We had the good fortune of connecting with Andy Dunn and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andy, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
“The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for”

This is a simple notion that helped me to make a decision about the direction of my future in 2016. A critical self evaluation of each factor led to a better understanding of which path would collectively return a higher level of happiness. It helped me to decide whether to continue to leverage my lifetime of consulting that required advanced academic degrees, professional credentials and nearly thirty years of work experience or start a completely new venture that I knew almost nothing about that required no formal education, credentials or work experience. When I asked myself what I would do, whom I would love and what would I hope for over the next twenty five years if I were to follow the two paths in front of me, I was surprised to find that the decision was simple. I was going to build a brewery. FROM SCRATCH!!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Hello! My name is Andy Dunn. My wife, Angie, and I would like to introduce you to the Walking Stick Brewing Company and our tap room and beer garden we lovingly call The Stick. Eight years ago, while playing volleyball at the CrowBar in Garden Oaks, we noticed an old industrial building with a sign, “For Sale by Owner” across the street.

We thought, let’s buy it!! We can take something with a distressed, industrial vibe and turn it into something beautiful. Angie is a native Houstonian and I grew up in Colorado. We decided to create a business that incorporates “Distressed Houston Industrial” with “Alpine Colorado”. Other than that, we had no idea what we wanted……

Eight years later, we have a family friendly craft brewery, tap room and two beer gardens that serve the neighborhoods of Garden Oaks and Oak Forest.

Our location spans an entire block which gives us natural beer gardens on both sides of our tap room. The south side of the property was as tired and worn as the north side.

We loved the distressed buildings and planned to preserve as much of that look as possible. Once we settled on developing a craft brewery, we realized we needed a modern building for the brewery itself and we said goodbye to the smaller tin shack that was standing on the south side of the lot and built a new building for the brewery in its place.
The beer garden adjacent to the brewery building on the south side is ideally suited for celebratory events (weddings, showers, birthdays etc).

Our tap room leverages a metal building initially built to provide cleaning services for tents and parachutes. It was then used as a “welders shack” for over 30 years.

We found it dark, dank and dusty. A perfect palette for our planned look and feel. The high ceilings and metal framing provided ample room for large windows making our final design light and airy. Plenty of room for suspended walking sticks and our “floating alpine forests” that change with the seasons.

The brewery itself has a 10-barrel brew house built by Portland Kettle Works. They specialize in 3-30 barrel systems manufactured entirely in the US by their fabricators in Portland Oregon. Currently, we have enough fermentation and storage capability to produce 2,000 barrels per year.

I’m passionate about using US-based fabricators for many reasons, not the least of which is the history of our brewery location. I bought the property located at 956 Judiway in Houston from Milton Tom, an 85-year-old fabricator who used the location as his production site for over 30 years. His wife finally convinced him to retire in 2015. At the time, Milton still maintained perfect vision, never using any sort of eyeglasses (I still marvel at that!!). It seems that he was a local legend, based on his enigmatic personality and the quality of his work. Two years after he has retired, folks still stop by asking about him. We have preserved Milton’s legacy by including many of his creations as part of the brewery’s personality.
Why did I decide to open a brewery? Good question. The short answer is that I would have loved to open an oil refinery if producing refined products had a “craft” dimension to it; sadly, it doesn’t. It is simply impossible to be a “craft refiner”, but can you imagine the possibilities? If you dwell on it long enough, you realize that the physical process of brewing beer and refining oil are not all that different: you begin with a number of inputs, mix them together, alter their molecular structure with certain additives at different temperatures, and produce something else. It requires an impressive suite of tanks, pipes, hoses and mechanical equipment, a keen knowledge of science, math and engineering and success is born only from careful attention to process optimization.

At this point, one might assume that I am a petroleum engineer; I am not. I do, however, have an unusual level of envy for someone with that knowledge set. My professional history has centered on finance, accounting, and energy. I “cut my teeth” dealing with market, credit and operational risks embedded in the large investment banks located in London while working at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. That experience led me to advising energy companies in Houston on the same, relevant issues. As it turns out, you can apply complex valuation theories born on Wall Street to energy assets owned in the heart of Texas. As a result, I found myself working in Houston and fell in love with the city and its people. In all, I spent over 25 years in consulting, the last eight at Deloitte as a Partner in their Advisory practice. My time in London also introduced me to the traditional Pub and British beer styles that we offer at our brewery.

I grew up in Colorado where we enjoy the full range of outdoor mountain activities. There are 58 mountains in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet in elevation (known as “14ers”) and each summer, we make it a goal to bring our Texas friends to the mountains to climb one of them. It is such a unique experience that, while difficult, is certainly possible to achieve if you are active and ambitious. We love this attribute of our Rocky Mountains and want to bring a little of that love back to Houston with us. In fact, our beer styles and names are also derived from the Rockies as each beer is named after a 14er. For instance, the “Conundrum Grapefruit IPA” is named after Conundrum Peak (elevation 14,047 feet) and the “Massive Brown Porter” derives its name from Mount Massive (elevation 14,429 feet).

One other important fundamental attribute of our brewery. We are family friendly. Some might say out of necessity….. I have six kids!!! Truth be told, Hayley, Drew and Ethan are grown and off pursuing their own lives. However, Angie and I have three beautiful children under the age of three and we want them to grow up in a family friendly environment.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
May favorite spots in Houston can be accessed with a bike and are within skipping distance from the bayou bike trail system the city provides. Walking Stick Brewing Company resides in Garden Oaks and shares the block with another craft brewery, two craft distillers and a craft winery. It also has a beach volleyball/sports bar and and farm to table restaurant. All are family and dog family.

Head down Judiway and stop for lunch at Gatlins BBQ. A family run spot that has recently relocate to our area from North Houston and offers some of the best BBQ in the city. From there you can head west on ella until you run into the buffalo bayou bike trail. Turn left and head toward the city center. Stop at any and all of the craft breweries within a few block of the bike trail. Buffalo Bayou, Bad Astronaut and Holler Brewing all give you a fine example of what Houston has to offer. Keep moving toward downtown and you will run into Saint Arnolds, 8th Wonder and True Anomaly.

At this point you are near Minute Maid Park and may as well take in an Astros game. Don’t go before stopping at Irma’s Original mexican restaurant for some Tex Mex and then Frost Town Brewing for another craft beer experience. The Astros game is a block away from here. Enjoy the game!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I will shout out loud and proud to all the “strong women” in my life.

Angie, everyone’s boss’s, boss’s, boss’s boss and my hero. my inspiration, my muse, my wife
Dylan, Emmie and Ollie, my immortality that give me the energy and will to work hard well into my 90’s
Georgie, our most gifted and spirited head brewer,
Tiare, our tenacious and gracious general manager,
Evan our tap room manager who pretends to be grumpy but is impressively smart and sensitive
Amy, our “do everything” rainbow shining her bright smile all over the land.

They drive and inspire our serving staff and me to do our very best each and every day, each and every way.

Website: https://walkingstickbrewing.com/

Instagram: walkingstickbrewing

Facebook: Walking Stick Brewing Company

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