RAHR & SONS
The story of Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. really starts when Fritz Rahr graduated from Texas Christian University. Fortunately for beer lovers in North Texas, Fritz not only fell in love with Fort Worth, but also fell in love with his future wife here. And in another fortuitous twist for all of us, Fritz’s wife, Erin, gave him the thumbs up when he announced that he would like to carry on the Rahr family tradition of brewing.
Fritz and Erin founded Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. in the fall of 2004. In five years, the brewery has more than doubled its brewing capacity — from 2,000 barrels per year to over 5,000 barrels per year and has won fifteen nationally-recognized awards, including a Bronze Medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup for Bucking Bock and 2009 National Grand Champion from the United States Beer Tasting Championships for Iron Thistle.
The Rahr family looks forward to more growth and even more awards for the brewery, but Fritz and Erin are most excited about continuing to brew great tasting beers that can be found throughout Texas and continuing to serve these great beers directly to you at a Wednesday or Saturday Tour & Tasting! Someday their sons will be brewing and serving up some of these award-winning, great tasting beers too ... as long as you keep drinking them.
When Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. opened its doors in 2004, the tag line was “The brand new beer with a 150-year history” and there’s a real story behind that statement:
The Rahr family started making beer in America in 1847 — almost immediately after William and Natalie Rahr immigrated from Rhineland, Germany to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The steadily increasing population of European settlers created a demand for beer of better quality than “the typical kitchen brew” and William — having come from a long line of German brewers — knew he was the person to fill the void (and the beer steins). His Eagle Brewery was the first lager brewery in Wisconsin.
The soil and climate around the Eagle Brewery produced a barley of particular virtue to the brewing of fine beer and William eventually added a malt house that not only supplied the needs of his brewery, but also the needs of neighboring breweries. Eventually, William started shipping his malted barley as far as St. Louis where another German pioneer and enterprising brewer used all he could for his nationally famous brand.
Tragically while on an inspection tour of the brewery in 1880, William fell into a brew kettle and suffered burns from which he never recovered. To honor their father, his sons changed the name of the brewery/malt house to William Rahr's Sons Co.
William’s sons continued guiding the malt house and under their direction the first scientific malt testing laboratory was installed and German patents for the production of roasted and caramel malts and malt-coffee were acquired. (Today, Rahr Malting Co. produces and supplies malt and industry-related brewing supplies to roughly 90% of the breweries in the United States.)
160 years after William Rahr founded the Eagle Brewery, his great-great-grandson and namesake, Frederick William "Fritz" Rahr, Jr., felt the pull to brew and with the blessing of his wife, Erin, opened Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. on the south side of downtown Fort Worth in 2004. Knowing the family history, staff at Rahr & Sons tend to get nervous if Fritz leans over a brew kettle too far.
Don’t forget our Saturday and Wednesday brewery tours and tastings. For complete details visit www.rahrbrewing.com.