E-Malt.com News article: USA, TX: Karbach Brewing Company brewmaster receives approval to open a brewery in Tomball

Karbach Brewing Company brewmaster Chris Juergen is bringing a new brewery to his hometown of Tomball, Chron.com reported on August 11.

Juergen founded CCJ Collaborations, which received approval from the Tomball Economic Development Corporation Aug. 11 for a $254,502 incentive agreement to construct a brewery and restaurant in the Tomball Business & Technology Park.

According to a press release, the project entails 10,500 square feet of facilities including the brewery, restaurant, packing and distribution space.

“We want to do a production brewery which means we’re going to sell beer outside of our site — we want to be out in the market, focus hyperlocal on the greater Tomball area to start with and then we want to make sure we’ve got a company and a brewery and a beer that folks in Tomball can be proud of,” Juergen said.

Expected to break ground in the fourth quarter of 2020, CCJ Collaborations hopes to open the facility in the second quarter of 2021 and have beer ready for customers by spring of next year.

“We estimate that probably about 40,000 people will travel in from outside the city limits to visit our site,” Juergen said. “We’ll provide a restaurant experience for them, for the folks officing in the business park; an outdoor beer garden which will be kid-friendly and pet-friendly and just kind of a destination place for folks to come and enjoy a couple good cold beers and hang out.”

Juergen said the CCJ Collaborations isn’t quite ready to announce a name for the new brewery, but anticipates being able to soon.

Juergen is a Tomball High School alumnus and brewmaster for Karbach Brewing Company.

“I grew up in Tomball, graduated from Tomball High School in ’99, and I’ve kind of been in food and bev manufacturing industry since then,” he said. “And (started) down the path a year and a half ago of wanting to start another craft brewery and being a Tomball boy and a hometown boy, we really saw a gap there in the market to bring a brewery to the city.”

Juergen graduated from Texas A&M University and received a master’s in brewing from UC Davis. In the past, Juergen said, he’s served as assistant brewmaster at MillerCoors and has been at Karbach for the past five years.

“Look forward to bring that experience and that success to the city of Tomball,” he said.


12 August, 2020