Hops on the case: Lake Houston area breweries bring growing industry to area

Ingenious Brewing Company's owner Justin Gyorfi. Ingenious Brewing Company's owner Justin Gyorfi. Photo: Nguyen Le / Staff Photo Photo: Nguyen Le / Staff Photo Image 1 of / 39 Caption Close Hops on the case: Lake Houston area breweries bring growing industry to area 1 / 39 Back to Gallery

There will still be craft beer when the world ends — the owners of Kingwood-based Megaton Brewery are sure of it.

With the presence of pipes, gears, airships, nukes and a T-51 Power Armor helmet from the “Fallout” games, this Kingwood beer bar, opening March 30, revels in the apocalypse. But that is the ambience. The objective of the place, per co-owners Chris Sarvadi and Jered Montgomery, is to fill a recreational void.

“There’s plenty of fast-food restaurants around,” said Montgomery, who is also Megaton’s brew master. “But places like this that are just for entertainment, for grown-ups — they’re really kind of lacking.”

Montgomery also added that Megaton is riding the wave of hyper-localization, a trend where consumers move toward brands, ingredients and establishments closer to them. To make use and make the most of it, Montgomery said he also partnered with Humble’s Javalope Coffee and has plans to have food trucks — like the one from Fire Craft BBQ — parked by the entrance on Saturdays.

Sarvadi also has his own strategy. Since he also manages the nearby Nathaniel Center, he thought he could coordinate both venues into a show-and-drink affair.

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“We’re trying to bring the ‘House of Blues’ feel here,” he said.

The fellowship of the brewers

Megaton’s impactful first impression mirrored that of two other breweries in the Lake Houston area: Porter’s Back Pew Brewing, whose site was once a church, and Humble’s Ingenious Brewing Company, whose drinks tend to be outside-the-box.

Despite them reminding Montgomery that Megaton isn’t the only taproom in the area, he thought this is a “more is merrier” scenario. The third place isn’t a crowd but an enlargement of the local beer circuit. Also, nobody is serving the same kind of beer.

“We just want to be the first on the list,” he added.

Ingenious’ Justin Gyorfi couldn’t wait for Megaton to open. Like Montgomery, he thought the upcoming brewery and its distinct identity will elevate this quadrant of the city.

“In every aspect of industry, we’re lacking. Where’s our industry corridor? Or energy corridor?” he said. “Let’s give people who live downtown a reason to come out and explore the Humble, Kingwood, Atascocita and Lake Houston area.”

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Gyorfi co-owns the vibrant split-brain joint with Mike Broderick, his second role besides being a urologist at HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood. He said that both jobs complement one another since they require attention to detail so that every variable matches up.

If there is competition, he thought, it should be between craft beer and “big beer” as opposed to one place and the other.

“We’re trying to steal patrons away from the Coors Light-Bud Light-Miller Lite trifecta that have monopolized the market,” he said. “In their commercials these days, they’ll advertise to make fun of the things that craft beer does to make them unique because they’re scared.”

For Back Pew’s Bobby Harl, allyship is also what makes the industry interesting, as it allows knowledge to be passed down. The Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce recently named the Porter brewery’s president and owner its Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Still, he said brewers can be put on both ends of the arena when bars decide whose beer gets on the tap and whose gets off.

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“It’s the harsh reality of the business,” he said. “Yes, we have the camaraderie, but at the end of the day we all want to sell more beer, and the only way to do that is to have more than the other guys. It’s very strange. I think one day — sadly — we’ll encounter some of that as reps try harder to get more sales, but I don’t revel in that fact.”

More foam for the road

Regarding expansion plans, Harl thought Back Pew isn’t ready to be in other areas besides Houston yet. He has a threshold in mind, but for now it’s all about managing the home turf first, in both the beer and the drinking experience fronts.

“We have a concert series in the spring and the fall,” he said. Back Pew also has a garden area with a stage that is family and pet-friendly.

Ingenious’ Gyorfi concurred. He said that the brand hasn’t been open for a year — the anniversary will be next Saturday — but already supply is doing overtime to keep up with demand.

“It’s a good problem to have,” he said. Gyorfi added that, while Ingenious does receive invites to come to other U.S. cities, the focus now is to open a second location.

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Megaton’s Montgomery also echoed the satellite-bar idea. Once that has happened, the Kingwood brewery will focus on countering the influx of Louisiana brewers entering the Houston market — think Parish Brewing Co.on Jan. 17.

“We’re proud of them, but we’re also kind of, ‘Wait a minute.’” he said, chuckling.

But Dawn Tyler, co-owner of Humble’s Hop Stop bar whose taps carry Back Pew’s concoctions, proposed a different approach to growing their brand -- introducing women to the art of crafting beer.

“When I have women come into the bar that tell me they don’t like beer at all I’d give them something chocolate-y that has lactose in there so it has a milky characteristic,” she said. “They’d look at me and their eyes get really wide. They’re just stunned because they didn’t anticipate it tasting that way.”

nguyen.le@chron.com