North Texas Daily

William A. Darnell / Senior Staff Writer

Five months and a week after selling its first beer on the patio of Oak Street Drafthouse & Cocktail Parlor, Armadillo Ale Works’ beer will hit the shelves of retail stores Thursday.

Greenbelt Farmhouse Ale will be available in cans at several local outlets, including local staple Midway Mart on Carroll Street, Paschall’s on Locust Street and several World Market locations, including Denton’s on Loop 288. Larger retail stores in the DFW and Denton areas will receive the beer in the coming weeks, such as Whole Foods Park Lane in Dallas.

“The cans are something we’ve been wanting to do since we developed the brand and we were just now able to do it,” co-founder of Armadillo Ale Works Bobby Mullins said. “It’s going to open us up to a much larger market. This gives us the ability to go into retails stores, grocery stores and bars and restaurants that don’t have draft beer or space for our keg.”

The first order of cans includes 400 cases of the beer, totaling 9,600 green and orange 12 ounce cans.

“Oh yeah, people have been asking for it,” owner of Midway Mart Shawn Tapia said. “Once we get it, it should be gone fast.”

Denton duo Bobby Mullins and Yianni Arestis launched their craft brewery at the beginning of March with Quakertown Stout, a full-bodied, maple syrup-infused stout beer with a high – 9.2 percent – alcohol content.

Near the end of May, Armadillo Ale Works debuted its latest brew, Greenbelt Farmhouse Ale, which Arestis said was a hefeweizen (wheat beer) infused with French Saison styling, making the beer easy to drink but still funky and complex.

“I guess in my wildest dreams, yeah, but not in my regular ones,” Arestis said about the speed of going from launching Greenbelt Farmhouse Ale to putting it in cans.

Arestis said the decision to go with cans instead of bottles was easy because cans are better for the beer. They don’t let light in, they get colder faster, can be taken anywhere unlike glass and the environmental advantages to using 50 percent recycled aluminum. Cans are cheaper to make, pack and transport.

“On a consumer level, people can buy a six pack at the store and take it to the pool or the lake,” Mullins said.

Currently, Armadillo Ale Works brews all of its beer using equipment at Deep Ellum Brewery in Dallas, an arrangement that has helped Arestis and Mullins work toward their goal of opening a physical location in Denton.

Arestis said the pair could have started a nano brewery in Denton when they launched, but when they were approached by Deep Ellum it made sense from an output standpoint to temporarily house their operation in Dallas.

“We wouldn’t be able to produce the amount of beer we do and put it in cans if we weren’t there,” Arestis said. “With that being said, we are counting down the days until we can get in our own brewery. We work behind the scenes on that every single day.”

Photo courtesy of Armadillo Ale Works