Red Horn Restructures Operations, Names New Head Brewer
Red Horn Coffee House and Brewing Co.
1615 Scottsdale Dr. Building 1 Suite 110, Leander, TX 78641
By Jackie Von Panda
One recent night, I was relaxing with a cold beer and watching some streaming show. I did not have a care in the world after a long day of work—at least until an unexpected notification popped up on my phone. I lazily reached over, assuming it was one of a million messages from the normal group chat, but instead saw a message from Phil Park, Head Brewer of Red Horn. My interest immediately piqued. Eager to pause whatever show I had been halfheartedly paying attention to, I opened the message, curious about what message contained.
Park had exciting brewery news to share before it was announced publicly: Red Horn was restructuring its brewing operations. As part of the change, Park was being promoted to Head of Brewing Operations, and a new head brewer was being brought in to take his place. He ended by asking whether I wanted to stop by and meet Red Horn’s soon-to-be newest head brewer, Evan Cooper. Of course, I was interested!
Cooper, a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a seasoned veteran of the brewing industry. He recently spent several years brewing for Modern Times Beer and Stone Brewing in San Diego. His beginnings in beer started at a young age. His dad owned a small nano brewery that was open on the weekends, and Cooper spent many of those weekends parked at a computer at one of the brewery tables. As time went on, he began homebrewing in college with a close friend. After college, life took Cooper to Utah and its abundance of mountains and ski resorts.
“I moved to Salt Lake City. I wanted to be around the mountains and just be a mountain bum,” Cooper explained. During his time in Utah, Cooper found himself at Epic Brewing one day and asked the staff if there were any part-time openings at the brewery. Coincidentally, there was, and Cooper was soon hired as a beer-tender for the establishment.
Cooper would later move back to Wisconsin, then again to Minneapolis, finding full-time work in barrel rooms and other back-of-house responsibilities and began to learn the craft. Those experiences eventually led him to San Diego, where he took a brewing job at Stone Brewing. Cooper would also spend time at Modern Times before a return stint at Stone. It was during his time in San Diego that he met Park, and the two became friends.
That relationship ultimately led Cooper to Red Horn. Once Park learned he needed to find someone to replace him as head brewer, he reached out to Cooper and asked whether he would be interested in moving to Texas.
Cooper describes himself as a lover of all things lager, especially an amazing German-style Schwarzbier. He also has a fondness for well-made pale ales and clean West Coast-style IPAs. Through the changes, Red Horn remains committed to producing excellent beer with Cooper at the helm. With Cooper stepping into the brewhouse, Red Horn’s next chapter feels both familiar and fresh. The lagers will still matter, the IPAs will still be clean, and the beer will still carry the care regulars have come to expect. So next time you find yourself at Red Horn, raise a glass, welcome Evan Cooper to Texas, and see what he has brewing next.
