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It’s sometime o’clock on a warm summer night in the German city of Cologne. The facade and twin spires of the city’s Gothic cathedral—der Kölner Dom—cast their silhouette against the summer sky. You’re at a plein air table of a brewery on the square in front of the cathedral. You can’t remember when you and your friends arrived at the brewery or how many of these delicious 200 milliliter Stangen of the local refreshing and flavorful Kölsch beer you’ve had. Ein Köbes—a waiter in the characteristic blue apron and jacket—arrives with the regularity of a rush hour subway, taking away your old, empty glasses, leaving new, full glasses of Kölsch in front of you. “This,” you say to yourself, “is everything that beer on a summer night should be.”
In the two-and-a-half years Susan and I rented an apartment in the north German city of Bremen, we drank delicious beer in every part of the country. But our favorites were the many kinds of local beer we drank in Germany’s summer halls and summer gardens—and at that brewery with summer tables on der Kölner Domplatz.
Why while away your summer drinking the same old styles of German Pilsner? Why not explore the many styles of German beer which are also ideal for summer? Here’s a guide to begin discovering them.
Kölsch and Altbier
The two primary styles of beer are ales and lagers. Ales are made with yeasts which ferment at warm temperatures, while lagers are made with yeasts which ferment at cold temperatures. Ales are conditioned—which is to say, carbonated—at warm temperatures, while lagers are conditioned at cold temperatures. Kölsch is a hybrid style of beer. It’s brewed at warm temperatures like an ale, but conditioned at cold temperatures like a lager, which yields a beer with the best qualities of both ales and lagers. Kölsch has a straw color, with lightly fruity, yeasty aromas and flavors and a light, hoppy bitterness. It’s brewed with light barley malt and has an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 4.8%.
Less than 50 kilometers north of Cologne and downstream along the Rhein River, the city of Düsseldorf makes its own warm-fermenting, cold-conditioned hybrid style of beer called Alt. Altbier is made with dark barley malt, has a darker color, and is slightly more bitter than Kölsch.
As well as echt German brands of Kölsch and Altbier, better local beer shops stock American styles of both kinds of beer.
Weizenbier and Berliner Weisse
If you don’t know Weizenbier and Hefeweizen—styles of wheat beer which are called Weißbier in Bavaria and Witbier in Belgium and the Netherlands—please promise yourself you’ll try them this summer. A favorite of south Germany, Weizenbier is made with both barley and wheat malt. Hefeweizen is a style of Weizen that isn’t filtered, which suspends the yeast in the beer. (Hefe is German for yeast.) With aromas and flavors of banana and clove, Weizen and Hefeweizen are rich yet refreshing, with a moderate 5 to 6% alcohol. Both styles should be served in vase shaped Weizen glasses.
An alternative to Weizenbier is a wheat beer called Berliner Weisse. The style is mildly sour, with a light, fruity character and less than 2.5% alcohol. Napoleon’s troops referred to Berliner Weisse as “The Champagne of the North,” but the style won its local popularity in the Berlin summer beer gardens of the middle 19th century.
The tart quality of Berliner Weisse owes to its fermentation with brewer’s yeast and lactic acid bacteria. Berliners commonly flavor the beer with extracts of raspberry or Woodruff, a sweet, earthy, hay-like herb. Berliner Weisse is a style made for guzzling from goblets on hot summer days.
A plethora of German and American styles of Weizen and Hefeweizen are at shops and bars across the state. Look for American styles of Berliner Weisse at local craft breweries.
Kellerbier
Kellerbier, which means cellar beer, is an unfiltered, unpasteurized, yeasty, malty lager style from the south German region of Franconia. It’s a favorite in the region’s summer beer gardens, where locals drink it out of earthenware mugs.
Kellerbier, which refers to the cool temperatures at which the beer is brewed and conditioned, has an amber color, an aromatic, hoppy flavor, and an ABV of about 5%. If true to style, Kellerbier has little effervescence because it matures in wood casks without bungs. As yeast ferments the sugars in the beer and converts them to alcohol and carbon dioxide, the gas dissipates through the bung hole. As well as in their summer beer gardens, natives of Franconia like their Kellerbier as dinner aperitifs.
Neither German nor American styles of Kellerbier are easy to find in the state, but they’re worth searching for.
