What started as a hope of perfecting German-style beer in the Denver area has expanded to bring the fun and culture of what a German biergarten has to offer along with having world-class beer on hand is what drives David Deline and the Prost Brewing crew each day.
Now, with a new innovation-heavy facility almost ready to flip the switch, the brewery is excited to have its fourth location almost completely open.
“Anything like this starts with a crazy dream and a vision,” he told Brewer in a recent podcast. “That vision kind of started to form about five years ago. We reinvented how we wanted to do this process a million times.”
The Northglenn Biergarten is a 10,000 sq. ft. community gathering space focused on elevated German cuisine and world-class biers. It’s the first portion of Prost’s new, nearly 60,000 sq. ft. production headquarters to open. With a grand opening of its Northglenn brewhouse to start in May, Prost has created new beers on its 20-barrel pilot system. It’s giving the brewery a chance to step away from its core lineup for a change and offer unique on-site biers to go along with the German fare they have implemented at its three locations. Although his head was spinning as they continued to get the new German-made brewhouse online with advanced technology coupled with German manufacturing, Deline was excited for the next step of evolution to the 12-year-old brand.
“I think the one thing that’s constant has been that focus on who we are — that German heritage — and just trying to make someone the best German beers around,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate enough to see outstanding growth over the last several years, from our biergarten network side to our distribution side.
“This facility is just the next step of that evolution. This facility allows us to fulfill our dream of really making beers the way we’ve always wanted to.”
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Growing the brand through biergartens was the first step while adding volume will help the brewery add to its distribution network as well. The rise of importance to even a craft consumer with well-made Lagers has helped give a boost to the brewery as well over the years.
“Everyone has a Lager, everyone has a Pils,” Deline said. “From our side, we love to see it. There was a time when you went and tried to sell a Helles or a Kolsch and people would look at you and say what is that? But as more and more brewers are there to do it, there’s recognition for these styles and it aligns perfectly with who and what we are. And we welcome it.”
Prost’s Dunkelweizen (5.7% ABV), a traditional German-style dark wheat ale, became available for a limited time on draft and in 4-packs of 16 oz. cans exclusively at its biergartens in Northglenn, Denver, Highlands Ranch, and Fort Collins. That was followed by the first keg of its Biergarten Lager (4.2% ABV). A German-style Leichtbier, Biergarten Lager will be available year-round on draft and in 4-packs of 16 oz. cans as a biergarten exclusive.
“There’s nothing quite like drinking the first beer out of a new facility after the years and the heart and sweat and the tears,” Deline said. “Having it come out at the level and as delicious as it was …it hit a sweet spot.
“But I think what we appreciate more is in when we tap them in our biergartens, that’s what it’s all about. German beer at the end of the day is all about community and that’s what our biergartens are about — that celebration of that community. We want to do that by bringing the best products to them and seeing the reactions in our staff, the customers, and even people you don’t even think of as craft drinkers.
“The pilot brewhouse is going to allow us to do our first biergarten-only lineup and so we’re going to have lots of varying SKUs, always something new coming in six-packs so you can take them home and enjoy outside, just with production capabilities. We couldn’t do that before.”
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