We’re honest, friendly, down-to-earth brewers delivering world class passion in a glass.
How many people can trace their brewing roots back to their mom? Well, Michael Peticolas’s mom, Jacque Peticolas, started brewing a Mexican styled beer at her El Paso home in the mid-1990s. Poured from big brown 22 ounce bomber bottles, those copper colored light ales with a hint of apricot hit the spot, especially during the long hot Texas summers. That’s when we first experienced the satisfaction of drinking and sharing beer made at home that tasted better than the beer for sale down the street.
After practicing law for a decade, Michael Peticolas turned to his passion for craft beer. In 2010, he enrolled in the American Brewers Guild’s Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering program, wrote a business plan, and formed the Peticolas Brewing Company. The following year, he built a brewery and on December 30, 2011, Michael brewed his first batch of beer, an Imperial Red Ale called Velvet Hammer. During the first year of operations, Michael acted as the brewery’s sole brewer, cellarman, distributor, and brewery representative. Volunteers pitched in from day one and every brewery employee to date started as a volunteer having never worked at another brewery.
In its first year of operations, Peticolas Brewing Company won numerous local and national awards, including the biggest award in the brewing industry, a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF). A GABF gold medal is an objective measure that a beer is a world class example of a particular style. Peticolas Brewing’s Royal Scandal, an English pale ale, won the award after less than 2 months in the market. During its third year of operations, Peticolas Brewing brought home another gold medal at the GABF. This time Great Scot!, a Scottish Ale, won gold in the aged beer category. In 2017, the brewery hauled in a silver medal from the GABF for It’s Always Something, a Belgian Strong Ale and in 2018, Peticolas Brewing was named the best brewery in America at the US Open Beer Championship.
In 2013, Texas craft brewers elected Michael to the board of directors for the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. After serving for a year, the board elected Michael co-chair of the legislative committee, which seeks to expand the rights of Texas craft brewers via legislative measures. In an effort to further expand the rights of Texas craft brewers, Peticolas Brewing also sued the State of Texas in an effort to declare an anti-craft beer law unconstitutional. Litigation is ongoing, but a favorable judgment will be a victory for all Texas craft brewers. Peticolas’s legislative and judicial efforts, as well as its award winning beer, have established the brewery as a craft beer industry leader in Texas.
Eighteen days after Texas’ new beer-to-go law went into effect, manufacturing brewers are reporting high levels of consumer enthusiasm for the opportunity to buy and take home packaged beers from taprooms.
The Texas Supreme Court today declined to hear a constitutional challenge brought by three craft breweries to a 2013 state law that stripped beer companies of the ability to sell their distribution rights to wholesalers. The Institute for Justice, a law firm representing the three craft breweries, called the Supreme Court’s refusal to review the case today “a blow to the economic liberty of all Texans.”
summer, Peticolas Brewing Company heads to Austin for a month long Beer Vacation. The award winning brewery begins distribution to the craft beer friendly city on July 1 and plans to take their kegs back to Dallas at the end of the month.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: President Donald Trump makes tax reform law; Left Hand seeks $6 Million in damages in White Labs lawsuit; the Beer Institute releases November domestic tax paid estimates; the Brewers Association offers to pay to return lost kegs; and more.
Land-Brewing Company is excited to announce the launch of its Supporter Series line of collaboration beers, a project that grew out of its partnership with, and support for, Columbus Crew SC.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is striking back against a ruling that had granted craft brewers the right to sell their distribution and territorial rights, according to the Dallas Business Journal.