Melissa Arredondo’s pint of German Kolsch-style beer is sweating on the table in front of her, neglected for the last few minutes as she spoons the tiniest morsels of earth-toned baby food from its jar and into the mouth of her 10-month-old son, Julian.

It’s a little past 3 p.m. on a sweltering Sunday in Houston at Saint Arnold Brewing Company, and the brewery is chock full of slow sippers and leashed-up pups. And yes, small children.

A generation ago, a scene like this would have spurred some pearl-clutching — toddlers frolicking in the large fountain set out in the center of the beer garden, and turned-over toy trucks littering the ground near long tables built for beer drinking. Now, as the share of brewery goers who can’t even enjoy the picnic tables without a booster seat continues to grow steadily, no one bats an eye. Least of all Julian, who has been coming to the brewery since he was 2 weeks old — his very first out-of-the-house field trip.

“We were always outgoing people, and having a baby — you shouldn’t have to stop doing things,” Arredondo says as she carefully scrapes excess baby food against the lip of the jar, careful not to spoon too much at a time. “You shouldn’t have to stop doing things. So it’s about figuring out what’s workable, and what’s not.”

Arredondo, 36, is one of many moms in the brewery right now who remember that scene from the 2002 film “Sweet Home Alabama,” in which Reese Witherspoon’s character exclaims to an old friend, “You have a baby … in a bar,” in a GIF-worthy bless-your-heart dig. But that sentiment is about as dated as any of the extremely 2002 outfits Witherspoon wore in that flick, thanks to a confluence of reasons that have shifted the very meaning of a watering hole these days.

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The city of Houston is in the throes of a massive craft brewing renaissance, with the roster of breweries constantly expanding. And this happens to be taking places in pockets of Houston where the number of families seems to be on the rise, as well.

Look at the 77018 ZIP code, in Garden Oaks. In the last five years, four breweries have sprung up in that space. First came Brash, permitted in 2014; then in 2016 Walking Stick and Great Heights each received permits; last October, Astral joined the club.

And this happened just as the share of families with young kids was growing in this neighborhood. Census data shows that 87 percent of the population growth here between 2012 and 2017 (the most recent year for which data is available) was attributable to kids younger than 5 years old. The shift to families with young kids was so pronounced that even as the city of Houston’s median age went up by 0.6 years during that time, Garden Oaks’ dipped by a full year.

In this context, Walking Stick owner Andy Dunn’s observation that his brewery hosted a first birthday party on its first weekend feels like a perfect representation of this community.

But it’s not limited to one corner of the city. At True Anomaly, a new sour-forward brewery that opened in the city’s East End earlier this year, the decision to place family-friendliness on the priority list was a no-brainer.

“There are four of us that started this brewery, and two of us have kids in the mix,” says the brewery’s CEO Michael Duckworth. “And we have five kids now between the four of us, so we always wanted to be inviting for our own families.”

The founders, who are all men, placed diaper-changing stations in the men’s and women’s bathrooms. And as they stocked the taproom with time-killing games, they made sure to offer Uno and Apples to Apples along with Exploding Kittens for the adults.

“We were conscientious about that. But still, we didn’t think it was going to be as many kids as it was,” says Duckworth, who mentions that earlier this week he walked into the brewery to find a gaggle of strollers and young women hosting a mommy meetup. Last weekend, they hosted a birthday party for a pair of 3-year-old girls. “I’m as surprised as anyone that we have all these buggies. But now, honestly, I’m used to it.”

Sure, games and changing tables are part of the shift. But a few decks of Uno cards can’t shift a culture. And other breweries work to make themselves appeal to families in different ways: At Eureka Heights on W. 18th Street, the bathrooms are equipped with Diaper Genies; At No Label in Katy, the owners constructed an entire playground on the premises.

And on that hot Sunday afternoon at Saint Arnold, as the line grew for a 3 p.m. brewery tour, the tour guide promised anyone tagging along would be rewarded at the end of their pilgrimage with a nice, refreshing beer.

“Or root beer!” he called out jovially, earning looks of approval from the 10-or-so kids tagging along for a chance to learn the complicated process that turns hops, barley, yeast and water into their parents’ beverage of choice.

“For sure it was weird to do something like this when we were kids,” says Dallas Conant, 38, as her 5-year-old son plays on an oversized Connect Four board in the Saint Arnold beer garden. “But now it’s totally acceptable.”

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To her right, her friend Amy Rivera, whose 3-year-old son is playing alongside Conant’s, nods. “You get to enjoy your Sunday and have a few drinks, and they can play and have a good time. Plus, I don’t feel like this is a bar. You’re not ordering vodka and tequila.”

Or as Arredondo’s husband, Sanjay Bapat puts it: “Nobody gets wasted at Saint Arnold beer garden.”

“Well,” he waffles, with a burst of laughter. “I’m sure you could. And maybe I have.”

But on the whole, the patio vibe of Houston’s breweries — and many of the city’s outdoor bars — is different than the way one may have imagined bars a generation ago, when people still smoked inside, and the rise of easy-sipping craft beer was still years away.

Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association, notes that there isn’t any data to show the longitudinal shift of babies in breweries. But he points to data he has seen. His association, the Denver-based trade group for small and independent brewers, recently asked craft beer connoisseurs if recent trips to breweries had replaced a visit to a bar, to which 39 percent of respondents replied that they were visiting a brewery for a different type of an occasion, like a family outing, and therefore would not have chosen a bar anyway.

“This is a generation who has come of age with craft beer, and who love supporting their local brewery and wants to drink in a different way than previous generations,” Watson said. “Customers recognize that there’s something different about breweries, as community gathering places. It’s not just about the drinking, it’s about the socializing.”

Still, not everyone buys into this. Including some of the city’s bars and restaurants.

At Kirby Ice House, for instance, owner Danny Evans enforces a strict no-kid policy, despite the fact that kids are legally allowed in Texas bars.

“We’re kid-free, and there’s two reasons for that,” he said. “Most people want to go out, and whether they’re single or married, they want to hang out and socialize and watch a game. The last thing they want is to have someone’s kid running around.”

In his opinion, it takes away from the ambience he’s trying to provide customers.

And yes, there have been times even at the family-friendlier places that some parents have received those Witherspoon-esque sideways glances. But they are admittedly few and far between.

“There might be some people who are judgmental about this,” said Erica Jordan, an assistant professor at the University of Houston’s College of Education, and mom to a 9-month-old, who regularly meets up with other moms at places like 8th Wonder. “And to be honest, in the past, years and years ago, maybe that would have been me.”

But not any more.

“I don’t even really drink beer,” said Jordan, 37. “I’ll have a glass of beer to support the establishment, because they’re a fun place to hang out, and I want them to do well.”

maggie.gordon@chron.com;

twitter.com/MagEGordon

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