Kölsch, in case you were wondering, is a style of beer brewed only in Cologne. It's a light golden colored ale that goes down real smooth. It is lightly hopped (not a lot of bitterness) and has a delicate hint of malt flavor as well. It's not exactly my favorite style of beer, but it proved to be "the one beer to have when you're having more than one!" And we had our share, believe me!
After checking into our hotel in Cologne, we ventured out for lunch and our night on the town to visit the many Cologne pubs. Our first stop was the Brauerei Früh Am Dom. The beer we had there was, what else, their Früh Kölsch. This was supposed to be a brewpub, but I don't recall seeing any brewing equipment. We learned later that sometimes a pub called themselves a brauerei and had their own Kölsch, but really served a contract brew. That was the case here. This building used to house the Früh brewery, but now it is brewed elsewhere.
We had a snack as well as several rounds of Kölsch. The Kölsch was OK. Nothing to write home about. Being homebrewers, we are used to drinking many different styles of beer. This beer was weak by comparison to some of our favorite styles. However, it was easy to drink, and we weren't complaining.
Another thing to note about drinking Kölsch in Cologne is the glasses. They always server Kölsch in these narrow .2 liter glasses. Compared to pilsner and weisbier glasses, these are tiny. The only good thing is they keep them coming. The server will come around periodically with a tray full of beers. They have a special tray to carry these glasses. The tray has a handle in the middle and round holes around it to fit the Kölsch glasses. The server will swap your empty glasses with full ones from his tray. This is done automatically without having to ask. The server will then place a coaster in the center of the table and draw a mark for each beer he serves. Then when you're ready to pay your bill, the server counts the number of marks and charges you accordingly. The only way to stop them from bringing more beer is either to keep a little bit of beer at the bottom of your glass or put your coaster on top of it. But why would anyone want to do that?
The Früh was quite a big place. I looked around on my visit to the WC. There was an upstairs and a downstairs to the place, but since it was early in the day, those areas were closed off. In the area we were in, we noticed a little booth inside of the room. That apparently is used as an office where the beer is served and money is paid. It must be a traditional way for keeping track of profits.
We enjoyed our stay at the Früh and could easily have spent a lot of time there, but the night was young and we wanted to visit as many pubs as we could.
As we left the Früh and followed Harald to our next stop, we passed by the Dom again. I couldn't resist another photo!
Next on our tour was the Brauhaus Sion. The atmosphere was not of a traditional pub, but more of a restaurant. Apparently, the Sion brewery was completely destroyed in the war and was not rebuild the same way. But we weren't there for the atmosphere, we were there for the beer! The beer here, Sion Kölsch, was excellent. It was a step above that of the Früh. Once again, they no longer brew beer here, but that didn't matter.
The Sion was very relaxing and helped us unwind from a long day.
This was once again one of those pubs that you could spend a lot of time in. In fact, most of the pubs in Cologne were that way. But we were on a mission, so off we went.
Next, Harald led us to a large open square that was littered with pubs. We walked into the Gaffel-Haus, but it was crowded and Harald didn't want to fight the crowd. So we went back out and walked a couple doors down to the a pub called Papa Joe's. They also served Gaffel Kölsch.
Talk about unique. It was a whimsical, roaring-twenties style bar. Check out their web page for a better description.
There were these strange looking coin operated figures with jazz instruments that would play if you dropped a euro in the slot.
There were also these old style peep show machines that Joyce had fun with. I think all the kölsch was starting to take it's toll on Joyce!
The Gaffel Kölsch was good, but by now all kölsch started to taste the same. It's a good thing kölsch is light, because we were having our share today. We were having a good time, but none of us ever got out of control. (Not even me!)
Papa Joe's was without a doubt a unique and interesting place. However, we were still on a mission, so off we went.
Next, More Kölsch!
