
- Brian Yaeger
- Every day in Cologne is Kölsch Fest
Perhaps it’s come to this. In a world where wild, wacky beers get all the hype and beerfest love, Prost, the German bierhaus on Mississippi, brings us down a notch by organizing an event celebrating one beer: Kölsch. The style is renowned for being fairly unremarkable at that; it’s a pale beer that didn’t just originate in Cologne, it technically can only be made there.
The light, thin, slightly fruity ale (that is lagered, so imbibers would be forgiven for finding it fairly resembles a German pilsner) has become a popular summertime sipper in the States. Several local breweries make one, including German-oriented Occidental, Old Town (winner of multiple awards for the style), Pints, Breakside, and Ninkasi. Although, at the very least, they should spell it Kolsch without the umlaut since, again, Kölsch is a Cologne appellation much like Champagne.
The four that Prost will serve are: Reissdorf, Sünner, Zunft, and Früh. Order a pair of each to fend off the returning heat wave that coincides with the event this Saturday.
In its homeland, Kölsch is served by the tray-full and placed in front of customers ad nauseum, with servers tallying up how many 0.2-liter cylindrical glasses, called stanges, have been placed down with a system of ticks on their coaster. Having made the pilgrimage to Cologne to partake of this custom, I can confirm it’s the only part of German beer hall service that makes you smile. Then again, the point is to enjoy them over a prolonged session and it’s not unusual to rack up 10 ticks, though of course that’s the equivalent of about four pints.
Prost will also be serving traditional krapfen—jelly doughnuts—which are also called Berliners, depending on which part of Deutschland you’re in. After a beer mat full of ticks, I suspect more than one reveler will proclaim, "Ich bin ein krapfen."
Prost, 4237 N. Mississippi, Sat July 18 at noon-10 pm.