Breaking Bob Kolsch

Review Date 9/21/2014 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Kolsch   Brewery: Wrecking Bar   Country: USA   State: Georgia   $ Per OZ: $.20 (G)   ABV: 4.8%

You have to love a brewery that constantly strives to be better. That’s more impressive when they’re doing things right to begin with, as is the case with Atlanta, Georgia’s Wrecking Bar brewpub. A little background info on the brewpub:

The Wrecking Bar is located in an old Victorian mansion built in 1900. Several well-to-do families called the mansion home over the decades, though in 1970 it was zoned commercial and became “Wrecking Bar Architectural Antiques”. That company closed its doors in 2005, but what better tribute to the Wrecking Bar than to replace it with, well, a Wrecking Bar?

And so the brewpub was born. I first paid the Wrecking bar a visit on a cool fall Saturday afternoon in 2011 to sample their brew. The Wrecking Bar was quiet when I arrived and remains so during much of my visit.  In pleasant weather, one can enjoy a beer out on the patio, though I took shelter from the elements in the cozy interior. I immediately fell in love with the cozy, homey rear of the place, furnished as it is with sofas, easy chairs, and end tables. Copies of Bill Yenne’s Beers of the World and Michael Jackson’s World Guide to Beer are available for your reading pleasure.

I ordered a sampler of beers that day, six four-ounce glasses for $6. Wheelie Popper Kolsch was the first beer I tried, a clean, golden, and malty brew perfect for a cooler but still warm fall afternoon. And that. My friends, is where our story begins, because as good as that beer was, the powers that be at Wrecking Bar thought it was too pilsner like. Hence, the beer I am sipping today, Wrecking Bar Breaking Bob Kolsch.

Here’s what the brewery says about this one:

Our 2nd generation of Kolsch, which now uses the lightest German Koln and Heidelberg malts available. Just enough hops for balance and brew water adjusted to match Koln, resulting in a very light crisp beer. Critique from some of our friends/neighbors from Koln said that the Kolquittsch Kolsch tasted too much like a Pilsner. So, we have replaced the Pilsner with Heidelberg malt and have made the beer lighter in body and ABV. Heidelberg made us think Heisenberg, who kind of looks like Brewmaster Bob. So, it is now the Breaking Bob Kolsch!

Curiously enough, I didn’t sample Breaking Bob Kolsch at the brewpub; rather I got a 32 ounce growler at Stout’s Growlers for just $6.50. The laws in Georgia are crazy in that you can’t buy growlers at a brewpub or brewery, but brewpubs can in fact distribute their beers through the multitude of growler shops popping up all over Georgia. I suppose I should not complain too much, as Stouts is but a mere few miles from me, and it was a treat to bring home some of this wonderful beer.

Wrecking Bar Breaking Bob Kolsch has an alcohol content of 4.8% by volume and 21 IBUs.

Wrecking Bar Breaking Bob Kolsch pours to a pale golden color with a light fluffy head formation and delicate light biscuit maltiness in the nose with ever so subtle hints of apple and pear fruit. Taking a sip I get a soft clean maltiness that is ever so light and eminently Teutonic, light notes of pear fruit, big drying grassy hop aroma and bitterness in the finish. So crisp and refreshing you'd think it’s a lager, but just enough dry fruit to let you know it’s an ale.

Folks, they nailed this one, this really tastes like a fresh Kolsch from Germany. It’s surely one of the best domestic examples of the style I’ve ever tasted, and it’s so moreish you could easily sip a full 64 ounce growler over the course of an afternoon. Or enjoy it at the brewpub, along with some of the other wonderful beers the Wrecking Bar serves and a meal. You won’t be disappointed.