E-Malt.com News article: USA, TX: Peticolas Brewing Company opens in Dallas

It's another giant step for beer in Dallas: the opening of Peticolas Brewing Company, the second inner-city brewery coming on the heels of Deep Ellum Brewing Co. which opened in Deep Ellum in December, Pegasus News reported on January, 11.

Peticolas is literally a mom-and-pop: the brewery is wholly owned by lawyer Michael Peticolas and his wife Melissa, who are proud of their ownership and the fact that they don't share the keys with investors big or small.

Michael moved mountains to launch the brewery, from persuading the city to create a new sub-district in the Design District that could officially brew beer, to overseeing the mind-numbing details of construction. But the brewery is now up-and-running, and the first batch is being brewed.

"I'm doing the brewing, the distributing, I'll drive up myself with a keg of beer I've made - people will say, 'Here comes Michael with a tub'," Peticolas says.

That locally-made DIY approach is what he's about. He was first inspired to brew beer by his mother, a home brewer, and started doing it himself when a lawyer friend gave him some surplus brewing equipment.

"We brewed a Belgian beer clone and had a really good time doing it," Peticolas says. "From that point on, I got obsessive compulsive. Once I find something I enjoy, I like doing it all the time. And then I got encouragement when folks would tell me it was better than what they could buy at the store."

Peticolas Brewing Co. is a brewery - as opposed to a brewpub.

"A brewpub like Humperdink's or BJ's can sell their beer to customers to drink on the premises, but they can't sell their beer to other restaurants or bars or grocery stores," Peticolas says. "The opposite of that is a brewery - which produces beer that it can package in bottles or kegs, but can't sell beer to someone who comes in. It's a great hindrance to Texas breweries, and it's one of the laws that is almost exclusive to Texas. Most other places, you can go to a brewery, try the beer, and if you like it, you can buy a case. The wine industry in Texas had the same restrictions, but their lobby successfully got that law changed."

To get around it, breweries such as Rahr & Sons in Fort Worth and Franconia in McKinney - and eventually Peticolas, too - host tours for which they charge a small fee, then give away free tastes of their beer.

"One area where I'm trying to differentiate myself from other breweries is that I'll let the market help decide what I'm going to make," Peticolas says. "I learned from seeing these one-off limited releases of beer that fly off the shelves. Real Ale came out with a limited-release Fireman's No. 4, and people are drinking the heck out of it. So rather than come out with a couple beers, and announce that 'This is my beer,' I want to make a couple different kinds of beers per quarter, until restaurants say, 'Our customers love this.' I'll make different beers that are good for each season."

He's producing only 1,500 barrels the first year, in kegs only, no bottles yet. His first release: the Velvet Hammer, an imperial red ale, which will be served only at Meddlesome Moth.

"The beer is still fermenting," he says. "When it's done, we'll have enough yeast to brew more, carbonate the first batch, and get it out in the market."


11 January, 2012