The Saint Arnold Brewing Company is a brewery in Houston, Texas, USA, named after a patron saint of brewing, Saint Arnulf of Metz. It was founded in 1994 by Brock Wagner and Kevin Bartol, graduates of Rice University. The brewery offers tours every weekday & Saturday afternoons, which have attracted a large following. Saint Arnold has won numerous national and international awards including Mid Size Brewery of The Year 2017.
History
Saint Arnold Brewing Company was founded in 1994 and was originally located on the far northwest side of Houston. It operated out of that location for more than fifteen years. Brock Wagner, a resident of Southgate in Houston and a graduate of Rice University, founded the company and, as of 2003, owns it. Food Service Department Building In 2008, St. Arnold announced that it planned to move from its northwest Houston facility to a new facility in the Northside district, north of Downtown Houston. By 2009 the company had purchased a three-story square foot brick building, constructed in 1914, which most recently served as a food service facility for the Houston Independent School District. The prominent location of the new brewery on the highway was key to its selection. The redevelopment effort was expected to take a year to complete and cost a total of almost $6 million. Due to unforeseen events, such as the theft of copper pipes from the building, the move was delayed and was not completed until the spring of 2010. A new round of investing to help finance the new brewery gave 100 investors 30% of the company at an average investment of $25,000 each. St. Arnold also received a bank loan from the Small Business Administration at a 4.17% interest rate over 20 years. The brewery anticipated brewing over 30,000 barrels in 2010, up from 26,000 barrels at their previous location. The maximum capacity of the new brewery is over 100,000 barrels. In 2018, the company opened a beer garden attached to the brewery with a taproom, restaurant, and gift shop. In 2019, they made a wager against Washington, DC-based DC Brau in which the winner of the World Series receives the loser's signature brews, plus other stuff from the barrel room. They lost. In mid-July 2020, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission decided to shut down dine-in service amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The TABC previously stated that most breweries with kitchens were allowed to keep their bars open, even as bars & taprooms in the state were forced to shut down. Food sales at breweries were required to make up at least 51% of total revenue in order to be considered a restaurant. They also stated to include sales & distribution of beer to off-site distributors, per their ruling. But operations resumed two weeks after.
Marketing
The brewery relies on guerrilla marketing, brewery tours and e-mail marketing to grow its business. It has an e-mail list of 30,000 people and has run innovative programs like auctioning off naming rights to its brewing vessels on eBay.
Recycling program
The brewery offers an uncommon recycling program through which usable bottle carriers may be redeemed for promotional merchandise. 200,000 bottle carriers can be redeemed for the official St. Arnold's 1957 Bentley.
