Brookshire’s Best Kept Secret: Baa Baa Brewhouse
Jackie VonPanda
Nestled out in the quiet town of Brookshire, in an otherwise unassuming commercial space along the highway sits what is Baa Baa Brewhouse, one of the most interesting breweries in the Houston area, if not the state of Texas. Well known for many years for their amazing hazy IPAs and fruited sours, the location attracts attention both locally and from beer enthusiasts nationwide.
Owner Marcus Wunderle and his wife Kinga have turned Baa Baa, the name’s sake of their children’s favorite nursery rhyme, into a well-known destination brewery for locals and travelers alike. First opening in 2016, Baa Baa soon made their presence known in 2017 with the release of ‘Cow Jumped Over the Moon’, the first hazy style IPA to be released in Houston area and have been pushing to perfect that style ever since.
When asked what led Marcus into pursuing a passion for making IPA’s, he explained, “We used to travel a lot before we opened the brewery, and everywhere we traveled, we would be in search of beer. One of the things we really enjoyed were the hazy IPAs that came out of L.A. and Monkish was the best.” He went on to add, “That was kind of our target. We realized people were flocking to this style of beer. We thought first of all, what is this? How would you go about making this? And, will the people in Houston buy this? It turned out that they would and they were searching for it!”
Aside from hazy IPA’s, Baa Baa now stands alone as the king of the fruited sour market with the ‘Candy Baa’ series, which has been released as well over thirty different iterations of fruited Berliner Weisse style beers over the years. The ‘Candy Baa’ releases are mostly 5% alcohol by volume or below and are more akin to a fruit slushy from the local convenient store than a beer. These beers have a cult like following all over the country. Their annual release of the Barrel Aged stout ‘Tiny’ also attracts significant attention from craft beer connoisseurs.
During my visit to the brewery, I had to settle a long-time personal curiosity. I have noticed for some time that Beer Zombies (a very popular craft brewery in Las Vegas) stickers and tin tackers are visible at both Baa Baa and at the near by Fulshear area hangout The Growler Spot. Baa Baa has done several collaborations with Beer Zombies in the past, but I had to know how a small brewery in Brookshire was so acquainted with this national powerhouse. The story I was told by Marcus was nothing short of epic! Unfortunately, I can only provide the very, very short version of it.
“We just showed up! We crashed his party (BZ 420 Fest actually) which is an annual beer festival held in Las Vegas by Beer Zombies where numerous other national breweries are invited to pour and special collaborations are dropped. We tried to get in and we walked up with some of our beer and happened upon Chris Jacobs, the owner of Beer Zombies, who asked ‘Who are you guys?’ I told him we were Baa Baa Brewing, and after chatting with him and some people from other breweries in attendance, like Other Half Brewing out of Brooklyn NY, he let us is and got us set up. We’ve become buddies from there on out.”
When asked for his version of the event, Jacobs was more than willing to expand on the story.
“So pretty much I was hosting the brewers pre party meet up at Beer Zombies and the Baa Baa team rolled up and just walked in. They came over, introduced themselves and said they came out for the festival and bought tickets to attend. They wanted to drop some beers off and let us know who they were. They made such a great first impression that I put them on the list for the next year’s festival right there on the spot.”
This encounter has led to several wildly popular collaboration beer releases between Baa Baa and Beer Zombies over the years.
Baa Baa Brewhouse looks to continue on its tradition of stellar, high-quality beer, and is grateful for all of the continued support from the beer community in what have become very difficult times for craft beer, not only in Houston but all over. With an expanding craft beer presence in the Brookshire/ Katy/ Fulshear area, I asked Marcus what his outlook for the future was and he explained, “We’ve seen some really positive growth out here. I don’t know about the rest of the industry, but out here we are seeing some good things happen. Our typical Saturday is better than it was six months ago, and better than it was twelve months ago.”
Visit Baa Baa Brewhouse at 539 FM 359 Rd S #7, Brookshire 77423. They are open every Saturday from noon to 5:30pm.
Visit Baa Baa online at @baabaabrewhouse on Instagram and by web at www.baabaabrewhouse.com
All photos by and used with permission of Sophia Von Panda (@sophia_von_panda)IG
Candy Baa photo by and used with permission of Darius Gilmore (@mrgilmorespours) IG
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