Sunday, March 25, 2012

Point Three Kings Ale


Yesterday, I tried Point's Three Kings Ale.  I assumed it was a Christmas seasonal beer, which would have replaced their St. Benedicts Winter Ale.  Instead, I found out it was their spring Kolsch beer, and got a little German and Church history lesson:
Point Three Kings is a highly drinkable golden colored Kölsh-Style Ale inspired by the story of the three kings whose remains reside in the Köln Cathedral in Köln Germany.  Köln is the birthplace of Kölsh ale, often referred to as the ‘crown jewel of brewing art’.  Elegant and well-balanced Three Kings is hand-crafted with a delicate fruity aroma, clean soft maltiness, and crisp subtle hopping – an adventure fit for a king.  
I didn't know the relics of the Magi were supposedly housed in the Cologne Cathedral.  It's good to get a history lesson from the beer you are drinking.  Here's a little more history of Cologne:
During the time of the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, the Archbishop of Cologne was one of the seven prince-electors and one of the three ecclesiastical electors. The archbishops had ruled large temporal domains but in 1288 Sigfried II von Westerburg was defeated in the Battle of Worringen and forced into exile in Bonn.
Cologne's location on the river Rhine placed it at the intersection of the major trade routes between east and west and was the basis of Cologne's growth. Cologne was a member of the Hanseatic League  and became a Free Imperial City in 1475. Interestingly the archbishop nevertheless preserved the right of capital punishment. Thus the municipal council (though in strict political opposition towards the archbishop) depended upon him in all matters concerning criminal justice. This included torture, which sentence was only allowed to be handed down by the episcopal judge, the so-called "Greve". This legal situation lasted until the French conquest of Cologne.
Besides its economic and political significance Cologne also became an important centre of medieval pilgrimage, when Cologne's Archbishop Rainald of Dassel gave the relics of the Three Wise Men to Cologne's cathedral in 1164 (after they in fact had been captured from Milan). Besides the three magi Cologne preserves the relics of Saint Ursula and Albertus Magnus.
The economic structures of medieval and early modern Cologne were characterized by the city's status as a major harbour and transport hub upon the Rhine. Craftsmanship was organized by self-administering guilds, some of which were exclusive to women.

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