FavorFlavs #31

We all have them: favorite flavors, ingredients and kitchen tools. FavorFlavs we keep reaching for again and again. These are ours.

Beer

Craft beer is conquering the culinary world. Restaurants have a craft beer list alongside their wine list. Full of locally brewed beers made from local grains and centuries-old spring water. A great alternative to wine with your meal.

But on a sun-drenched summer or winter terrace, we don’t want heavy IPAs, DIPAs or Quadrupels. Then we crave a simple, refreshing beer. So not the ‘extra fresh’ marketing lager with which big brewers are trying to win back the lager market.

So what do we want? Kölsch. A beer from Cologne that, like many craft beers, is top-fermented, but not heavy and bitter.

Kölsch is fresh, approachable without being cheap, thirst-quenching, with a lovely mousse, relatively low in alcohol (4.8%) and it goes with everything. From (vegan) Currywurst to Brezel.

Dutch (micro)brewers also make Kölsch in small quantities (even though it officially has to be brewed in Cologne). But they can’t compare with a golden-colored Kölsch served in a Stange (tall, thin glass), brought to you unasked by a Cologne Köbe (waiter) from his Kranz (serving tray), until you place a beer mat on your glass to signal that you’ve had enough.