Beer of the Weekend #142: Yellowtail Pale Ale
For whatever reason, the beach hicks in my building decided to have an all-day beer pong tournament in the courtyard. Everything I hate about California is in attendance. Ditzy beach bimbos gossiping about their friends and talking about cigarettes and the shots they will and will not drink. Macho surf assholes howling at every point like they just accomplished something significant. They’re the cream of the SoCal crop: parent-dependant rich douchebags living it up without a care in the world or slice of common courtesy regarding others. All of them are loud. All of them are obnoxious. All of them want attention. All of them are dense and happy the way only Californians, suburbanites, rich kids, and adrenaline junkies can be.
Thank God I’m leaving next week, and that I have five beers left in the fridge.
The second beer of the weekend is Yellowtail Pale Ale, brewed by the Ballast Point Brewing Company of San Diego, California.
YPA is, as the carrier says, “styled after the crisp golden Kölsch ales of Cologne, Germany.” I’m sure it’s not a definitive version of the style, but it’s the first kölsch I’ve ever tried. Alaskan Summer Ale is also a kölsch, but I won’t be able to try that before leaving, so YPA, a California brew, will have to do.
What, you ask, is a kölsch? Here’s the BA description:
Since the yeast in a kölsch is top-fermenting, the style is technically an ale, but it is, from my experience drinking it last night, very lager-like.
Wait a minute… Why the hell am I going to all this trouble to describe kölsch when I’m going to review one of its many versions? Sometimes I revert to my journalism training, and sometimes it’s a bad habit. However, it’s all in the quest of thoroughness.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. No freshness date.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is a slightly hazy pale gold. Three fingers of foamy white head developed and dissipated slowly to leave a finger thick cap, which itself slowly dissipated to a nice spotted lacing that remained throughout the pint.
Smell: Starts off smelling like a sweet adjunct loaded with corn, but it improves as the pint warms. The adjunct aroma doesn’t disappear, but there are caramel malts, lemon, and citrus hops.
Taste: Follows the smell. Corn adjunct, some light caramel malts, lemon, and a nice bite of citrus hops at the end to keep things interesting. It’s like a weak British pale ale.
Drinkability: Maybe my taste buds are off tonight because I remember it tasting much better last night. It’s a hybrid lager-ale, but it’s trying to be more like a lager…a macro lager. It’s sad, really.
Fun facts about YPA:
-Style: We went over this.
-Price: $9.79/sixer at the BevMo! on Beach.
-Serving temperature: 40-45ºF. The style’s Wikipedia page suggests 50ºF.
-Alcohol content: 4.6 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: BA recommends German cuisine, salad, pork, fish, and shellfish.
-YPA is without a doubt an imitation kölsch. For the real stuff you need to go to Cologne (Köln, in German). As proclaimed by the Kölsch convention of 1986, kölsch cannot be brewed outside Cologne. (There were, though, a few breweries outside of Cologne that were grandfathered in.) In 1997, kölsch became a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) by the European Union.
-Apparently there’s a whole culture surrounding kölsch. Here’s an interesting tidbit from the style’s Wikipedia page:
I just added Cologne to my “places to visit while in Europe” list.
-Kölsch is traditionally served in a long, thin, cylindrical glass called a “Strange,” which is the German word for “pole.” I don’t have one, obviously, but I’d love to see one. The only downside is they apparently only hold 200 ml.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B-/C+.
Thank God I’m leaving next week, and that I have five beers left in the fridge.
The second beer of the weekend is Yellowtail Pale Ale, brewed by the Ballast Point Brewing Company of San Diego, California.
YPA is, as the carrier says, “styled after the crisp golden Kölsch ales of Cologne, Germany.” I’m sure it’s not a definitive version of the style, but it’s the first kölsch I’ve ever tried. Alaskan Summer Ale is also a kölsch, but I won’t be able to try that before leaving, so YPA, a California brew, will have to do.
What, you ask, is a kölsch? Here’s the BA description:
First only brewed in Köln, Germany, now many American brewpubs and a hand full of breweries have created their own version of this obscure style. Light to medium in body with a very pale color, hop bitterness is medium to slightly assertive. A somewhat vinous (grape-y from malts) and dry flavor make up the rest.
Since the yeast in a kölsch is top-fermenting, the style is technically an ale, but it is, from my experience drinking it last night, very lager-like.
Wait a minute… Why the hell am I going to all this trouble to describe kölsch when I’m going to review one of its many versions? Sometimes I revert to my journalism training, and sometimes it’s a bad habit. However, it’s all in the quest of thoroughness.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. No freshness date.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is a slightly hazy pale gold. Three fingers of foamy white head developed and dissipated slowly to leave a finger thick cap, which itself slowly dissipated to a nice spotted lacing that remained throughout the pint.
Smell: Starts off smelling like a sweet adjunct loaded with corn, but it improves as the pint warms. The adjunct aroma doesn’t disappear, but there are caramel malts, lemon, and citrus hops.
Taste: Follows the smell. Corn adjunct, some light caramel malts, lemon, and a nice bite of citrus hops at the end to keep things interesting. It’s like a weak British pale ale.
Drinkability: Maybe my taste buds are off tonight because I remember it tasting much better last night. It’s a hybrid lager-ale, but it’s trying to be more like a lager…a macro lager. It’s sad, really.
Fun facts about YPA:
-Style: We went over this.
-Price: $9.79/sixer at the BevMo! on Beach.
-Serving temperature: 40-45ºF. The style’s Wikipedia page suggests 50ºF.
-Alcohol content: 4.6 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: BA recommends German cuisine, salad, pork, fish, and shellfish.
-YPA is without a doubt an imitation kölsch. For the real stuff you need to go to Cologne (Köln, in German). As proclaimed by the Kölsch convention of 1986, kölsch cannot be brewed outside Cologne. (There were, though, a few breweries outside of Cologne that were grandfathered in.) In 1997, kölsch became a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) by the European Union.
-Apparently there’s a whole culture surrounding kölsch. Here’s an interesting tidbit from the style’s Wikipedia page:
Another interesting sociological point concerning Kölsch is that its consumption is deemed acceptable by women to a much greater extent than other beers in Germany, and also that it is often drunk in groups of rather mixed social standing — exclusiveness is frowned upon by the Kölsch drinking culture, and there is a deal between the breweries that no Kölsch will be sold with any extra titles like "Premium", "Special", "Extra high quality" or some such. Karl Marx once famously remarked that his revolution could not work in Cologne, since the bosses went to the same pubs as their workers. Kölsch waiters (Köbes) in traditional pubs are allowed, and indeed expected, to speak the local dialect and to use fairly rough, unrefined language, which might include crude jokes with the customers. In keeping with serving tradition, the Köbes in such pubs will also continue to exchange empty Kölsch glasses with new ones unprompted until customers leave their glass half full or place the beermat upon the glass to signal that they no longer wish to be served.
I just added Cologne to my “places to visit while in Europe” list.
-Kölsch is traditionally served in a long, thin, cylindrical glass called a “Strange,” which is the German word for “pole.” I don’t have one, obviously, but I’d love to see one. The only downside is they apparently only hold 200 ml.
The Quiet Man’s grade: B-/C+.
Comments
Post a Comment