Putting Rule Number One to the Test

On this #beersaturday, the old @handofzara is putting the infamous Rule #1 to the test!

You bet I am, Rule #1 is in play tonight!

As a way of a refresher course, Rule #1 is that whenever the @handofzara tries a beer from a "new brewer", i.e. a brewer whose beer I have never had before, I start with a Helles or a Kolsch.

My theory, is if a brewer can not brew a decent Helles or Kolsch there is point in having another.

A theory which has been proven often enough as to be accepted science in many circles! So much so that it is often referred to as @handofzara's Theory of Beer Drinking Good Beer.

Rumor has it, and it is just a rumor, thus far, that I have been nominated or may soon be nominated, sometime in the near future for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nothing is more anti-Peace than paying for a skunky beer!

So tonight I am putting Rule #1 to the test with a Kolsch brewed by French Broad River Brewery in Asheville, North Carolina.

Now before I get to the beer, a little trivial but most important information and observations. Every now and then I see a little "can art" that stands out and is worthy of mention.

Now this is cool and to most of you this may be just some interesting shapes, however the eagles eyes of @handofzara can recognize the bottom of a North Carolina mountain river from a mile away!

Can you see it?

Can you see the trout?

Yep, when you get up in the High Country of North Carolina, the waters run fast and clean.

A great bit of can art, in my humble opinion, and a nice nod to our wonderful clean flowing mountain rivers.

So with a Kolsch, I am expecting a clean, clear refreshing slightly bready beer with an occasional hint of fruit and I stress the occasional and hint part of that statement.

Imagine my surprise and shock when I tasted something completely different!

Not overpowering but it was there and certainly not to be ignored given the perimeters of the almost Nobel Peace winning Rule #1.

So I have had my second French Broad River Brewery "Kolsch" and again it was there and could not be ignored!

What you may ask did @handofzara taste that threw his entire Kolsch world in complete disarray?

Now to be fair the taste was nowhere near as strong as a hefeweizen and yet it was still there. What was missing was the sweet flavor of bread with a clean finish.

Enough that before I posted I did a little research on the old interweb just to make sure and to be fair to the French Broad River Brewery.

source: https://www.frenchbroadbrewery.com/beer/#gateway-kolsch

Do you see it? They even admit to brewing their Kolsch with wheat malts and not barley malts.

Notice how French Broad River Brewery states that they "stick strictly to the style guidelines."

Well, don't you know that I looked up those guidelines and apparently up to 20% wheat malts is acceptable in a Kolsch.

A factor that the @handofzara did not know until this #beersaturday.

See you can learn something new every day just by drinking beer. Something that my teachers in High School insisted was not possible and yet clearly is possible.

Did any of y'all k now this? Wheat malt in a Kolsch?

I can't fault the brewer for this as it was intentional and not a sign of bad brewing but rather ignorance on my part.

Even an almost Nobel Peace Prize winner can be wrong about the science.

BEER NAME: Gateway
STYLE: Kolsch
ABV: 5.3%
BREWER: French Broad River Brewing of Asheville North Carolina
APPEARANCE: straw, clear and pours with a medium head
AROMA: malts
TASTE: mild well balanced malts to hops with a hint of bananas from the wheat
MOUTHFEEL: light bodied, carbonates well the wheat lingers in the finish

Overall a nice beer, just not what I was expecting, and yet exactly what the brewer intended.

And given that the brewer intended to throw some banana wheat nonsense into a Kolsch means at least to me that the brewer knew exactly what he was doing.

Will I try another beer from French Broad River Brewery given Rule #1?

Yes I will, but forever they shall be known as the "sneaky" brewers which is much better than the "skunky" brewers.

See y'all next #beersaturday.