Saint Arnold Brewery Celebrates 30 Years

A lot has happened since 1994 for all of us. For Saint Arnold Brewing founder Brock Wager, ‘a whole lot has changed. As Saint Arnold Brewing prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary this Saturday, June 8, I sat down with Saint Arnold founder and original brewer Brock Wagner to reflect on the last 30 years. 

What does it mean for you to have reached 30 years with Sain Arnold Brewing? 

It isn’t something I ever contemplated. It’s not like I never thought we would make it, but when you’re starting, you think about five years, maybe 10 years. I think I even thought about 20, even 25 or 30 when I was 29, which is how old I was when we shipped our first keg of Amber Ale. I never thought 30 years. 

That’s sort of the weird future that 29-year-olds don’t think about. I’m excited about it and I’ve gotten more excited about it being the 30th anniversary as I’ve talked about it. I think it’s very exciting for the team. You know, it’s funny to think about how many people on the team weren’t even born when the brewery opened.

I think what I’m most excited about is how the brewery is thriving today. 30 years in, you know, and all the different craft beer markets we’ve been through, part parts of the craft beer curve. I mean, we’ve experienced all of it and it’s probably one of the reasons that I think that we are thriving today. You’re seeing some struggle because we’ve seen, we know it’s not always a rosy market. That it’s just a rising tide that lifts all boats all the time. I think it’s gratifying to see where we are, the amazing team that we’ve put together, because ultimately, I think that’s what makes St. Arnold what it is.

You mentioned various types of beer industries in the last 30 years that you’ve gone through. What are your thoughts on how St. Arnold, despite changes in the environment over the years, has survived?

I feel like we have survived because we have focused on quality since day one. It’s the number one item in our company principles. Our original principles are the same as when I wrote them in 1993 and they’re on the first page of everybody’s employee handbook when they join the company. Quality is fundamental and that goes to everything that we do. It’s not just the beer, it’s our hospitality. It’s how we deal with people, it’s how we develop our labels and graphics. 

You never can never let up. I feel like that is the one tenant that has kept us going. Though it is very unsexy, you have to run it like a business and be analytical about the business side of it. You have to watch your budget and you have to do projections. I think those are the things that helped us make it through the first 10 years when there were lots of breweries falling by the wayside. I feel like that is why we are thriving right now when there certainly are a lot of breweries that are facing a lot of challenges. I’m bullish on craft beer. It’s not going away. It’s just gone up for so long. We’re probably due for a correction and we’re going through that right now and corrections are hard. 

What’s one major difference between 2024 and the years beforehand?

I would say that we continue to push ourselves to keep moving forward, to keep coming up with new beers, and trying to figure out how we do what we do better. I think we have an entire team that is focused on creating some really good energy. As a company coming through the pandemic, there was just a lot of uncertainty.

I feel like we kind of know where we are and what the market is and we’re just out there working to grow. We’ve been growing consistently in the last couple of years but at low percentage rates. When the market is shrinking though, we’re gaining share. This year I think we’re up about 5% so far. We continue to feel good about that.

What do you think your biggest takeaway from the last 30 years might be for St. Arnold?

I think one of my biggest takeaways would be to open your brewery in a state with good beer laws because that was the real game changer for Texas pre-2013. It was challenging, and when we got those laws changed in 2013, it changed the profitability of opening a brewery in this state. 

I remember when I started kind of working on it [changing the beer laws], it was like 2005 or 2006, and then I think a session later, Brad Farbstein (Real Ale Brewing) and I walked the halls of the Texas capitol. It was depressing to talk to these legislators, who’d say ‘This makes total sense, but I’m sorry we can’t help you.’ We had two legislators say to us that they’re sorry, but the beer distributors give us too much money. I thought, well I appreciate your honesty.

It was always so weird to me that our business partners and our distributors with who we have great relationships, the second we walked into the Capito it would become this adversarial relationship. I truly think the dynamic that changed was when lots of other breweries started to open around 2011 and 2012, and Scott Metzger (Freetail Brewing founder) working on the brewpub side and us working on the brewery side, that gave us a critical mass.

What new beers would you love to brew over the next 30 years?

In the first 30 years, I’ve probably brewed almost everything. I feel like we’ve covered a lot of ground, though there are certainly beers out there that people make that we don’t make that aren’t necessarily my cup of tea. I think it’s great that there’s room for everybody in this industry. I think continuing to kind of refine some of our lagers is something that I look forward to doing.

I think being involved with hop growers and the development of new hops is fun and I look forward to brewing beers with new hops that haven’t been invented yet. I think that that’s going to be a lot of fun. We put a pilot system online at the brewery a few months ago, and that’s been a lot of fun and something that I look forward to continuing to play with because there are a lot of beers that you can make three and a half barrels of easily sell through the beer garden.

After 30 years of Saint Arnold, if you could say anything to the City of Houston, what would it be?

Thank you. We appreciate all the support not just in Houston, but really throughout the state. It’s fun to go and see people who have been big supporters of us for 25-plus years. 

There was a hardcore group that were our supporters in the early days and that’s what pulled us through. We had very, very loyal customers who went and proselytized for us. I’’ run into people who met at the brewery, they went on their first date here and now they come every year. We get a lot of things like that and those are super fun. 

Today we still feel like we have that kind of support from the community. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s heartwarming to go and hear, hear what St. Arnold means to people here in Houston and around Texas.