Kölsch
A pale, top-fermented full beer that, under the Kölsch Convention of 1986, may only be brewed in Cologne and its surrounding area — with a brewing history stretching back to 1250.
Kölsch is a pale, filtered, top-fermented full beer that may only be produced in Cologne and its immediate surroundings — and is enjoyed almost exclusively there.
At a Glance
- Style
- Top-fermented, filtered full beer (pale)
- Original gravity
- 11.3 °P on average
- Alcohol content
- 4.8 % on average
- Fermentation temperature
- 15 to 20 °C
- Protected designation
- Kölsch Convention of 6 March 1986, drawn up by the Cologne Brewers' Association
- Production area
- Cologne and its surrounding region exclusively
Source: Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-06-25
A History of Brewing in Cologne
Cologne's brewing guild, the Brauamt, has existed since 1250. In the Middle Ages, beer was brewed without hops and flavoured with gruit instead. The Archbishop of Cologne held a monopoly on gruit and in 1381 banned both the brewing and the import of hopped beer. Hops only became established in Cologne's brewing trade at the beginning of the 15th century. By 1494, 64 breweries in the city were producing around 65,000 hectolitres of Keute beer. Well into the 19th century, some 100 home breweries were making predominantly top-fermented styles — including the cloudy, unfiltered forerunner of today's Kölsch, known as Wieß.
From Wieß to Modern Kölsch
The Sünner brewery is credited with producing the first Kölsch in the modern sense: it has been brewing the style since 1906 and first used the term "Kölsch" for it in 1918. The Second World War severely disrupted brewing operations — by 1946 only two breweries were still active in Cologne. The number of Kölsch breweries subsequently grew back to 24, and by 1960 around 500,000 hectolitres of Kölsch were being brewed in the city each year.
Legal Framework and the Convention
As early as 1963, the Cologne Regional Court ruled that the name "Kölsch" denotes not merely a beer style but also a region of origin. The Cologne Court of Appeal upheld this ruling in July 1977, after which production outside the region was prohibited. On 6 March 1986, the breweries signed the 16-clause Kölsch Convention, giving these regulations binding force.
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Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-06-25