Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Pope.
Sarah, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We started as homebrewers about 3 years ago and quickly realized that brewing was something we loved and wanted to do on a larger scale.
Although Houston has added a number of manufacturing breweries in the past few years, we had visited other cities that have more brewpubs and felt like Houston was missing that element.
So, our goal was to open a small neighborhood brewpub, where we could develop a personal connection with the patrons. In February of 2016, we found a small building (1,600 sq. ft.) in the Rice Village area that had spent the previous 65 years as an auto-service station, and we left it in its original condition as much as possible, only making updates required for accessibility and health code purposes.
We operate a 3.5 barrel brewhouse out of the building and currently only sell our ales on-site. We are open 3 days a week (Friday-Sunday) since we both continue to work our full-time jobs as well. When naming our business, we wanted to create something unique, so the name “Baileson” is a concatenation of our two dogs’ names, Bailey and Jameson.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As with any new business, there have been challenges. There were some delays with the City building permit process, but we had a great architect that helped us work through the City’s concerns.
We are in an old building, constructed in 1950, so there were some surprises during construction that had to be worked around. We also had various issues with our new brewing equipment in the first few months, including a pump that shorted out and the compressor on our glycol chiller going out and eventually being replaced under warranty.
Baileson Brewing Company – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Our smaller size is part of what sets us apart. We have (3) 7 BBL fermentors, so we typically don’t have the capacity/time for lagering beer, so we exclusively brew ales. The smaller size system, and the fact that we serve it all on-site allows us to try new things and to modify recipes without confusing customers about our brand in the marketplace.
Our most popular ales have been our Structural Stout, which is a breakfast stout (including oats/coffee), and our two IPAs, Amarillo Hopkins – a SMASH-style IPA, and Masinghorn, our West Coast style IPA. As our name/logo suggests we are very dog-friendly, which is another aspect of our place that we enjoy because patrons love to bring their fur-babies to the pub. Sarah makes home-made dog treats from the spent grain (from the brewing process) as well.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Seeing how happy patrons are when they are at our place, and seeing them get to know each other and form new friendships has probably been the most rewarding part. Pubs are meant to be communal spaces where neighbors become friends, and we are very proud to be a part of that.
Pricing:
- Pints are $6 (including tax)
- Half-pints are $3.50-$4 (including tax)
- 32 oz Growler Fills are $10 (including tax, most)
- 64 oz Growler Fills are $20 (including tax, most)
- Shirts – $20+tax (short sleeve), $25+tax (long sleeve)
Contact Info:
- Address: 2322 Bissonnet Street Houston, Texas 77005
- Website: www.bailesonbrewing.com
- Phone: (832) 516-9828
- Email: beer@bailesonbrewing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bailesonbrewing/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bailesonbrewing/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bailesonbrewing
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/baileson-brewing-houston?osq=baileson
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