Sixth Stop - Saint Arnold Brewing Co.

It’s another brewery in a warehouse district in a rough area of a big town I’m not familiar with. In fact, Saint Arnold’s itself is inside a big 100 year old former frozen food warehouse they renovated and moved into in 2009.

Saint Arnold was started in 1994 by Brock Wagner with two goals in mind. First was the Brock wanted to brew and sell the best beer in Texas, something he believes he has accomplished. Second, he wanted to create something that Houston could be proud of. This one is something that any beer fan can agree on. Brock has created a company that any city would be proud to have; Saint Arnold is a regular at community events and has a strong record of philanthropy.

When I tour small breweries I have usually been going on tours led by and speaking with an owner/founder. That makes sense for a small facility without too many employees. However, Saint Arnolds is one of the top fifty largest craft breweries in America. So yes, I was a little surprised when I was speaking with Lennie Ambrose, who works in events and marketing, and he suggested I take the brewery tour led by Brock Wagner.

There were two reasons the actual brewery tour was the shortest I’ve been on to date. First, the brewery layout is extremely logical. The brewhouse directly overlooks all of the fermentation tanks. It is just a simple set of stairs between the first and second halves of the tour. Reason two; we didn’t see any of the Saint Arnold bottling line. That’s not a huge deal, but I think a lot of people really enjoy seeing hundreds of bottles whizzing by every minute being filled, labeled, and capped. C'est la vie.

On the other side of the coin, Brock was an absolutely hilarious tour guide. He was constantly making jokes about all kinds of things. When explaining the brewing process he said that you can really brew using any kind of grain. That’s everything down to and including your morning Grape Nuts. He doesn’t suggest you try using fruity pebbles though, he thinks that’s how the make Miller Chill.

Also, after a detailed explanation of how yeast works and is utilized he also simplified it by saying “Basically, yeast eats sugar, pisses alcohol, and farts CO2.” I’ve heard similar explanations, but never phrased so elegantly.

In the book I’ll be featuring details of my conversation with Lennie Ambrose, some notes on the very, very unique events hosted by the brewery, background on Saint Arnold (both the brewery and the saint), and beer in Houston, TX.

Next posts will be Shiner and 512 Brewing.