Howard Huge (Fat Ass Brewery Muffler Man)

Fredericksburg, Texas, United States

·

Characters and mascots

✓

Current

Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Howard Huge is a fibreglass Muffler Man standing outside Fat Ass Ranch and Brewery on US 290 at the eastern limit of Fredericksburg, Texas. American Giants says he was delivered to Texas in December 2018; Craft Beer Austin says he holds a stein and a can.

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

No recommended arrival yet

We have not checked a recommended place to arrive or stop here yet.

This takes you to the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Howard Huge (Fat Ass Brewery Muffler Man)

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Site-level location · 30.2895° N, 98.7590° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A hatted giant holding a stein in one hand and a can in the other stands outside Fat Ass Ranch and Brewery on US 290 at the eastern limit of Fredericksburg, Texas. He is Howard Huge, a Muffler Man, and his history before Texas is the part worth knowing.

According to American Giants, the company that moved him, Marden's, a salvage and surplus business in Maine, bought a Muffler Man in the mid-1970s and named him Howard Huge. He stood in front of a few of its stores, and in the late 1990s he was moved to a warehouse. In 2017, while the warehouse was being cleared out, he was found again, and Marden's asked American Giants to help find a buyer. American Giants connected the company with The Wine Garage in Fredericksburg, which bought him and hired the firm to transport, restore and set him up. American Giants says it delivered him to Texas in December 2018 and helped raise him onto a sign built for him.

Craft Beer Austin, in an article published in October 2025, describes him as a 20-foot fibreglass Howard Huge made in 1960 and purchased by Fat Ass in 2017. It says Fat Ass altered the figure so that he holds a stein and a can, with the brewery's logo on his hat, and that you know you have reached the brewery "when you see Howie." It adds that the winery and brewery occupy separate buildings and that you pass the winery first.

The statue stands on a working brewery's grounds on the highway east of town, so a visit to him is also a visit to the brewery.

Add a photo

PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

A large Muffler Man in front of a brewery on US 290, modified to hold a stein and a can. The brewery has a taproom that Craft Beer Austin describes as retro-inspired, with old car memorabilia. It is business property.

ACCESS

Outside Fat Ass Ranch and Brewery, 11602 E. U.S. Highway 290, at the eastern edge of Fredericksburg, Texas. It is on the brewery's business property; the winery is a separate building passed first when arriving from town.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

✓

Current

Giant Man Howard (Wine Garage)

Fredericksburg, Texas

Howard Huge is a fiberglass Muffler Man with a cap and bow tie. American Giants reported on 7 January 2019 that he was delivered to Texas in December 2018 and put up on a large sign at the Wine Garage on US Highway 290 east of Fredericksburg. The Society for Commercial Archeology also describes him holding a wine bottle and a wrench. An undated listing shows the Wine Garage as closed. No source found shows whether the statue is there now.

Characters and mascots

·

7.8 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Something not right?

If this Big Thing has changed, moved or gone, telling us keeps the guide honest for the next traveller.

Suggest an update →Report a problem →