California Kölsch

Bottle from World Market Microbrew sampler; nose of grainy malt; yellow gold with a medium yellowish head; flavor has some grainy malt and a little hop bitterness. Nothing spectacular but decent.

Somethig of a floral hop aroma. Dark brassy color with a white head that left quickly. Medium bodied. Starts with something of a wheat character. Malt not particularly noticeable. Rather dry. The finish is lightly bitter. Overall it has fruit and bitter. The sort of thing that would not be surprising over the pond.

Thanks to droopy49 for this one. This medium copper brew is topped by a large white head that leaves sticky patterns on the glass. Light bready malt aroma. The flavor is lightly sweet with a bit of hop bitterness. Light palate that finishes dry. Overall this beer just never gets going. Very light, thin and bland. Below average for the style and way below the expectations I have for what this brewery can do.

Draught at the Pizza Port (Solana Beach). Clear golden. Fruity with notes of melon. Sweet, and somewhat perfumy with clean mouthfeel and straight forward malt character. Medium bitterness. Lagerlike.

Draft - This one’s easy to drink with some decent malty flavors, but it’s really too light on flavor all the way around. The puzzling part is that it calls itself a pale ale and yet lacks the assertive hops characteristic of that style. I wanted a pale ale and ended up disappointed.

2005 bomber as a generous bonus from Herbjones, consumed on 11/12/05. Pours a gold-to-light-copper, with some deep hay-yellow tinges, clear, bubbly and with a large amount of white head that has low to moderate retention and creates minimal spotty lacing. Aroma smells of dry, lightly sourish wheat malt, dry yellow fruit skins, apples and just a bit of honey. Hops are sweaty/musty. Some light sourdough notes as well. Flavor shows the similar sweaty/musty hops, with a fair crisp yeast presence, husky grains and a touch of yellow apple skins and wheat dryness. Very foamy texture, as in their amber (and probably most of their beers), showing forced carbonation. Not quite as substantial and wheat-chewy as I expect a kolsch to be. Low bitterness. Some dry, papery notes on the texture muddle the finish.

(Bottle 65 cl) Beautifully fully golden beer with a small, creamy head. Pronounced sweetish, malty nose. Very pronounced sweet, malty flavours and a very light body. Absolutely no bitterness. A true beer for summer. 170705

Draft. Amber beer with a nice white head. Faint malt/hop aroma. Malt flavor comes through (somewhat bready). Low hop bitterness, and what there is shows up as grassy and citrus.