There is a tiny, difficult-to- spell town in Bavaria that’s missing its brewhouse.
And this week, the defunct facility’s massive copper mash tun, classic flotation tank and boil kettle travel to Denver, where they’ll become the heart of the city’s first German-style brewery, Prost.
To get get his hands on authentic equipment, award-winning brewer Bill Eye and crew knocked down the building that housed the 50-year-old tanks, shipped them across the Atlantic Ocean and put them on a train to Denver.
It’s a massive investment of time and money, but Eye is wagering that the lagers he so loves are destined to be the next big trend in craft beer.
“When it comes to craft beer, we think eight of 100 people drink it. The other 92 people drink macrobeers,” he said. The stout, energetic Eye will be both partner and head brewer at Prost. “I do think in the next 10 years there are going to be more people drinking Colorado beer, and a lot of it is going to be craft lager.”
While lagers may be many drinkers’ first experience with beer, they’re not the go-to style for many craft beer fans. In fact, craft beer was born in protest of the monotony of macrobrewed lagers.
They’re also not easy or inexpensive to pull off because low fermentation temperatures — the major difference between ales and lagers — double production time. The clean, light-bodied style makes it tougher to hide imperfections that big malt or big hops mask in other beers.
Julian Heron started the Craft Beer Festival in Manitou Springs a decade ago and said the event hosts about 33 brewers a year.
“It really takes a craftsman to do it,” Heron said. “There are still so few brewers making lagers.”
But the numbers are growing.
Del Norte, an all-Mexican-style lager brewery, opened shop in Denver in 2007. Newcomers Grimm Brothers in Loveland and Bierwerks in Woodland Park produce German-style lagers.
Great Divide in Denver, known for its big and boozy beers, in January debuted the new light lager Nomad to “show we can do something a little more subtle,” said Hanna Laney, marketing director.
Brewers have spent the past decade racing to make the hoppier and higher-alcohol beers, but now those beers are leaving drinkers with a headache, said Ed Sealover, author of “Mountain Brew: A Guide to Colorado’s Breweries.”
“If there’s been any area where craft beer is lacking, it’s been in lighter-bodied beer,” said Sealover. He noted even brewers themselves occasionally yearn for lower-alcohol beers they can drink all night.
As a bonus, those beers are more accessible for craft beer ingenues.
Much about Prost — its traditional German beer garten, its LoHi location, the tap list that includes a hefeweizen — is aimed at welcoming new beer drinkers into the fold.
Eye expects to convert a few craft-beer purists, too.
He plans to open at 2540 19th St. in the spring.
Formerly head brewer at Aurora’s Dry Dock, Eye earned a reputation as a technically precise craftsman able to nail style guidelines.
When Prost reaches full throttle, Eye expects to brew up to 15,000 barrels a year of kolsches, pilseners, altbiers, dunkels and hefeweizens.
He fell in love with those styles during his many trips to Germany.
They are why he rescued the brewery equipment from Breitengüßbach. And they’re the reason he struck out on his own to evangelize German lagers to the rest of Denver’s beer-drinking community.
He beamed as he said, “I can’t wait to make beer.”
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
