Where can you find an award-winning craft brewery, dinosaurs, and a crowned-bird in one place? Situated within Phoenix’s Beermuda Triangle, Wren House Brewing Company is where. All 80s babies, the brewery founders developed a healthy respect for dinosaurs stemming from a childhood blockbuster, Jurassic Park. Now, dinosaur toys are placed “strategically” throughout the taproom. That character began with the founders and taken to the next level by their loyal following. With increasing popularity by the day, their success is traced to great beer and a focus on customer satisfaction. One stop at Wren House is enough to convert anyone to a fan. It did for me.
The origin story of Wren House starts with Drew Pool, one of the brewery’s co-founders. Drew developed multiple passions from international travels, including a deep respect for European beers. During college, his refrigerator was well-stocked with European imports. That was while the go-tos for his college counterparts (such as myself) were Natty and Bud Light. That’s not to say Drew didn’t view the latter as having a time and place, just that he had finer tastes, too. Drew always dreamed of opening his own brewery one day; he was waiting for the right set of circumstances.
Drew has been with Intel for nearly 10 years in marketing and sales. It was at Intel that Drew met another founder of the brewery, Bill Hammond. While Drew had (*cue Liam Neesen voice*) developed a unique set of skills, skills honed over a long Intel career, designed to make him a scary sales force to be reckoned with, he had been looking for a partner that balanced him out. That person was someone more process and operations-oriented. He found that counter-balance in Bill. Bill is an Intel data scientist with a PhD in engineering. Duh, with that background, Bill is a numbers and operations-oriented wizard. He and Drew also hit it off instantly. Yureka! While Drew and Bill discussed other potential businesses to start, the final choice was to start up a brewery.
Bill and Drew needed one last piece, a brewer dedicated to creating world-class brews. Enter Preston Thoeny, the final founder of Wren House. Drew’s wife, Colby, had gone to middle and high school with Preston. Colby mentioned that Preston may know a brewer in the Phoenix area who would be willing to team up with them. They didn’t start with asking Preston because he was brewing professionally in Montana for Big Sky Brewing Company. Too much of an ask? Not for Preston. He jumped at the opportunity to join what would become Wren House. A subsequent “meet-and-greet” led to an instant connection.
The Wren House crew wants to be known to have the best brew. So, they’ve been entering competitions since the start. They started out by brewing for less competitive style categories. For example, there’s not much competition among smoked beer compared to American IPA. The strategy didn’t work. Like other successful businesses, they reassessed and changed up strategy. Wren House began submitting beers they brewed the best. Those beers are in competitive categories, such as lagers and pilsners. No worries, the brewery has been landing medal after medal, including a gold medal for their Big Spill Pils from the Best of Craft Beer Awards, as well as a silver medal for their Valley Beer American Lager from the Great America Beer Festival (the granddaddy of all U.S. craft beer competitions). These wins have raised the profile of the brewery to a national level. Good news does travel fast.
They’ve applied that same strategy to beer festivals, only pouring the most special of their already high-level beers. This selective pouring has created a rule for craft beer festival goers: visit the Wren House tent first or risk missing out on the liquid gold opportunity. This mystique is curated. As Drew testified on Tap That AZ, a podcast raising awareness of the thriving Arizona craft beer scene, you’re “only good as the last thing you did.” Wren House makes sure that each drop of their brew leaves you wanting more. It also doesn’t hurt that Wren House obsesses over customer satisfaction. All lessons to be well-learned by aspiring entrepreneurs.
Most successful and still growing businesses keep their secrets close to the vest. Not Wren House. Drew and Preston have poured their souls out on episodes of Tap That AZ. Drew gave a crash course on the dos and don’ts of opening a craft brewery from a business perspective. He discussed the successes and challenges Wren House has faced to-date. This included having to change their name weeks before opening and lots of government red-tape. Their success has centered on “taking their lumps and learning along the way.”
Wren House also works with non-profits, like the Arizona Nature Conservancy, to raise awareness of the drought in Arizona. In that same vein, Wren House collaborated with The Arizona Republic to create the Hydrolager, a lager brewed with recycled water from Scottsdale, Arizona. With water a concern in the desert, this collaboration was to reduce the stigma associated with consuming recycled water. For good reason, given the recycled water in Scottsdale is “super pure” and cleaner than standard Arizona tap water. The brewery supports local business toward this conservation effort, such as through buying barley from local farmers. It’s helping Arizona barley farms replace more water-intensive crops, like cotton. In this climate, conservation of water is key, and craft breweries are helping lead the way.
Wren House’s dream is to be able make the brewery a full-time gig for all the founders. Right not, Drew and Bill still work at Intel. The mission is to raise Wren House’s yearly barrel output from 3,000 to 10,000, to be widely-distributed within the region, and be profitable. Reasonable goals and what’s not to root for? That dream isn’t far away. The brewery is seeking out a new location that will increase production capacity to 10,000 barrels per year.
Always end with good news. Wren House’s 5-year anniversary is coming up this June. Like their prior anniversaries, they’ll be inviting their best-brewery-friends-forever (BBFF?) over to the brewery. Collaborations galore will result, with a new beer release every day of their anniversary week — talk about a birthday week! Sign me up for that, please. I just need to find the right dinosaur to bring along with me.