90+ Craft Facilities (Beer, Spirits, Wine, Cider, and Mead) Visited in 2019!

2019 has been an awesome design year for OPA as our growth has extended nationally to 3 new states (Florida, Colorado, and New York) and construction wrapped up on Rally Cap Brewing in Baton Rouge. 2020 is already looking good as the diversity in craft production facilities in architecture projects continues to broaden. We are working on multiple new distilleries, cider, and meaderies. The brewery projects have been both big and small both in size and location. As always, the growth in our craft experience has been fueled by the strong relationships we forge with our clients.

During the next few months, the blog will become more active as stories on such topics as the importance of branding, the value of memorable tasting room design, and what to look for in permitting requirements. Also, look for the ramping up to the 2nd annual Brewery Road Trip (http://thebreweryroadtrip.com/) where we will once again take on the tall order of heading out in an RV to tour what’s new in the craft world, and share those owners stories and experiences with you. Seeing more breweries through the lens of an Architect helps us understand how to translate that into all of our projects.

Meanwhile, as we look back on the year I thought it would be fun to share my list of craft facilities (brewery, winery, distillery, cider, meadery) I visited for the first time as well as a bunch I couldn’t help but find way back to. It’s been a fun and insightful year! Thank you all for the memories and sharing your knowledge with us!

Stephen Oliver | The Brewery Architect
Principal | OPA Design Studio

FIRST VISITS IN 2019

1.     New Republic Brewing (College Station, TX)

2.     Brazos Valley Brewing Company (Brenham, TX)

3.     Lone Pint Brewery (Mangnolia, TX)

4.     No Label Brewing Co (Katy, TX)

5.     11 Below Brewing Company (Houston, TX)

6.     Eureka Heights Brewing Company (Houston, TX)

7.     Buffalo Bayou Brewing (Houston, TX)

8.     Great Heights Brewing (Houston, TX)

9.     Brash Brewing (Houston, TX)

10.   Baileson Brewing (Houston, TX)

11.   Vallensons Brewing (Pearland, TX)

12.   BAKFISH Brewing (Pearland, TX)

13.   8th Wonder Brewing (Houston, TX)

14.   Sigma Brewing (Houston, TX)

15.   Saint Arnold Brewing (Houston, TX)

16.   Holler Brewing (Houston, TX)

17.   Spindletap Brewery (Houston, TX)

18.   B-52 Brewing (Conroe, TX)

19.   Copperhead Brewery (Conroe, TX)

20.   Southern Star Brewing (Conroe, TX)

21.   True Vine Brewing (Tyler, TX)

22.   Oak Highlands Brewery (Dallas, TX)

23.   Lakewood Brewing (Garland, TX)

24.   3 Nations Brewing (Carrollton, TX)

25.   Bitter Sisters Brewing (Addison, TX)

26.   Unlawful Assembly (Plano, TX)

27.   Hop and Sting Brewing (Grapevine, TX)

28.   Panther Island Brewing (Ft. Worth, TX)

29.   Cowtown Brewing (Ft. Worth, TX)

30.   Deep Ellum Funkatorium (Ft. Worth, TX)

31.   The Collective Brewing Project (Ft. Worth, TX)

32.   Rahr and Sons Brewing (Ft. Worth, TX)

33.   Martin House Brewing (Ft. Worth, TX)

34.   Hopfusion Ale Works (Ft. Worth, TX)

35.   Turning Point (Bedford, TX)

36.   Legal Draft Beer (Arlington, TX)

37.   Division Brewing (Arlington, TX)

38.   Peticolas Brewing (Dallas, TX)

39.   Celestial Beerworks (Dallas, TX)

40.   Steam Theory (Dallas, TX)

41.   Trinity Cider (Dallas, TX)

42.   Braindead Brewing (Dallas, TX)

43.   Four Corners Brewing (Dallas, TX)

44.   Pegasus City Brewery

45.   Outfit Brewing (Dallas, TX)

46.   Oak Cliff Brewing (Dallas, TX)

47.   Barrow Brewing (Salado, TX)

48.   Paradox Brewing (Divide, CO)

49.   Manitou Brewing (Manitou Springs, CO)

50.   Fossil Craft Beer (Colorado Springs, CO)

51.   Metric Brewing (Colorado Springs, CO)

52.   Local Relic (Colorado Springs, CO)

53.   Phantom Canyon Brewing (Colorado Springs, CO)

54.   BURLY Brewing (Castle Rock, CO)

55.   105 West Brewing (Castle Rock, CO)

