Rahr and Sons Brewing Company
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.
Rahr Family History
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.
Rahr & Sons Brewing Company
701 Galveston Avenue
Fort Worth, Texas 76104
Phone: (817) 810-9266
email: info@rahrbrewing.com
