Enthusiasm for craft beer overflows into apparel
Small local company offers a line of shirts feeding off creative impulses of a new breed of brewers
Black gold, Texas tea. Add to the list another liquid the state is becoming known for: craft beer.
The number of smaller, independently owned craft breweries in Texas has almost doubled over the last four years, the Brewers Association trade group reports. Last year, it counted 117 in Texas, a dozen of them in Houston. Riding the wake of this sudsy renaissance have been a number of ancillary businesses, from home-brew supply shops to bars that specialize in the generally pricier craft beers to stores that sell brews to go in the increasingly popular glass or stainless-steel jugs called growlers.
Now, a trio of twentysomethings has started a clothing company that lets beer fans wear their passion on their sleeves.
“People wear things on T-shirts to represent what they love, and until now there was nothing made locally that said ‘I love craft beer,’ ” said Shannon Parker, one of the cofounders of Brewheart Apparel.
Parker, a 27-year-old graphic artist, said she saw the craft beer boom coming.
“I was telling people four or five years back, and they just kind of brushed it off,” she said. “But then a couple of years later they came back and told me I was right.’”
She and friends Heather Ham-
ilton, 26, and Jesse Soto, 29, launched Brewheart Apparel in February 2014 with a few thousand dollars of their own money. They moved about 2,000 shirts through a website Parker designed and appearances at beer-related events. They say they earned roughly $10,000 last year, which they plowed back into the business.
Shirts on sale earlier this week at DeFalco’s Home Wine & Beer Supplies were emblazoned with “Beer Snob,” “Beer Geek” and stark print images of vintage warplanes dropping payloads of hops from their bomb bays.
Parker said she feeds off the same energy from this new breed of brewers, who are putting cleverly named products like El Hefe, More Cowbell and Sympathy for the Lager on store shelves around town.
“The great thing about craft brewing is that people have gotten so creative with it,” she said.
Hamilton said women, in particular, respond to the Brewheart merchandise.
“All of the brewery Tshirts that were available before were just the men’s versions made in pink,” she said. “Since two of us are female, it was nice to be able to put out some fun, really cool-looking options that we knew we’d like to wear.”
Parker designs all of the shirts and accessories, including growlers.
“When I first met them, I could tell this was a company that wasn’t just trying to make money off the craft beer community,” said James Simpson, host of “What’s on Tap” on KPRC-950 AM. “Their Tshirts are very catchy. Every time I wear one, someone will always stop to ask me where I got it.”
The line includes multiple T-shirt and sweat shirt designs, for men and women, priced from $16 to $28. In addition to the website and DeFalco’s stores in Houston and Clear Lake, the clothes and accessories are available at Calhoun’s Rooftop Bar and Grill on the University of Houston campus.
“The whole idea of ‘drinking local’ is really big in the Houston community and with craft beer lovers,” Hamilton said. “There’s been a noticeable difference in the amount of options available to people who want to support their local brewing community.”
The Brewers Association would agree. Nationwide, it says, craft breweries account for almost 20 percent of all beer sold. It also says in 2012 craft brewing added $2.3 billion to Texas’ economy — enough to rank second behind California, which has four times as many craft breweries.