When No Label Brewing Company was started in the small town of Katy, Texas, in 2010, it was little more than a dot on a map within a town that was little more than a dot on the map. Today, as neighboring Houston’s urban sprawl begins to surround Katy, No Label has become a gathering spot for the traditional family-style community that remains bonded to its roots as a once-upon-a-time rail hub and rice farming and agricultural center.
“On Saturdays, if the weather is nice, we can get from 500-600 people in our brewery and parking lot,” co-founder Jennifer Royo said. “Everyone wants [to] be outside. They bring their chairs, their kids and their dogs, and it’s like a big backyard party.”
According to Royo, No Label was created during a casual conversation one Sunday afternoon in the spring of 2009. “My husband, Brian, was a homebrewer and started making beer in our garage,” she told Beverage Master Magazine. “One day we were sitting around the back porch with his parents and we were enjoying his beer — an Amber Ale — and it was so good that we decided to start a brewery.”
The challenge, Royo said, was to find a name. “We tried to think of a name that would be fun and, because my husband has a habit of peeling off labels when he drinks beer, he suggested ‘No label, the beer for everybody.’ By the time we were ready to sign the papers, we couldn’t think of any other name so we just went with that.”
No Label’s first home was a warehouse next to some abandoned rice silos. The original fermentation tank had a 15-barrel capacity. The Royos began holding small tastings for families and friends, and the numbers began to grow. “At the time, there were only two breweries in Houston,” Royo said, “and we thought that was amazing, considering the size of the city. It seemed like a great opportunity, especially since there was nothing on the west side of town.”
The Royos were right: opportunity was right around the corner. In December of 2010, they tapped their first keg at the Public House, a favorite local hangout in Katy. Word got around, and they began self-distributing, with accounts in 30 to 40 retail establishments. “Brian and a gentleman named John Anderson — our first employee — pretty much did it all,” Royo remembered. “They brewed the beer, kegged the beer and delivered it. They did pretty well by themselves, but at a certain point we needed to go with a distributer, and that helped immensely.”
Between 2011 and 2013, No Label experienced a 211 percent year-over-year revenue growth. “We really grew too fast that first year, which was good and bad,” Royo told the Grapevine Magazine. “We didn’t have the manpower to maintain customer service and produce quality beer, and we were running around with our heads cut off.”
Clearly, the Royos have survived their growing pains. Three years ago they moved to a larger facility housing 60- and 90-barrel fermentation tanks. The brewery features a large tap room that extends to an oversized patio — perfect for the community activities that contribute to the brewery’s popularity. The total staff of 15 includes an operations manager, a Master Brewer, packagers, bar tenders and office/marketing personnel. Production has increased from less than 1,000 barrels the first year to 8,000-9,000 barrels today.
While No Label maintains its family-friendly, home-town atmosphere, they are very serious about their beers, and offer a wide variety of lagers, ales and seasonal beers. “We get all kinds of people here,” Royo told Beverage Master Magazine. “We have families, singles, and people from every age group you can imagine. We want to make sure to have enough beers on tap so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. We have a lot of people who come out and say ‘I don’t like beer,’ but we tell them that we will find a beer they will like.”
As of this writing, year-round beers at No Label include: 1st Street Ale, a Blonde Ale with a touch of rice, dedicated to the city of Katy, known for its rice farming; El Hefe Weizen, a traditional German Hefeweizen; Eleven Amp IPA, their take on the IPA style, inspired by West Coast IPAs; Ridgeback Ale, an American Amber named after their dog, Hailey, and the first beer produced by Brian Royo; and Pale House Ale, an American Pale Ale with a significant amount of malts and hops. Seasonal beers include: Black Wito-O, a Dark Wheat Ale brewed with a touch of Star Anise at the end of the boil; What the Hatch, based on the Pale Horse Ale, brewed with 60 pounds of raw and roasted Hatch Chilies; Don Jalapeño Ale, also based on the Pale Horse Ale and brewed with 60 pounds of raw and roasted jalapeño peppers; Elda M, a milk stout brewed with 10 different malts and named after a family boat in Panama; and Forbidden Lavender, a spin on a Belgian-style wheat beer using lavenders instead of coriander.
Royo told Beverage Master Magazine that their big sellers are the El Hefe Hefeweizen and the seasonal beers. To keep the menu fresh, Royo said the No Label brewers continually experiment with new styles and flavors. For example, they will soon be adding some sour beers in response to the popularity of the beers that are intentionally acidic, tart or sour. “It’s a huge trend right now,” she noted. When producing flavored beers, she shared that No Label adds real fruit and vegetable products, not just flavoring agents. “Our jalapeño beer uses real jalapeños, and our lavender beer used real lavender. Beer brewed with flavorings can taste like medicine.”
While No Label attempts to offer a beer for everyone, they also have activities that can be shared by all. The tap room is now open seven days a week, with special tappings offered on occasional week nights, and tours and tastings scheduled on Saturdays. From 12-3 on Saturdays, it’s “party time,” with live music, assorted vendors and food trucks. The event is dog-friendly, as long as dogs are on leashes. Local animal rescue groups such as Citizens for Animal Protection and Special Pals are often there with animals to adopt.
As a supportive member of the Katy community, No Label partners with a local restaurant, Mesquite Grill, to host the annual Historical Katy Crawfish Festival. In October, the brewery stages an October Fest, where customers dress in German attire, listen to German bands and, of course, drink beer. The brewery is also “the finish line” for a local sponsor of triathlons, and just recently began offering a “Yoga and Hops” night, with an hour of yoga followed by a cold brew.
With a successful track record, the Royos are optimistic about the future. They have plenty of room for expansion at their current facility, and plan to add more fermentation tanks as needed and make improvements in lighting, decorating and landscaping. They are also preparing to add a playground outside, as well as more tables and umbrellas for shade.
During this next growth spurt, the Royos are not about to lose sight of their original goal: to maintain quality and consistency in their beer. And, as a fixture in the Katy community, where history is alive in deserted railroad tracks and vacant rice dryers, No Label will continue to function as a center for social gatherings, much like the ice cream socials and outdoor band concerts of an earlier era.
“I really do think the family-friendly atmosphere and the outdoor space we’ve created is one of the biggest reasons we’ve succeeded,” Jennifer Royo told Beverage Master Magazine. “And breweries today are focusing on selling local. We have regulars from Katy and others coming from all around us. We even get people who stop on their way to and from Austin and San Antonio because they’ve heard of us and we’re right off Interstate 10. One day I’d love to write down the zip codes of all of our visitors. I’m sure we’d have a lot.”
Katy, Texas, describes itself as having “Small Town Charm and Big City Convenience.” For No Label Brewing Company, this has obviously been a winning combination, even though the brewery is at the end of a dirt road that’s not easy to find…unless you’re a regular. Katy may grow, and No Label may grow along with it — but one thing’s for sure: No Label will always be everybody’s beer.
For more information on
No Label Brewing Company, visit their website at www.nolabelbrew.com