Background
Around May of 2014, work began on converting a 1920’s house and garage into Westward Brewing Co. Drew Pool and Bill Hammond who met while both worked at Intel are the co-owners. By the time they received license approval and they were scheduled to open, around July 2015, they ran into trademark issues for Westward. In the end, they opened under the new name Wren House Brewing. I am happy we snagged an original Westward growler.
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. At the time Preston was brewing professionally in Montana for Big Sky Brewing Company. He jumped at the chance to join the future Wren House Brewing.
When their two-vessel, 10-barrel brewhouse, maxed out the 2,000-barrel capacity at its central Phoenix location they went looking for more capacity. Eventually in 2021, they took over the former Prescott Brewing production facility in Prescott, about two hours north of Phoenix. The 8,000 barrel facility focuses on producing Wren House’s core beers, while the crew can produce more experimental beers at the Phoenix facility.
In September 2023 Wren House Südhalle or Wren “South Hall” opened in Ahwatukee, south of Phoenix. The owners say they chose Ahwatukee because when they had to close the original Phoenix taproom in 2020 due to COVID-19, the largest number of home delivery orders came from the community.
Experience
At the center of the Wren House Südhalle tasting room is the rectangular bar. Large communal tables and benches are one end of the bar, with round tables on the other. It gives the feeling of a European-style beer hall. We sat in the fairly large pet friendly patio area.
All beer and food orders must be placed at the bar, which at busy times could take a minute. Servers will bring out the food items out to your table.
We are big fans of Wren House beers but were excited to try their selection of European imports. Everything as usual was delicious and in the appropriate glassware.
We were also excited to try their menu. We chose the Käse Burger – a smashed beef patty, smashed käsekrainer sausage patty, alpenhorn cheese, onions, pickles, lettuce, mustard and the remoulade-like Haus Sauce. In addition, we ordered the Schnitzel Sando along with some frites and onion rings. Everything was delicious, but we can’t stop thinking about the Käse Burger.
The tasting room is accessible. They also have food and beer to go. For lodging there is a Wingate by Wyndham nearby. When in the Phoenix area also check out the original Wren House, and AZ Wilderness.
