This being North Texas Beer Week, we’ve got a tale for you about one of the region’s best-known craft brewers. It’s Barry Shlachter’s cover story for D CEO on Fort Worth’s indefatigable Fritz Rahr, whose pioneering but undercapitalized Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. faced collapse more than once.
As Barry tells it, Rahr is descended from a long line of Midwestern brewers with deep German roots. But Fritz made his stand in Cowtown, where he began brewing German-style lagers in an old Pepsi warehouse south of downtown and personally delivered and even shelved the stuff. Then came a series of spectacular calamities, including a flood of red ink, an investor who tried to give him the boot, and a big snowstorm that collapsed the brewery roof.
Thanks to loyal friends, though—and an especially fortuitous insurance-policy clause—Rahr survived and has come back strong. Today he’s selling 19,500 barrels (or 604,500 gallons) of craft brew per year, not only in Texas but in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, and Louisiana. Next year he’ll start offering his product in additional states including Minnesota and Wisconsin, meaning a Rahr beer will be available in those Midwestern states for the first time since the 1960s … effectively bringing the Rahr family saga full circle.
Check out the whole story here. And, for those attending North Texas Beer Week’s featured events, there will be a Rahr & Sons Pint Night at Old Chicago (that’s in Mockingbird Station) Wednesday night at 7.
