Udomsuk: King Castle (Thailand: Kolsch: 5.7% ABV)
Visual: Pale yellow grain body with a frothy inch of a head.
Nose: Malt biscuits. Shortbread. Soft lime. Hop oils. Lightly peppery.
Body: Soft lime. Slight sherbety mouthfeel and sherbet lemon. Light chalk. Light hop oils. Tinned tropical fruit. Steam beer like fluffy feel.
Finish: Sherbet lemon. Slight chalk. Tinned tropical fruit. Hop oils that grow over time.
Conclusion: Described as a Kolsch, this actually reminds of of a Cold IPA in some ways, good ways that is. Not only that for unusual characteristics, it also has a fluffy, steam beer like feel, which I think is a sign of the unusual production of the beer style.
Despite my comparisons to Cold IPA there is only light hop oil character, and a light chalky dryness against it – what causes the comparison is a ton of IPA like fruit hop character, over a crisp easy drinking body.
I was surprised how easy drinking it was, as the aroma is quite biscuity and malty, so I was expecting something a bit heavier – but while slightly sherbety sweet, the body is so nicely crisp and refreshing – just what I needed in the Thailand heat. Even at night. Listen, I grew up in the north of England, heat kills me.
Despite my comparisons to cold IPA. I can definitely see notes of the Kolsch here, especially in parts of the unusual mouthfeel. It is just combined with west coast influenced cold IPA like dryness and then lined with pineapple hop character. Heck the level of tinned tropical fruit like notes in this me reminds me of what I see from heavy duty bourbon barrel aging in whisky.
Anyway, this is lovely, easy drinking, flavoursome and crisp. A great first beer to welcome me to Thailand.
Background: I’m glad the beer list showed this as a Kolsch as I cannot find shit on this beer online, and I would have listed it as a cold IPA if I had to guess. Then again Kolsch is an odd beer style anyway, warm fermented with top fermented yeast like an ale, the cold conditioned like a lager, and tends to be fairly hoppy. Udomsuk Brewing look to have been founded 2014 and originally just served at a tiny Polynesian styled called Moa, which looks kind of cool and I may have to check out if I am every back in Bangkok. As you may have guessed, just back from a holiday in Thailand. Udomsuk, very uncommonly for craft brewers, say they tend not to focus on hop forward beers – now I love a good hoppy beer, but I am happy to see someone bucking the trend to do things with the other, oft overlooked styles. I found this beer on at Dock No. 13, on my night of arrival. A nice wee pub with a look over the river and a nice tap selection – a good way to enjoy a beer and try to get over jetlag. They also do very nice seafood, not cheap for Bangkok but very tasty. Notably, while Thailand is super cheap, one of the few expensive things is alcohol – craft beer especially. Being used to UK prices it was not a shock for me, but compared to everything else in Thailand it was super expensive due to very high taxes there. The staff were super friendly and super into their beers and I had a small chat with a few when I visited.
