Summertime 2011 Part 2: Rahr Brewery

When on vacation in the Dallas/Fort Worth area I went to the Rahr Brewery, which brews a limited number of beers it sells all over the DFW area. It is good beer, and they offer tours twice a week, which is a good way to sample what they offer. The interesting thing is that its tours are offered, but there is not much of a tour since the warehouse, bottling area, and brewery are all near each other. There is a short explanation about the brewery, and a brief description on how beer is brewed, and the rest if the time is spent enjoying three beers in the glass they give you for walking in the door. They have a food stand available selling bar food, and a band entertaining us, and that is about it. They offered three of their beers, which I tasted, and found them to have their own interesting taste differences from other brands making the same styles of beer.

These guys started up this brewery in the tradition of their ancestor who opened their brewery, the Eagle Brewery, in Wisconsin, over 150 years ago. The original guys changed their direction to malting, and all this time later the latest Rahr, Fritz, opened up the Fort Worth brewery 7 years ago. It is only available locally but has a pretty good output for a microbrewery. It is so hot there I bought coozie that is made to hold a pint glass. Kind of a cool idea.

Now for the beers: The first, Stormcloud IPA, upon the recommendation of the pourer, was a good tasting ale, slightly bitter and piney. Strong too, which surprised me that I would like it so much, since it is so hot down there. Compares well with the better IPAs.
Rating: 4.
Next I tasted only about 4 oz of the Blond. Unfortunately I have not been much of a Blond Ale fan, and I found it to be much like what I expected in a blond. Kind of a funky taste at the end.
My Rating: 2.
Finally I tasted the Ugly Pug, which is a Black Lager similar to Shiner Black, but with a little more chocolate edge and a lot more malt than other lagers. I found it really good and worthy of another, which I had. It is their biggest seller, and nice for a brewery to sell so much of a beer that is not just an ordinary ale or lager.
Rating: 5.

This was a fun afternoon, sitting at a picnic table in kind of a hot warehouse, but everyone was having a good time and the beer and food were good. They must have good distributors because they sell it in the local Kruegers plus all the liquor stores all over that part of Texas.