Ale Works craft brewery keeps Denton beer-ed
Bobby Mullins and Yianni Arestis, owners of Armadillo Ale Works plan to bring Denton its very own brewery. Starting with soda, “Bee’s Knees”, a lemonade soda pop and “Clawfoot”, a ginger cream ale, that are now sold at Banter Café. Photo By Nicole Arnold/Senior Staff Photographer
H. Drew Blackburn
Senior Staff Writer
Bearded beer men and UNT alumni Yianni Arestis and Bobby Mullins’ brewery, Armadillo Ale Works, is growing up.
The brewing company, founded by Arestis and Mullins, recently received approval to brew and sell craft beers for public consumption. They were awarded $10,000 through UNT’s Murphy Center Grant in 2010 and had $34,002 donated to them through Kickstarter in June 2011.
“We were doing beer tastings around town, basically to get rid of stuff,” Mullins said.
The Murphy Center Grant is an annual competition open to currently enrolled students, and Kickstarter is an Internet funding program that allows donations to help creative projects thrive.
Arestis said that originally they wanted to establish a brewpub – half restaurant and half brewery. However, the strict regulations weren’t favorable, so they decided on a brewery.
Mullins has been brewing professionally for eight years, including a stint in Houston brewing for Saint Arnold, Texas’ oldest craft brewery.
“Craft beer breweries tend to take pride in the communities that house them. When people think of Texan beer, they most likely picture Shiner,” English senior Elizabeth Whitby said. “Shiner beer definitely put the town of Shiner on the map. It’s cool to know that soon the same might happen for Denton.”
At one point Armadillo Ale Works was part of an event that was more family-friendly. In order to participate, Mullins crafted their first soda, Bee’s Knees, a lemonade soda flavored with honey.
Their other soda is Clawfoot, a ginger cream ale. Mullins called its creation a happy accident after they left vanilla beans in it, transforming the concoction from a ginger ale to cream ale.
The sodas can be found at locations around Denton such as Cool Beans, Oak St. Drafthouse, Denton Square Donuts, Atomic Candy, and Mullins’ former place of employment, The Labb.
Hunter Besselman, owner of Denton Square Donuts, said the soda is fairly popular.
“People come in and they always get interested when they see it,” Besselman said. “Obviously, because it’s local, they like it a lot.”
Mullins and Arestis are aware their soda is a hit, but they got into this business to make beer.
Long plagued by issues with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Mullins and Arestis have finally gotten the go-ahead from them. They plan on focusing on the beer for the time being and hope to have a release party at Oak St.Drafthouse.
“It’s in the final stages,” Arestis said. “It’s finally falling together.”
I had heard that they are distributing beer from Deep Ellum under the Armadillo name.
I like Deep Ellum’s beer and all, but I thought they were going to open their own brewery and brew themselves.