Fire Ant Brew Pub Moves Toward Grand Opening

TOMBALL, TX — What began as a weekend hobby and trips to Houston Texans tailgate parties at NRG stadium is expected to become a hotspot in downtown Tomball later this summer.

That’s when the Fire Ant Brewpub is expected to finally open their doors.

For nearly three years Bruce Kissinger, and his partners Kurt and Carl Hohnholt, have all worked toward building the Fire Ant Brewpub but some will argue that none have worked harder than Kissinger, and that includes his wife, Sylvia.

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It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon and Kissinger and the Hohnholt brothers are all hard at work brewing thousands of gallons of beer in the back of the brew pub.

The ambiance is heavy with the smell of hops, and the sounds of classic rock and baseball, while the fermenters are working on creating the pale ales, pilsners, and IPAs that many in the Tomball area have been waiting to taste since 2015.

"People are excited about this," Kissinger told Patch. "I get calls all the time from people wonder if we're open. 'Not yet.' We're excited. We'll get there."

The journey has been in the making for about a decade, when Kissinger and the Hohnholt brothers joined their love for football with beer brewing.

In 2016, Fire Ant Brewpub broke ground, and has slowly been taking shape, with Kissinger working shoulder-to-shoulder with contractors, or at times doing a lot of the work himself including much of the refrigeration and plumbing, some of the electric and the awesome concrete bar outside, while Carl Hohnholt did much of the wood work.

Inside there are still ideas that are floating around on how things will ultimately look on the inside, but the magic is happening inside where the beer is being brewed, much of it with a German flavor.

The brewing process is pretty complex, and involves processes such as reverse osmosis, mixing and boiling, fermenting, cooling, and ultimately consuming.

When they fired up the brewing process in April, Kissinger and the Hohnholt brothers began working on new blends called a Mosaic, and a new pilsner.

"We have 16 just in our signature series, three seasonal...that's a lot of beer," Kissinger said.

The hardest part of the whole process, Kissinger said, is replicating and making sure they are all exactly the same every time.

"It's gotta tast the same every time it comes out," he said.

Once Fire Ant Brew Pub is up and running, the beer will be flowing from taps for patrons who will undoubtedly take a seat along the custom concrete bar outside that faces Market Street.

The kegs will be kept in the cooler, even when they are hooked up to the taps, which run to the bar outside.

Kissinger, who is an IT professional by trade, made up some of the cool features inside the pub as the project has moved along, such as the curved concrete bar and the massive wooden cover that is lowered on a pulley and locked to cover the taps when the outside bar is closed.

"Bruce came up with all these ideas," his wife Sylvia said.

There are still penty of ideas flowing, with Kissinger considering adding a dumwaiter operated with a garage door opener, to operate between the ground floor and the second story balcony where there will be tables for dining and drinking.

"It's been an adventure, to say the least," he said.

It will be a prime time for opening, if the July time table holds up, which means Fire Any would open at the high point of festival season in Tomball, a part of the year they've enjoyed in year's past.

"We enjoy talking to people and we enjoy people drinking our beer," he said. "It gives you a high when you're there."

Learn more about Fire Ant Brewing by checking out their website and learning about all their wonderful brews.

Image: Bryan Kirk/Houston Area Editor For Patch

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