Local Craft Beer with A Twist - The Bend Magazine

Local Craft Beer with A Twist

Rebel Toad Brewing Company introduces its whiskey barrel-aging program

By: Kirby Tello  Photos by: Brynn Osborn

Rebel Toad Brewing Company was born from Hector Cavazos’ passion and curiosity for craft beer. After watching multiple documentaries, including How Beer Saved the World and Beer Wars, his interest in brewing beer peaked, and he began piecing together his home brewery. Wanting to share his craft with the local community, Cavazos eventually expanded into the current downtown location.

One of the most impressive things about Rebel Toad is the lineup of beer available on tap. From IPAs to red ales to porters, each beer has a unique flavor. “What we love most about craft beer is that we have the flexibility to try different techniques and styles on beers that you wouldn’t normally taste in a domestic beer,” explains Cavazos. “Since our batches are smaller, there are many more things we can try without having to stick to plain, flavorless beer.”

Taproom patrons have come to expect a vast array of experimental flavors. They can order a flight of beer to get a taste of new blends and are always delighted to see what new creation will be on tap. However, the innovation doesn’t stop there. Recently, Rebel Toad has embarked upon a whiskey barrel-aging program.

This process involves taking a currently produced beer and aging it in wooden barrels. The whiskey not only takes on the characteristics of the wood but also the flavor of the whiskey previously aged in the barrel. Since this process takes longer than average beer fermentation, Cavazos explains that the brewery has “already started a pilot whiskey barrel aging program on track to be ready by this fall.”

Rebel Toad Brewing Company is the first brewery to introduce a whiskey barrel-aging program to the Corpus Christi community. Even though other breweries around the nation have done this before, Cavazos says, “We’re just going to add our twist to it.”