CITY OF KATY, Texas (Covering Katy News)—As No Label Brewing Co. prepares to celebrate its 15th anniversary Nov. 29, the City of Katy has joined a statewide program to help celebrate both the milestone and promote craft beer tourism.
According to the city, craft beer contributes more than $5.3 billion annually to the Texas economy and supports over 30,000 full-time jobs. Kaci Maris, the city's tourism and marketing events coordinator, learned of Brew City, Texas, a program created by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild to promote craft beer tourism and local economic growth. She took the idea to city leaders, who supported the idea of Katy joining the program.
"It was clear this initiative was a perfect fit for Katy and our goals to promote tourism, support local business, and position our city as one of Texas' premier destination communities," Maris said.
Other cities in this program include Austin, Georgetown, Lubbock, McKinney and Waco.
Acknowledging a meaningful recognition
"We're a pretty small town, and No Label, for the last 15 years, we've been kind of doing our best to shine a light on to Katy through the beer that we make in those historic rice silos," Tom Paynter, No Label co-owner, said. "For the city to acknowledge all the stuff that we're doing to say, you know, we're a brew city that makes some of the best craft beer in Texas, it means the world to us."
Paynter said people look at No Label Brewing Co., 5351 First St., as a bar, but the real "sweat" of the place is in the former rice dryers where the beer gets made and distributed elsewhere.
"We have farmers that come in early in the morning to either pick up grain or drop off spent grain," Paynter said, adding that other partners are part of the brewing process. "To keep this operation running, we're a production facility first and foremost, and it can be a lot of fun, but can also be a lot of sweat and tears."
Maris said No Label has been a community partner by hosting events, supporting local causes and earning recognition for its beers.
"Their success makes them a perfect fit for Katy, the Home of Champions, and joining the Brew City, Texas program was an easy way for us to celebrate and support that spirit," Maris said.
Competing and winning awards
The anniversary comes as No Label Brewing has won awards at the Texas Craft Brewers Cup, World Beer Cup, Great American Beer Festival and U.S. Open.
"We've been in every major craft beer competition this year, which is an extremely rare feat," Paynter said. "We certainly couldn't be more proud of ourselves for pulling all of it off."
No Label's celebration also commemorates another milestone.
"Earlier this year, we purchased the property, which has been kind of 15 years in the making," Paynter said, adding that now he and co-owner Randy Rodriguez can start making improvements, such as air conditioning.
"It's been a long time coming, but it's finally there, and we're working with the city to make sure that more improvements are on the way," Paynter said. "It's just been a great time for No Label award-wise, where we're winning more awards, getting more attention put on us and put on Katy than ever before. There's a lot to celebrate, but there's also a lot to push on and work toward."