. The taste walks the same walk, particularly with the recurrence of big fruit notes in the early going. However, ye olde back end of this beer is what surprised and delighted me most. The finish is certainly strong and boozy, but there is also some really interesting, resinous hops that lend an almost IPA feel to this weirdo take on the Kölsch.

In truth, I'm not totally sure what gives this beer its Kölsch-style pedigree, as it tastes nothing like any Kölsch I've ever downed, but it is a flavourful, assertive, and downright fun ale. Add to that the large format and the silly label, and you've got a real winner. Well done, Beau's.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Absent Landlord Country Kolsch

The copy on the side of the 473mL cans that house Absent Landlord Country Kolsch taught me that in 1855, a gent named Henry Blyth bought the entirety of the town of Drummond, Ontario, rechristened it Blyth, and never even visited the damn place. From this anecdote, Absent Landlord gets its name. A Kölsch-style ale from Blyth, Ontario's Cowbell Brewing Co., Absent Landlord features 5.3% alcohol and 18 IBUs. Hazy and orange-gold, it decants with a nicely sudsy off-white head.

Absent Landlord has a sweet and fruity scent that is closely replicated in the flavour. There is something almost wheat-like in the taste, with vague banana notes nestled in with lightly toasted malt. Out back, there are sufficient hops to offer a sense of closure, but little more than that.

While not quite what I expected, Absent Landlord offers a refreshing (literally) take on the Kölsch style. No idea what makes it a "Country Kolsch" other than the fact that Blyth is a rural community. Perhaps it's an attempt to thwart the sticklers in Cologne who insist that a Kölsch must come from their fair city, or perhaps it's because there is a bit of a witbier element. Whatever the case, Cowbell has created an interesting little ale here. I'd buy it again, though I'd be more likely to do so in a timely manner if this beer was a tad less sweet and had fewer banana esters.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Track 85 Lagered Ale

Track 85 Lagered Ale is inspired by Canada's railroads and comes from Toronto, Ontario. This kölsch-style ale is a product of Old Tomorrow Ltd., and features the likeness of our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald on the 473mL cans. At just 4.5%, this brew wades into light beer status.

Clear and aburn-hued, Track 85 pours with a nice eggshell head, but little carbonation. It has a sweet, malty nose, with lots of grain elements. The flavour is similarly oriented, with a sweet, grainy freshness up front. There is very little in the way of bitterness, just a touch at the end, and the finish remains malty and sweet with a glimmer of toastiness.

 

This lagered ale checks many, but not all, of my boxes for the style. It's too sweet, insufficiently strong, and lacks hops pops. However, on the positive side of the ledger, it's extremely sessionable, with an interesting flavour, and an agreeably toasty finish. I'd definitely buy Track 85 again, but I wouldn't call it a tremendous example of the style.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Revivale

Lost Craft Revivale is a Kölsch-style ale, though there is no mention of that particular appellation on the Spartan 473mL can. Rather, the copy on the can refers to its contents as a "premium lagered ale" and as being "inspired by a specialty beer style from Cologne". The brew in question comes from Toronto, Ontario's Lost Craft Brewing Co. It's a cheery pale golden ale, clear, and thickly covered with a frothy layer of loose white head.

Revivale exhibits a fresh, pastoral nose, packing a fair few malt notes and a nice, faintly sweet grain profile. Its mouthfeel is creamy and agreeable, built around a mild flavour. Major tasting notes involve cereal grains, roasted malt, and sweet grass, in advance of a gently bitter finish.

Lost Craft's effort with Revivale is quite similar to another Ontarian lagered ale, Beau's Lug Tread, though it has a little bit less panache. That said, it is a nicely constructed and thoroughly enjoyable beer reminiscent of Cologne's finest. The first beer I've seen in Toronto's beer-selling establishments, I think it's a commendable first effort.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.