Kölsch Service Pops Up All Over Cincinnati – What (And Where) Should You Go To Experience It?

Written By: The Gnarly Gnome
Photography By: The Gnarly Gnome

I didn’t think when I was an early beer drinker that I’d be writing this sentence, but here we are. I love Kölsch. That might not be really fair, actually, the more that I think about it. It’s not the Kölsch itself that I’m so in love with. It’s the Kölsch service that I’ve fallen in love with. Kölsch night.

That needs a little explaining before I tell you how to do it correctly here in Cincinnati.

What Is Kölsch?

Kölsch is a simple, subtle, easy-drinking beer to keep this as simple as possible. It’s light and a little bit fruity… but at the end of the day, it’s super-crushable. The style was born in the mid-1800s as the response in Cologne, Germany, to what was happening in the beer world around them – namely, lightly kilned malt making an appearance in German lagers.

Pilsner. It was a response to Pilsner.

The folks in Cologne created a beer that still used the top-fermenting ale yeast they were familiar with, but the lightly kilned malt was becoming all the rage. After fermentation, the new beer was stored (or lagered), making it a hybrid.

This new style became such a hit in the area – and the brewers were so protective of it that they protected the style in the 80s via the ‘Kölsch Konvention,’ which states that if you’re not making the beer in the immediate area around Cologne… you’re not making a “real” Kölsch.

Kölsch is about more than light malt, ale yeast, and lagering. I heard it stated best by Anna Heller from ‘Heller’s Brauhaus’ in Cologne… “In our region, Kölsch is more than only a beer; it unifies tastefulness, tradition, passion, and, of course, a good portion of localism.”

This? This I can certainly understand.

What Is Kölsch Service?

I also spend much time trying to capture all those craft beer pieces. Taste, tradition, passion, localism. These things made me fall in love with this industry in the first place – and many days, glimpses of them keep me so deeply involved.

There aren’t a lot of events that make me feel that as well as Kölsch Night does when it’s done right. To understand what “doing it right” means, we again have to look to Germany to get a picture.

In Cologne, you belly up to Kölsch service by simply showing up at the brewery. Most breweries you’ll find in town just make one beer. They make Kölsch. You order your beer, which is served in a small (about 7oz) tall glass called a stange. Your waiter (called a Köbe) marks a little tally mark on your coaster, and you start drinking.

If you run out of Kölsch (and you will; they go down really easily), a new glass appears in front of you, along with another tally mark. When you’ve had your fill, you simply put your coaster on top of your glass, where the tally marks are added, and you pay.

The simplicity of the night is its beauty. It’s about the act of drinking with others. It’s about the conversation; you don’t spend any time thinking about your next drink or with your nose deep in a glass of an IPA, wondering if that’s the Simcoe you’re smelling. With their custom-designed trays of beer moving about refilling people’s beers, the waiters are just facilitating a much more important experience. This experience of just drinking has been lost in far too many watering holes here in the United States and beyond.

Where To Get It In Cincinnati?

So, at this point, I know you’re probably itching to get into a traditional Kölsch service. Good news for you (and the rest of us): they’ve been popping up around Cincinnati for the last year. You can find Kölsch service at many of your favorite breweries – and I really want you to experience them all!

You can find Kölsch nights (or Kölsch days) at several different local spots:

• Alexandria Brewing Company does theirs in the summer when their Kölsch is on tap. You can get all their beers, but traditional Kölsch service gets me to show up! (Full disclosure: they’re a client of mine, so I’d be showing up regardless…) They have a great Kölsch, and it’s definitely worth the trip, even if you swing by on a night when they aren’t doing service.
• BC’s Brewing hasn’t even had their first Kölsch service as of me writing this, that doesn’t happen until April 27th, 2025 (That’s a few weeks away) – but if I know anything about the folks over at BC’s, I know that it will be great! They’re making their event ticketed, so when people come in, they’ll know what to expect. All Kölsch, only Kölsch, all night. I think it’ll be great!
• Braxton is new to the Kölsch service list, so I haven’t made it down to check it out quite yet (though… I certainly will be very soon) – they spent some time in Cologne and fell in love with the style (and the experience) and brought it home to their taproom in the form of ‘Kranz’ with it’s bright red, traditional serving trays… you can order a half or a full wreath to share with your friends.
• Esoteric holds their Kölsch service once a month, where they try to keep things as traditional as possible, providing tableside service to ensure that your glass never empties while you’re sipping away with friends. It’s an experience worthy of a visit (and one that I still have to mark off my list) – they hold them on Sundays, so make sure you check out their social media so that you can schedule accordingly!
• Rhinegeist was holding their Kölsch night regularly when I started working on this post… but when I started writing it, they’ve since stopped service, though they still have their tasty Kölsch on tap as of this writing. It’s called Shuffle, and maybe they’ll be forced to bring Kölsch service back if we drink enough of it!
  Then, finally, Northern Row is on our list. I saved them for last because they were the first in town to start doing it and are still doing it better than anyone else. Let me explain why.

All Kölsch, Only Kölsch – Northern Row Sets The Standard.

A night in Northern Row’s taproom during Kölsch service is something special. I say that because they open special on a Tuesday (the third Tuesday of every month) to make the event happen. With it being on a day they usually aren’t open – it doesn’t seem like anyone who shows up is caught off guard by the fact that all they serve is Kölsch. In fact, when you grab your seat, you don’t even need to tell anyone what you want. They just come by with the Kranz serving tray and start serving.

The coaster that marks your beers, the camaraderie that Cologne has pioneered in its service style—it’s all there. It feels different from any other night you’ll spend in a local taproom because it is different from any other night you’ll spend in a local taproom.

The brewery rotates various special food menus for the events, usually, in my experience, something fantastic. You’ll hear German music (sometimes people speak German if one of the clubs shows up), and you’ll sip on Kölsch and nothing but Kölsch all night. It’s a thing of beauty that has yet to be replicated anywhere else in town.

The Germans Know What They’re Doing

I love modern craft beer. That should be obvious by this entire website – but there’s something unique about a Kölsch night. It doesn’t matter which one you stroll into; you’ll quickly realize that traditional Kölsch service scratches an itch that our modern taproom culture sometimes misses completely.

Conversations flow more freely.

Yes, it “unifies tastefulness, tradition passion… and of course, a good portion of localism.”

The Germans might be onto something with this whole beer thing.