Prohibition ended all that.
Now, 90 years after the start of that failed social experiment, Saint Arnold Brewing Company is bringing a brewery back to downtown. Or at least pretty close to downtown.
On Saturday, the 15-year-old craft brewery will debut to the public a new plant in a converted warehouse with fabulous views of downtown and easy freeway access. It's the result of a $7.5 million renovation and the determination of Saint Arnold founder Brock Wagner to move his company into something other than a generic concrete box somewhere off Beltway 8.
"Having a building downtown is part of our passion for being part of the community," said Wagner, a Rice University grad who started home-brewing in his dorm room more than 20 years ago.
Wagner started scouting locations for a new brewery in late 2006, and he liked what he saw in the Houston ISD food-distribution warehouse for sale at 2000 Lyons Ave. He closed on the deal in June 2008 and began adding on a brewhouse -- with room for three, 240-barrel fermenting tanks to supplement the collection of 60- and 120-barrel tanks that will make the move -- and adapting the interior of the four-story, 95-year-old warehouse to the needs of a modern brewery.
"You get all this extra character," said Wagner, "you find a use for it."
The new plant can produce 100,000 barrels of beer annually. That's four times the capacity Saint Arnold has at its current location, in an unremarkable industrial park tucked into a neighborhood outside the 610 Loop.
The extra room means that Saint Arnold, which in August reported record growth for the first half of 2009, should grow even faster.
Saint Arnold produced 9,100 barrels in 2004 and has increased that number by more than 20 percent annually. The switch in February to a new distributor got more of its product to even more retailers, and the company had moved nearly 13,000 barrels by midyear. Wagner expects to produce about 35,000 barrels in the new plant next year, which could rank the company among the nation's 50 biggest breweries.
But, Wagner added, with a crew of 24, Saint Arnold remains a small, community-oriented business at heart.
Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association trade group, said the outlook remains strong for companies like Saint Arnold across the country. The group's midyear report showed sales for small, craft brewers continued to grow during the first half of 2009 -- "dollar growth" jumped 9 percent, while "volume of craft brewed beer sold" was up 5 percent -- even as overall beer sales declined. Gatza said that trend seems to have accelerated, noting that sales of imports are down significantly.
"Beer drinkers are moving toward small, independent companies that are making more flavorful beer," he said.
Even in a recession, Gatza said, people are finding these beers an affordable treat, particularly as they become more available at the grocery store.
He also noted that many cities are finding small breweries an engine to economic development.
One of the most striking examples is Denver, where John Hickenlooper established the city's first brewpub in a rundown building two decades ago. Hickenlooper is now the mayor, and the gorgeous Wynkoop Brewing Co. helps anchor a vigorous pub and nightlife scene near the Coors Field baseball stadium.
Brian Dunn, who opened the Great Divide Brewing Co. in Denver in 1994, agreed that "breweries are a good part of city culture and city life."
The city of Denver helped Dunn get started with gap financing. In return, he agreed to operate his plant in a distressed area of town and to create jobs. Today, sales are strong and Great Divide hosts tours every Monday through Saturday afternoon.
"They're full," Dunn said. "People want to do brewery tours. They come in. They spend time here, and they spend money."
Saint Arnold will hold its first public tour in the new facility at 1 p.m. Saturday. Expect a crowd. Tours at the old plant were already drawing about 600 people a week.
Among those applauding Wagner's new project is Rice University architectural historian Stephen Fox, who called the brewery "a great reuse" of a vintage warehouse. He said he appreciates the nod to Texas' German heritage, and noted that the multiple breweries here around the turn of the 20th century were enjoyed by the community at large.
"It was a way of bringing popular conviviality to the city," he said, and he expects Saint Arnold to do the same.
Bart Truxillo, who in 1979 purchased the remaining building of the old Magnolia Brewery and now operates it as the Magnolia Ballroom, agreed.
"I think it's good to have that identity," Truxillo said. "This is my hometown beer. Everybody is territorial."
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