Enki Auburn Kolsch

Here is my first full serving of a beer from Enki Brewing of Victoria, MN, and it's a head scratcher.

Clouded, hazy, truly auburn colored brew, under a slim beige head.

Aroma: sweet, caramel malt, little else. Some notes of cocoa and coffee, but minor. Nonetheless, nothing you'd expect from something calling itself a kolsch.

Taste: greets the palate with a sweetness that soon dries out in the mouth. Moderate hop presence, very clean mouthfeel, quite smooth on the palate. Flavorful, and drinkable, but not a kolsch. I had the opportunity to hear the brewer speak about this and address the charge of how a beer of this color can be called a kolsch. His answer: "It's not." He went on to say that everything about the recipe follows a kolsch with the exception of the addition of caramel malt. Well, if that change alters the flavor as well as the color, which it inevitably will in a style that is based specifically on delicacy and lightness, then how can you call it that? Make up a new name or something.

What it is, though, is tasty. There's no denying that. These are good flavors that taste great together. It's good beer and you can drink it. But this business of changing the flavors yet calling it what it no longer is, that'll confuse people while feathers get ruffled.

There are some styles that should just be left alone, and don't need tinkering with or improving. Kolsch is one, I think, and there are a few others. Would you make a Chocolate Pilsner? A bourbon-barrel tripel? There are a few limits, and it should be fairly easy to recognize them.