A new brewery is coming to Houston’s Hardy Yards neighborhood this fall. Bad Astronaut Brewing Company is a new brewery developed by two former Karbach Brewing employees, Chris Fall and Rocky Keener.
Fall hopes to open the more than 30,000-square-foot space at 1519 Fulton St. in Houston this September, but they are still waiting on permitting from the city and the Certificate of Occupancy.
“It’s been a lifelong dream for both of us,” Fall said. Fall’s father and grandmother both worked in the beer industry. Fall picked up homebrewing while working as an electrician, later got a job with Karbach, and spent more than 10 years in the brewing industry. Keener also worked at Karbach for 8 years. “We just discussed it non-stop for many, many years, that we wanted to do something. When the opportunity arose, we took it,” Fall told What Now Houston.
One night, Fall and Keener were discussing possible business names, and Keener mentioned “Space City” and then Bad Astronaut. Fall asked the premise, and Keener said that it is about an astronaut who went through the trouble to become an astronaut. The man then decided he didn’t want to travel to space but wanted the glory.
“We thought that rang with us,” Fall said. “We’re not astronaut smart, but we’re smart,” he laughed. “We are going to put a bunch of work into it and want all the glory and have all the fun. That’s where we came up with it.”
The space formerly served as the Texas Screw Products factory. The space has been used as storage for more than a decade. “We basically have a whole city block next to downtown,” Fall said. “We love the neighborhood, and we love how close it is to everything here. It is very much an up-and-coming neighborhood.”
About 12,000 square feet will be used for the taproom and will include free-play gaming. “We’re going to have pool tables, shuffleboard, dart boards, foosball, air hockey, cornhole, all indoors.” About 8,000 square feet will be used as the production area with brewing and packaging equipment.
Bad Astronaut will feature four core beers including Helles Lager, which is a very light German lager, a German Pilsner, Hazy IPA, and a “West Coast-ish” IPA. “It’s going to be something different that nobody’s really had before,” Fall explained. Bad Astronaut will also offer seasonal beers.
For now, Bad Astronaut will not offer a food menu, but plans are to have food trucks on-site. They plan to add a kitchen or purchase a food truck at some point. “We decided early on to focus on the brewing and taproom side and really make that perfect right away. And then, as we move forward, we’ll add a kitchen and food service,” Fall said.
Correction: Article updated to correct Chris Hall mentions to Chris Fall.
