Grapevine Craft Brewery sells to new indie beer maker

Updated at 11:35 a.m. to include a statement from Grapevine Craft Brewery's owner.

Grapevine Craft Brewery has been one of North Texas' more storied beer makers, undergoing several changes since its inception in 2013. Soon it will begin another new chapter.

Hop and Sting Brewing Co., a newer brewery, has purchased the business, according to an announcement Tuesday. The deal closed June 1, says Brian Burton, brewer and co-founder. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Hop and Sting Brewing Co. has been producing beer locally since November of 2017 through an alternating proprietorship agreement with 3 Nations Brewing in Farmers Branch, while hunting for a facility of its own. It currently produces three beers: Galaxy Haze Belgian white IPA, Northeast Texas IPA, and Remedio wit beer, which are available in cans and on draft.

Burton and his partners Jon Powell and Lane Joseph were in talks to begin contract brewing at Grapevine Craft Brewery when the option to purchase came about, they say. In addition to making Hop and Sting's original recipes, the owners plan to keep beloved Grapevine beers on shelves too, including Lakefire rye pale ale, Monarch blonde ale, and the award-winning Sir William's English Brown Ale.

The business will be renamed Hop and Sting at Grapevine Craft Brewery, and will retain Grapevine Craft Brewery's current staff to run the taproom.

"I'm especially stoked to be brewing some of the same beers that were developed in my parents' barn, less than 10 miles away," said Powell, a Southlake native and brewer/co-founder at Hop and Sting.

For followers of Grapevine Craft Brewery, this move may not come as a surprise. The brewery began in a facility in Farmers Branch in 2013, before building its own complete with a two-story taproom near downtown of its namesake city.

In 2016, the brewery launched a subsidiary business, North Texas Brewing Co., which leveraged its extra brewing capacity to produce beers for other businesses, such as Denton's Armadillo Ale Works and Austin's Infamous Brewing Co.

Later that year, however, Grapevine Craft Brewery stopped distributing its beers to stores and bars, citing challenges of the industry. In 2017, those beers returned to a limited number of store shelves after the brewery parted ways with its distributor, Ben E. Keith. Owner Gary Humble said at the time his new approach would be "staying small" and being "very strategic" about where the beer was available.

Humble has since parted ways with the brewery.

Hop and Sting currently has beers available at the taproom in Grapevine and has started producing there, says Burton. The deal especially sweet, he says, because all three of Hop and Sting partners previously worked at Grapevine Craft Brewery.

"It has been a long road starting Hop and Sting Brewing Co., but we finally have a home in a great community," he says. "I am also excited to be back in a facility that I helped to commission."

Glen Harrod, chief executive officer of Grapevine Craft Brewery and one of its original owners, said, "we are excited to see some of the best of the original Grapevine brewing and production team step up to take this facility and brands to the next level."

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