Saint Arnold Brewing Company Posts Strong Growth in First Half
29 percent increase is more than four times the craft brewing industry’s growth nationwide
HOUSTON, July 29, 2008 – Saint Arnold Brewing Company (www.saintarnold.com), the oldest craft brewery in Texas, has broken another barrier in its rapid growth. The brewery reported today that production exceeded 10,000 barrels in the first half of 2008. That puts the brewery on pace to brew more than 20,000 barrels of beer this year for the first time.
Through June 30th, production volume exceeded 10,500 31-gallon barrels of Saint Arnold beer, an increase of 29 percent over the same period in 2007. Nationwide, the Brewers Association reports that in the first half of 2008 volume of beer sold by craft brewers grew at a 6.5 percent. In the first six months of 2008, Saint Arnold Brewing came close to matching the amount brewed in all of 2005.
“While this year has created a challenging economic environment in which to operate, we never lost our focus on brewing full-flavored quality beer,” said Brock Wagner, founder of Saint Arnold Brewing. “Like all craft breweries, we have endured rapidly increasing costs for raw materials and shipping. We were concerned how our own price increases would affect demand for our beers, but have been gratified to see that our customers’ support has not wavered.”
Due to strong demand and capacity limitations, Saint Arnold Brewing Company recently announced the purchase of a historic building near downtown Houston for a new brewery. The company has operated out of the same Northwest Houston facility since it was established in 1994. With a projected opening of June 2009, the new facility will immediately double Saint Arnold’s brewing capacity.
Saint Arnold is preparing to reintroduce Saint Arnold Oktoberfest in August and plans to release the next version of Saint Arnold Divine Reserve in September. The latest in the brewery’s series of small batch craft brews, Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 7 will be a Weizenbock, a strong Bavarian wheat beer.
About Saint Arnold Brewing Company
Saint Arnold Brewing’s ten brews are made and sold by the company’s staff of 21 dedicated employees. The brewery was listed by USA Today as one of the “10 great places to see what’s brewing in beer.” It is located at 2522 Fairway Park Drive and its brewery tour and tasting is offered every Saturday at 1:00 P.M. For more information on Saint Arnold’s five year-round and five seasonal beers as well as root beer, log on to www.saintarnold.com.
