First Look: Klaus Brewing Company

09/25/2018

Todd@HoustonBeerScene

It’s an exciting time for craft brewing in Houston, there are a handful of breweries slated to open between now and the end of the year. For today, we have two of the newest to open their doors to highlight. Klaus brewing company had their grand opening this Friday and Saturday and Fire Ant Brewing Company started their soft opening phase a week before last.

Klaus is located in an industrial park on Jones Road near Falbrook, not far from excellent beer spot, The Backyard Grill. Parking appeared to be adequate for the packed opening on Friday. The taproom is fresh and inviting with sleek wooden benches, a section of bar seating, a small coffee table seating area, and a large outdoor patio featuring additional bench seating. There are plenty of card and board games to pass the time and I quickly got sucked into a game of Uno with some friendly strangers.

The taproom has a German theme as five of their six brews are German styles, and there is a display of German clothing and other decor, but the theme is relatively subdued and isn’t the stereotypical Alpine lodge look you see at many German restaurants. Their website even notes that Klaus was chosen as the brewery’s name due to being a traditional German name, meaning “The People’s Victory”. For the grand opening, they took it a step further and had a polka band, which I hope becomes a regular occurrence. Klaus does not serve their own food, but a food truck was on-site during my visit and it looks like their plan is for food trucks to be a regular thing.

I‘m happy to see that Klaus chose to specialize in brewing German-style beers, as there‘s a lot of territory to explore and few local versions available for many German styles. Their debut beers in the “Germany Series” focus on relatively low-abv and accessible styles. Their sixth brew on tap is from the “Tour of Europe Series” called ‘Ello Guv’na, an English IPA. Somewhat surprisingly, as Klaus is focusing on German styles, this was my favorite brew of the bunch and nailed the traditional malt and hop flavors of the style. This is the strongest in ABV of all their brews, still clocking in at a relatively low 6.2%. I have no complaints about their German-style brews either. One Helles Of A Lager, their Munich Helles, was a solid representation of the style with a pleasant, lightly bready malt and zesty Noble hop flavor. The body is crisp and adds nicely to the refreshing quality of the brew.

Wanderlust, an Altbier, won me over with a distinct nutty malt flavor combined with a nice hop bitterness. Dirndl Dropper, an Oktoberfestbier, is their most malt forward and second highest ABV brew at 5.8%. It’s a solid example of the darker, more malty end of the Märzen style. Kaiser Kölsch is an enjoyable crisp and dry example of the style. Edelweizen Hefeweizen was my least favorite. It feels a bit thin and doesn’t have the fluffiness I desire in a hefe, but is still a pretty good beer. Klaus met their overall goal to brew quality, German-style beers with their initial five offerings.

Klaus’ nice and shiny taproom was packed during my visit, showing that there’s a lot of interest in their concept and in Houston area brewery openings in general. I am definitely curious to see what other beer styles they tackle in the future. Maybe I’ll get the local Rauchbier or Eisbock I’ve been craving. Look for another First Look for Fire Ant Brewing Company to be released soon and, as always, if you’re aware of a new brewery opening, drop us a line so we can be sure to check it out. Cheers!

Address: 10142 Jones Road, Houston, TX 77065

Phone: (713) 498-5004

Website: http://www.klausbrewing.com/

Hours: Th 4pm – 10pm, F 4pm – 10pm, S 12pm – 10pm, Sun 12pm – 8pm

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