56.   Epic Brewing Company (Denver, CO)

57.   Woods Boss (Denver, CO)

58.   Great Divide Brewing (Denver, CO)

59.   New Belgium at the Source (Denver, CO)

60.   Our Mutual Friend Brewing (Denver, CO)

61.   Ratio Beerworks (Denver, CO)

62.   Declaration Brewing (Denver, CO)

63.   Left Hand Brewing (Longmont, CO)

64.   Pumphouse Brewery (Longmont, CO)

65.   Westlake Brewing (Dallas, TX)

66.   Roughhouse Brewing (San Marcos, TX)

67.   Pretentious Beer (Knoxville, TN)

68.   Altstadt Brewery (Fredericksburg, TX)

69.   Nomadic Beerworks (Austin, TX)

70.   Pinthouse Pizza (Round Rock, TX)

71.   The Brewtorium (Austin, TX)

72.   Ivanhoe Park Brewing Company (Orlando, FL)

73.   Sideward Brewing (Orlando, FL)

74.   Hourglass Brewing (Orlando, FL)

75.   Crooked Can Brewing (Winter Park, FL)

76.   Clermont Brewing (Clermont, FL)

77.   Suncreek Brewery (Clermont, FL)

78.   Southern Heights Brewing (Austin, TX)

79.   The Brewer’s Table (Austin, TX)

80.   12 Fox Beer (Dripping Springs, TX)

81.   Urban Orchard Cider (Asheville, NC)

82.   Infinite Monkey Theorem (Austin, TX)

83.   Southern Roots Brewing (Waco, TX)

84.   Fairweather Cider (Austin, TX)

85.   Meridian Hive Meadery (Austin, TX)

86.   The Austin Winery (Austin, TX)

87.   Skull Mechanix Brewing (Austin, TX)

88.   Blackhorse Brewery (Knoxville, TN)

89.   Narrow Gauge Brewing (St. Louis, MO)

90.   Side Project Brewing (St. Louis, MO)

RETURN VISITS IN 2019

Colorado Mountain Brewery

Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery

New Belgium Brewing Company

Burial Beer Co

Green Man Brewery

Circle Brewing

4th Tap Brewing Cooperative

Oskar Blues Austin

Southerleigh Brewing

Blue Owl

Black Star Coop

Adelbert’s

Live Oak Brewing

ABGB

Friends and Allies

Texas Beer Company

Austin Beerworks

St. Elmo Brewing Company

Lazarus Brewing Co.

Oddwood Ales

Zilker Brewing Co

Hops and Grain Brewing

Pinthouse Pizza South Lamar

Pinthouse Pizza Burnet

NXNW Restaurant & Brewery

Vista Brewing

Whitestone Brewing

Oasis Texas Brewing Company

Family Business Brewing

Last Stand Brewing Company

Jester King Brewery

Celis Brewery

Texas Ale Project

Community Beer

Deep Ellum Brewing

Top 5 Things to Consider when Planning a New Brewery

 

A couple of things to consider that are often overlooked and will have a huge impact on your new brewery and ultimately, your budget.

1.      Good Sites are difficult to find.  Good sites with decent buildings are even harder to find, especially in a city like Austin.  Add to that the difficulty of finding a site with the proper zoning and you have an often infuriating ordeal set before you.  Be prepared to think outside the box with respect to location and building types.  Ceiling heights and utilities are critical but even more important is understanding the relationship between zoning and your desired brewery business goals.  Local zoning dictates so many upfront obstacles and occasionally some opportunities.  Spend lots of time getting to know local regulations with respect to alcohol sales.

2.      Know that city zoning and state laws aren't in sync with respect to what they allow and the terminology they use.  Common terms like "brewpub" and "brewery" mean very different things.  Because alcohol sales are specific to local codes, aligning your early business projections with a site permissive of what you need to get out of the gates (and supported by local demographics), is critical.  Compare these zoning entitlements to state requirements and gaps will likely be evident.  It's easy to switch to "brewery" later for state regulations, yet it's also often hard to find a prototypical neighborhood "brewpub" site unless you want to sell food in many cities.

3.      Set aside a healthy contingency (at least 10-20%) into your cost projections.  We find most of our facilities (particularly those less than 10,000 SF) spend about 1/2 of their budget on equipment and 1/2 on buildout, once purchase or lease costs and associated project soft costs are separated out.  There will always be unexpected items and some can mess up a thinly spread budget. 

4.      Make a great experience for your beer and your patrons first.  More and more breweries/brewpubs will continue to open.  I don't think we are anywhere close to market saturation, but that doesn't mean there won't be winners and losers.  Those who focus on creating that memorable and authentic environment for their customers will stand a better chance at being continuously at the forefront of the craft beer boom thru each cycle of growth.  And yes that experience can cost more, though it doesn't mean you have to just throw money at it.  Basically don't build big first, build it right first.

5.      Know your equipment needs early and update often.  Having a strong relationship between Owner, Architect and Vendors increases the opportunities for aligning utility needs with equipment requirements, allocating proper spaces when hunting down sites/buildings, leaving proper space for expansion (if that's an early priority), and identifying potential conflicts between equipment, process piping and building systems such as Mechanical and Structural.  Leaving final selection till late in the design process increases the odds for redesign, delays and added costs.

If you have had these or other bad experiences shoot us a message.  We'd love to hear about our readers experiences in this area.

Happy Brewing,

Stephen O.