Saint Arnold Brewing Company

About the Business

History

Established in 1994.

Saint Arnold Brewing Company, located in Houston, is Texas' Oldest Craft Brewery. Our goal is to brew world class beers and deliver them to our customers as fresh as possible making them the best beers in Texas, Louisiana and Florida. Our first keg of beer was shipped on June 9, 1994. Founded by Brock Wagner and Kevin Bartol, we chose Houston because, other than living here, this was the largest city in the country that did not have a microbrewery. Brock was a longtime homebrewer and had considered opening a brewery as far back as college, although that was quickly dismissed as a silly idea. Seven years after graduating, Brock revisited the idea, enlisted Kevin's help and the brewery was off and running. Originally located in a small building in the 610/290 area, we moved to our current location off of I-10 by Downtown in 2010 for the space and the tour hall (but also air conditioning).

Meet the Business Owner

Business owner information

Brock W.

Business Owner

Brock Wagner has a long history with beer. In fact, it starts before he was born. His great-great-great grandfather came from Alsace in the mid-1800's and opened Wagner's Beer Hall in San Francisco (now the oldest existing bar in the city, renamed The Saloon.) Brock grew up in Cincinnati and Brussels, both big brewing towns, where he was exposed to many of the beer styles of the world. Then in college at Rice University, fate (and a friend) introduced him to homebrewing. This love of beer and brewing was what eventually led him to the inevitable: opening a microbrewery.Brock develops the recipes for the Saint Arnold beers based on his own homebrewing experience coupled with a desire to create world class beers for local tastes. His preference is for beers with rich malty, creamy flavors and no shortage of hops. Brock also revived the old tradition of cask ales, a style of beer not seen distributed in Texas since probably prior to Prohibition.