Koelsch: UK suppliers?

Grand Union brewery in Hayes do a Kolsch-style beer. It's a few years since I've had the real stuff in Cologne so I couldn't vouch for its authenticity, but it's a nice beer. Turns up at beer festivals but I couldn't say how frequently it appears on draught in pubs.

Cheers,

Martin

Just remembered. Sainsburys sell (or sold) bottles of a Kolsch-style beer brewed by the Maritime (?) brewery, Greenwich. Had some last year but it wasn't as good as the real stuff, IMHO.

Bruce

I've just been to Sainsburys and bought some. sainsbury "Taste the Diffrence" Cologne Style Lager. 4 x 330 ml bottles. £3.99. Brewed by Meantime brewery, Greenwich using Cologne hops or summat. Will re-test them tonight.

PS: Also in the "Taste the Difference" range is some Vienna-style amber lager. Is this a cloudy/wheat beer? They also have raspberry wheat beer and Munich-style wheat beer in the range.

Bruce

No, oddly enough it's a Vienna-style amber lager.

Ian Dalziel a écrit :

Indeed, a lager with so-called Vienna malt in it, giving it a nice rich caramel-like edge. :o)

And BTW, weizenbiers are not lagers, but ales, yup, top-fermenting yeast !

They do have one outlet of thier own . The Greenwich Union ,Royal Hill ,Greenwich. Had a pleasant afternoon there a couple of months back after a visit to the Brewery which is actually located in Charlton.

G.Harman

The White Horse at Parsons Green has been known to carry Früh on draught (keg, not gravity pour).

You didn't find any of the brewpubs or the two Mommseneck places, then?

The North Bar in Leeds sells Früh Koelsch in half litre bottles.

The Bottle Stop off-licence in Bramhall, Cheshire stocks a wide range of German beers, often including one or more varieties of Kölsch.

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Beer2go, Bury St Edmunds stocks Kuppers

Ale-Fan

I'm based in West Yorks, so maybe worth a trip to Leeds. I also remember that there is a "yuppy" bar in Sheffield, in the main shopping area near the cathedral that used to sell koelsch on draft.

Anyway, this thread has decided my "spring offensive". Cheapo flight to Cologne, a couple of days supping koelsch, then train over to Antwerp, couple of days supping de Koeninck. maybe stop off in Dusseldorf on the way...

Bruce

The Albany at the top of Great Portland Street in London had it on when I was in before Christmas. Seemed a bit bland though.

Sounds like a good plan of action, but you could have had the De Koninck from cask in Wetherspoons in Dewsbury last night - at 99p a pint (as were all the other cask ales). It was in fine form, too :-)

On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 13:22:57 +0000, bruce snipped-for-privacy@my-deja.com wrote (in message ):

On the subject of supermarket own-brand beer has anyone tried Tesco's "Finest French" (why French?) wheat beer which lists wheat starch, glucose syrup, hop extracts and hop pellets on the ingredients.

Can it really be "finest" or are these acceptable ingredients?

Antwerp,

I have just looked up train times from Cologne -- seems its 3hrs even by fast train to Antwerp. I forgot that Antwerp is the other side of Brussels. I may just settle for a Cologne-Dusseldorf intinerary. Any other decent drinking towns in the Ruhr area?

(*) Cue obvious joke -- did you ask the bar man for ein bollecke? Bruce

It's a farce isn't it and quite insulting to the customer.

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:18:25 +0000, loobyloo wrote (in message ):

I don't want to sound like I've got a chip on my shoulder about wine but we know they wouldn't treat their wine drinking customers like that.

It's sort of north of Brussels. Break your journey at Liege and do the Vaudree at Angleur. 1000 beers, 40+ of them on draught, good food, never closes. Antwerp is still worth the trek - wonderful beery city!

The bar on the railway station at St. Josef Olen, East of Antwerp is worth a stop-off too, just for the experience, although they have quite a large range of bottled beers too (self-service). Look out for the weird opening hours, though.

There's an Altbier brewhouse in Krefeld, but it's keg rather than cask. Nice beer though. Pinkus Mueller's brewpub in Muenster is worth a visit too - Pils-coloured Altbier, very pleasant. The bar there seemed to be a bit of a gay bar when I was there - that's just for info.

No - it was a lady, and she'd probably have got a mite upset.

Thanks, Mike. Liege is a possibility. 3hrs to Antwerp eats up a lot of time from my itinerary (unless I get an early train).

Looking at the map, within striking distance of Cologne are the German towns of Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Bonn. Also Belgium/Holland border towns such as Liege, Maastricht. Any of these towns good for beer lovers?

Bruce