Fire Ant Brewing to close in Tomball as founders retire

Bruce and Sylvia Kissinger will close Fire Ant Brewing Company on Sunday, May 17, bringing an end to the Tomball brewpub they built into a neighborhood mainstay at 308 Market Street. The Kissingers said they are retiring, turning the final service into a founder-led farewell rather than a business collapse.

Fire Ant has been part of Old Town Tomball since October 2018, when Bruce Kissinger turned a homebrewing hobby into a full brewpub. His brewing path started with five-gallon batches over an open flame, then expanded through a ten-gallon Braumeister system and ultimately to a 5 BBL Braumeister setup. The brewery describes its lineup as a Signature Series of German-style beers, a point of identity that fit Tomball’s German heritage and helped shape the concept from the start.

The house beers became part of the draw: Hell’s Heavenweizen, Cream Ale and Fire Ant Gold were among the signature pours regulars came to expect. Fire Ant also leaned into a food menu that made it more than a taproom, with items such as the Fire Ant Reuben, Pimento Cheeseburger, Giant Pretzel and Schnitzel sandwich giving the place the feel of a casual local restaurant as much as a brewery.

That mix of beer, food and routine made Fire Ant a familiar stop for Tomball regulars. The brewpub hosted trivia or bingo on Wednesdays and live music on Thursdays, and its market-side location near the Depot entertainment district helped anchor Old Town Tomball’s dining and craft beer scene. City officials had spent years looking for someone to bring a brewery to Tomball before Fire Ant opened, and the Kissingers said the town’s German roots and lack of a local brewery helped inspire the project.

The closure leaves one more question hanging over Market Street: what comes next for the space. Some customers have already hoped another operator might take it over, but no successor has been announced. For now, the final stretch belongs to the Kissingers, the staff they described as family, and the last weeks of service before a brewpub that began as a backyard project pours its final pint in Tomball.