Sünner Advertises Its Beer as “Echt Kölsch”

In 1918, the Sünner brewery began advertising its pale, top-fermented beer with the designation “Echt Kölsch.” Sünner had added the beer to its range in 1906, but the new wording connected the product explicitly with Cologne and distinguished it from the brewery’s other beer types. The advertising use of “Kölsch” helped transform a geographic adjective into the recognized name of Cologne’s pale, clear, top-fermented beer style. Other Cologne breweries subsequently adopted the designation, although the style and its geographical boundaries were not formally defined until much later through court decisions, the Kölsch Convention, and European protection.