A Colorado brewery has embarked on “a never-ending pursuit of that perfect beer.” If the brewery gets close to perfection, the beer will be one beloved way across the pond in Germany.
Denver-based Prost Brewing brews “authentic” German-style beers, including many that have won awards. The perfect-beer pursuit is the journey of David Deline, the brewery’s president.
“Every style of beer has its perfect place and a time to be enjoyed,” Deline says. “German beer is what we love to drink when we are at home, and that is why we choose to make it everyday while we work.”
Denver-based Prost Brewing aims to replicate Germany's great beers.
Prost Brewing was launched in August 2012 “when there was a gap in the heavily IPA-dominated market,” Deline says. “We wanted to present a more drinkable, sessionable and high-quality craft option.”
The brewery was founded by six business partners, including Deline’s family, and they began brewing in a copper brewhouse (brewing vessels) imported from a historic brewery in Germany’s Franconia region. In 2018, the Deline family acquired sole ownership.
Prost now operates three beer gardens — two in suburban Northglenn and Highlands Ranch and one in Denver — and a tap room in Fort Collins. Brewing is done at the 60,000-square-foot Northglenn facility, which has a 10,000-square-foot tap room. Part of the Northglenn design was inspired by Schönram, a country brewery in Bavaria owned by the same family for more than 235 years.
Prost declares on its website that the beermaking formula “is simple, and the process is far from it.” Christopher O’Connor, Prost’s vice president of brewery operations, explains.
“The formula is consistently the same four natural ingredients — grains, yeast, water and hops — but the process and art of combining these ingredients is truly unique,” he says. “Our process combines endosperm mashing, decoction mashing, open fermentation, horizontal lagering, recovered CO2 for carbonation and state of the art polish filtration and packaging equipment.”
The process has resulted in four beers winning awards at the Great American Beer Festival and one beer winning the top award at the World Beer Cup. At the Great American Beer Festival last year, Prost Pilsner won a silver medal, and Luna Lager, a a Mexican export lager brewed with Denver’s Cheluna Brewing, captured a gold medal. The pilsner also won a silver medal at the festival in 2020.
David Deline, president of Denver's Prost Brewing, and Christopher O’Connor, vice president of ... [+]
In prior years at the competition, Prost Hefeweizen won gold and silver medals, and Keller Pils was awarded a gold medal. At this year’s World Beer Cup, Prost Leichtbier captured a gold medal.
Medals are great for rewarding brewers for hard work, but does the IPA-mad marketplace appreciate other beer styles?
“I love IPAs,” O’Connor says. “I also think there is room in the market for both authentic German beers and big bold IPAs. Honestly, home base in beer for most people is clean, easy-drinking lagers. They are approachable and offer something to everyone. Prost satisfies that demand through our crisp, clean and balanced products. There is something special about finding that perfection in the simplicity of lager beers.”
Would any of Prost’s beers be out of step tastewise for the German consumer?
“Our goal is to create the most authentic German-style beer possible,” O’Connor responds. “To this end, we import just about all our grains and hops directly from Germany. We brew with German techniques and German equipment. Our intent is to create an authentic German beer-drinking experience.”
