With Kölsch Service, Taprooms Offer the VIP Treatment
Hailing from the beer halls of Germany, kölsch service sets a scene about as different as can be from that of a typical American taproom. No one gets up to go to the bar, servers roam the room, everyone drinks the same thing—and that thing is a pale gold-colored beer in a diminutive glass.
Kölsch service—and kölsch itself—originated in Cologne, or Köln. Patrons hunker down at communal tables with narrow glasses, called stanges, of the beer, each with a deckel, which is the coaster used for tallying your order. Servers known as köbes circle with kranzes, which are basket-like trays of fresh, kölsch-filled stanges; when they see an empty one, they swap it out and notch that guest’s deckel. You pay for your tallied total when you leave.
This ritual is on the rise in the U.S., perhaps because it checks a lot of boxes on the American drinker’s list of preferences today. The first of those is scaling back on booze. Kölsch is an ale that drinks like a lager, an easy sell for those seeking lighter options that still boast some flavor. The beer, which balances subtle sweet grain, floral hops and a dry finish, hovers around just 4.4 to 5.2 percent ABV, and stanges hold just about six ounces, or around one-fifth of a liter. The service offers an easy way to drink multiple rounds sans hangover concerns. Relax, throw a few back, stay a while longer, the move suggests. These are not the 16-ounce, 7-percent IPAs you might otherwise have at the taproom.
For Nicholas Meyer, owner of Eckhart Beer Co. in Brooklyn, the appeal is both in kölsch’s easy-drinking profile and in the service: Once you’re done drinking one stange, the next is there fairly quickly. “And you’re like, ‘Why not?,’ because they’re pretty modest in alcohol.”
Eckhart Beer opened in September 2025 with a focus on traditional German- and Czech-style lagers. Programs like this one succeed today thanks to a pendulum swing back from big hop bombs to lighter beers. But lagers are notoriously expensive to make because of how long they must sit in tanks. Kölsch, which is considered a hybrid beer—made with pilsner or pale malt, warmer fermenting ale yeasts and cold lagering at the end of the process—offers an alternative. Brian Fischer, owner and operations manager of Base Camp Beer Works in Grand Junction, Colorado, says the brewery’s lagers take a minimum of eight to 10 weeks to make, while kölsch takes half the time.
Brewers also say the rise of the service isn’t just an economic choice or a gimmick. It places the beer into historical, cultural context that appeals to more dedicated enthusiasts. Eckhart ran its first kölsch service in November, with plans to do so monthly. Taproom manager Rachel Wood says the atmosphere was lively during the recent event—conversations start over the novel service, then freely continue, unbroken by bar trips or menu-scouring pauses. In Colorado, Base Camp emphasizes the community-building aspect, pushing their normally separate tables together to replicate the communal ambiance of a German beer hall.