Page 110 - Flathead Living // Spring 2015

108 FLATHEAD LIVING | SPRING 2015
FOOD&DRINK TAP ROOM STORY & PHOTO BY LIDO VIZZUTTI
Golden Grizzly Ale
Glacier Brewing Company, Polson
S pring is coming and, like spring in Montana is apt to do, it assur- edly will be filled with snow
flurries and fleeting days of temperatures warm enough to tempt the soul from its wintery melancholy into a hopeful aching for barbecues, boating and hiking.
A bright and crisp golden ale brewed in the style of a Kölsch, the Golden Grizzly is an excellent beer to carry you through the season from the slopes to the paddleboards.
“It’s one of my personal and profes- sional favorites,” said David Ayers, owner and head brewer at Glacier Brewing Company in Polson. “It’s the first beer recipe that I ever made (from scratch).”
Working as an assistant brewer for H.C. Berger Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, Ayers said he was asked by the head brewer there to invent a beer in the golden ale family.
“At that brewery we were making a lot of German styles, so my recipe palate I had access to was a whole cornucopia of different brewing grains. But also mainly noble hops,” he said. “So that’s really what
I drew from to make that recipe.”
“I also wanted to have a little domestic flair so I threw in a nice healthy heap of
cascade hops.”
“It’s a very crisp beer. The flavor doesn’t
linger,” Ayers added. “You take a sip, you get the flavor, you swallow it, then it’s gone. I really like beers that finish very quickly and very clean.”
This is the intrigue with a Kölsch. In a world of craft brewing where boldness of hops and alcohol can dominate, Kölsch is all about subtlety.
In late 19th century, golden lagers were threatening to supplant the popularity of the darker German styles. German brew- ers came up with pale brews of their own in distinctive regional styles in response and in Köln (Cologne) they started brew- ing Kölsch.
In fact, use of the term Kölsch is pro- hibited except for beers brewed within Cologne’s city limits. The ale is tradition- ally fermented at a warmer temperature, and then conditioned at a cold tempera- ture (lagered). If you’re a true traditional- ist, the golden brew should be served in a