Green Flash West Coast IPA

Origonaly Publish July 2010

Recently America celebrated its 234^th birthday accompanied, as usual, by miserably hot and humid weather, explosives and lots of beer. As a bit of relief from the weather, this week I have chosen a West Coast style India Pale Ale (IPA) from Green Flash brewery called the West Coast IPA. I enjoy drinking IPAs during the summer because the sharp bitterness of this style give me a bit of a jolt, allowing me to briefly forget the humidity.

The India Pale Ale style was developed in England in the 18^th century at the height of the British Empire. The most popular story of the creation of this beer is that the levels of both alcohol and hops were increased to preserve the beer during the long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope en route to India. This story is lent some credibility by the inherent antibiotic nature of both alcohol and hops, however there are reports that other styles of beer survived the journey as well. Regardless of who created the first beer, this style was popular in the British export markets, and was being brewed in Australia, America and Canada before the beginning of the 20^th century.

New life was breathed into this style in the United States during the microbrewery revival in the past twenty years or so, as the American public has become more adventurous. Gradually some drinkers began to crave more and more of the hop character that they could taste in Pilsners, and the brewers turned to the IPA. In the early 1990s Vinnie Cilurzo of Blind Pig Brewing Company (currently of Russian River Brewing Company) and other West Coast brewers such as Rogue Ales fully Americanized the style by switching to local hop strains and further increasing the levels of both alcohol and hops.

This style should be very hop focused and quite dry, although some malt character should be present. The aroma should be quite intense and of an American hop variety, although the character will vary with the specific variety of hops used and are often described as citrusy, piney, fruity or resinous. The beer should be clear with a copper to light gold color, as well as having a long lasting, off-white head. Both hop flavor and bitterness should be medium to high, and some fruity tastes are acceptable. The malt character in this beer should medium to low with a relatively dry finish, since the sweetness is only meant to balance the hopiness. The carbonation should be moderate to medium-high, giving an overall smooth, medium bodied mouthfeel. The West Coast samples of this style typically utilize extra hops, and are often dry-hopping (adding additional hops during fermentation) to increase the hop aroma.

Green Flash Brewing Company is based in the town of Vista in San Diego County, California. The West Coast IPA is currently their flagship beer, and is distributed on both the East and West coasts. The breweries website states that Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial and Cascade hops are all utilized, giving the beer a blend of different hop characters instead of one distinct type. The glassware of choice for this style is a typical pint glass.

The beer pours a clear copper color, although you must be careful not to pour out the bottom of the bottle due to the yeast sediment (circulating this yeast is appropriate for some wheat beers, but not this style). Head coloration was slightly off white and disappeared more quickly than expected for the style, although a single layer of bubbles remained until the beer was finished. The aroma has distinct piney and resinous notes, but contains the complex and vegetative scent associated with dry hopping. The taste is quite bitter, but is balanced underneath with a solid, slightly sweet malt character. Due to the emphasis on dry hopping and various hop tastes and aromas, this beer should be consumed soon after purchase, as the hop character tends to fade over time.

Overall, I found the beer to be surprising well balanced for an IPA, with the malt flavor providing an excellent base without stealing from the hop character of the beer. This is probably my all-time favorite IPA, and I recommend it to any hop-heads, or to anyone who wants to find out what hops taste like.

Reissdorf Kolsch

My very first article, printed in June, 2010

In deference to the first day of summer, and the accompanying warmth of the past week, I needed to find a beer that is refreshing in nature. The classic beer style for this is the ubiquitous golden lager, which includes Pilsners as well as American beers such as Budweiser, but instead I decided to try an example of the often overlooked Kölsch style named Reissdorf Kölsch.

The Kölsch style was developed around the beginning of the 20^th century in the city of Cologne, Germany, where it became available as an alternative to the German Pilsner lagers of the time. The style slowly grew more popular over the course of the last century, rebounding strongly after the destruction of the vast majority of the breweries during World War II. The name Kölsch is now a protected designation of origin, which limits the production to breweries in and around the style’s native town of Cologne; however, the United States, as well as many other countries outside the European Union, do not recognize or enforce the PDO, so some breweries have begun to produce local examples of the style. In 1986, the remaining 24 breweries in Cologne producing Kölsch created the Kölsch convention, a code of competition that now regulates all market developments for the Kölsch style, which describes the beer as a “light, highly attenuated, hop-accentuated, clear top-fermenting Vollbier.”

The Reissdorf Kölsch is brewed by the Privatbrauerei Henrich Reissdorf, which was founded in 1894 by Heinrich Reißdorf in the Severinsviertel quarter of Cologne. In 1998 the company moved to a new facility where they now produce over 500,000 barrels per year. The brewery is still family owned and operated, and is currently continuing into the fourth generation. The brewery has helped to create the Kölsch style from earlier Wiess beers, which had significantly more wheat and yeast characteristics.

The Kölsch style utilizes a top-fermenting ale yeast but is often brewed at the lower temperatures typical of lagers, after which the beer is stored cold for a month or more to allow particulates to settle out. The lower temperature fermentation suppresses the production of esters, preventing an overly-fruity aroma in the beer, although the presence of some fruity characteric is common. The hop aroma is optional in this style, and if it is present it should be from one of the noble hops. The beer should appear clear and light golden in color with a delicate white head that may quickly disperse. The beer should taste soft and rounded, balancing a slightly sweet malt flavor with a dry finish and hints of fruity esters. Overall this should be a clean, crisp delicately balanced beer with hints of fruitiness, although it is commonly mistaken for a weak Pilsner.

This beer should be served at a cellar temperature, or roughly 50°F, and the glass of choice is called a Stange. This piece of glassware has traditionally been made specifically for serving Kölsch, possessing vertical sides with a large height to diameter ratio but a small overall volume of only 0.2 Liters.

The beer pours with a thin white head which slowly dissipates, leaving a ring against the glass but no lacing on the sides. The beer is clear with no haze, which is not surprising since this beer has been lagered and filtered, and has a light golden color. There is surprising little aroma, although malt and a very faint scent of pear are evident. The carbonation level is moderately high, although the mouth feel is surprisingly creamy for this level of carbonation, almost reminiscent of a nitrogen beer. The first taste is a malty sweetness but this quickly disappears, leaving a dry finish with a hint of biscuity malt flavor. When first served there was little or no bitterness, but a slightly bitter finish became evident as the beer warmed. Overall, the beer was clean and light with a slightly creamy mouth feel and pleasant malt focus, although hop bitterness and a trace of fruity aroma were evident.

This is actually my first taste of a traditional Kölsch, and I must say that I was surprised. The beer is quite well rounded, and yet provided a refreshing crispness on a hot day. I recommend trying this style over the summer as a counterpoint to the more common pilsner, especially when you have some time to relax and appreciate the complex balance of the beer.