Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams - East-West Kolsch

This week's belated Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams' East-West Kolsch.

[I would like to apologize to the loyal kosher beers fanatics for my inability to post the Sunday Night Suds column in its regular slot. Although there are weeks where I will miss some posts, I have been endeavoring to always post a weekly Sunday Night Suds column so as to broaden the kosher market's understanding and appreciation of good beer. Unfortunately, due to some travel and technology restrictions, I am unable to post the SNS column on Sunday. Rather than skipping the post for the duration of the summer, I will be posting it on Mondays instead. I hope to return to the regular format of Sunday posting by late August].

Although I have reviewed a Kolsch twice before (to see my July 2010 review of Joseph's Brau Summer Brew click here http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/07/sunday-night-suds-josephs-brau-summer.html; to see the August 2008 review of the Saranac Kolsch, click here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2008/08/sunday-night-suds-saranac-kolsch-ale.html), I have never defined the Kolsch style. As such, I reproduce below the definition of the style from the gurus at BA:

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.

The Samuel Adams Kolsch poured the characteristic pale yellow, with a small amount of foam which stayed with the beer for a long period of time. The beer had some hop bite, but also a very interesting flavor and scent from the Jasmine Sambac - a Southeast Asian flower which was added to the brew process.

The beer is quite drinkable and one would be hard pressed to identify that the beer is around 5% abv (its actually 5.1%) as the alcohol is hardly noticeable. The beer would go well with spicy poultry dishes and if they ever sold this in a sixer, might go very well all by itself. Unfortunately, it is only sold as part of the Beers of Summer mix box so there is no chance of that at the moment.

Samuel Adams East-West Kolsch is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K. Like many other Samuel Adams brews, this bottle does not have the Star-K certification mark on the label. The kashruth can be confirmed by clicking on the link to the Star-K LOC here - http://www.star-k.org/loc/kosher_letter_6635_bostonbeercompany.pdf.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the East-West Kolsch, please follow this link - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/67040.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

***NOTE*** I have been in touch with the Star-K in relation to the Samuel Adams Latitude 48 IPA Deconstructed Special Edition Box and have been advised that all five varieties in the Deconstructed Series are kosher. It is my understanding that an updated LOC will be issued by the Star-K which will explicitly mention each of the five new versions. I hope iyh to review them over the next few months.

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