Who we are...
BrewHound is (until I find a better word) my brainchild. It all started when a buddy that I used to work with presented me with a brown bottle one day telling me "I brought you a beer that I made." My reaction was something along the lines of "what are you talking about?" The notion of making beer at home had never crossed my mind and I wasn't even that much of a beer drinker back in those days. I took the beer home and put it in the refrigerator to get cold. I opened it. I drank it. It was superb! A chocolate porter that I can remember to this day; bitter, dark chocolate notes, rich, with a surprising alcohol kick hiding in there.
A few months later I had gone online, ordered my basic gear and made my first batch. It was good! And I was hooked on a hobby that would begin to permeate much of my life. After a couple of years I was growing hops in my vegetable garden which was rapidly expanding as I was becoming someone who was tired of buying so much stuff when I could grow or make it myself and often with much better results. Beer, wine, cider, mead, I made all of them. I was using beer and wine in my cooking and mead was my new champagne for special holidays (5 gallons of sparkling dry mead lasts a while). Spent grain from brew day became an ingredient in the cookies that I'd make for my dogs.
The garden kept growing and I was preserving my produce by canning, freezing, dehydrating - and beer seemed to fall right in line with other "preserves". A way to keep something around that I wanted to have for later. Brewing began to require planning in order to age it for a particular time just like the garden had to be planned so that plants were in the ground at the right time in order to harvest at the right time. This was all incredibly fun!
I became very animated whenever I had the opportunity to talk about beer, food, preserving, fermenting, etc., and this topic became much of my reading material. Eventually, I had to leave the "day job" (misery), cash out the 401k, and try to make this work. I didn't want a brewery. A brewery was far too expensive for my budget, too much work and too much of that work involved cleaning. I had spent over 20 years in retail and customer service and after visiting a lot of homebrew shops I could see gaps where I believed I could provide something that other stores missed.
I wanted a clean, bright, friendly space where customers could come and visit, were encouraged to hang around and discuss what they want to make so that I could hopefully help out as we put ideas together. There isn't a box or kit for everything and, like me, I expected that my customers would like to talk about what they're doing and/or what they want to make. This was the consultation part that was missing in many of my early shopping experiences and I knew that it would have to be a cornerstone of BrewHound.
And no way would we limit this to beer and wine! Cider, mead, cheese, food fermentations and as much as possible involve other local folks who were crafting and creating in ways that echo what we're wanting to do here. We. My wife Amy, without whom I could never have pulled this off has been a source of inspiration and encouragement all along the way. She keeps me on my toes and keeps a hand on the rudder just in case I start to veer off course.
If you've read this far then you must be pretty interested so come on by and let's talk! The shop is small but it's growing and I want it to become the place you turn can to for anything you need. If I don't have it, I'll either get it or tell you where you can find it. I'm not a rich guy indulging myself here and there aren't any deep pockets in my family that are backing me. I'd be honored to have you as a customer and a guest in my place of business.
Christopher Bart
BrewHound / 8808 Camp Bowie West, Suite 160 / Fort Worth, TX 76116 / 817-615-9551