For over 25 years, Boerne’s Donald Kretz has been perfecting his home craft brews. Now, the new brewery owner will be sharing his love of beer in one of the hottest brewery communities in the Texas Hill Country.
Boerne’s newest brewery, 28 Songs Brewhouse and Kitchen will open in April, Kretz told MySA.
“I have a number of favorite [beer] styles that I’ve done over and over, but really what’s the most fun and the most satisfying is when I can share it with other people. And they talk about how much they like it,” Kretz said. “That’s really the satisfaction that draws me into wanting to do this on a larger scale.”
28 Songs Brewhouse and Kitchen will open in April 2023 in Boerne, TX.
Photo courtesy of Donald KretzHe has lived in Boerne for the past four years after spending time in the Dallas area and San Antonio area. Before going all into the brewery route he worked in intelligence, technology, and most recently was a research psychologist after he earned his Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience.
“This is kind of a bucket list thing for me. I’m kind of entering an early retirement phase in my life,” Kretz said. “I’ve outgrown the career I’ve had in defense and national security for decades and I just want to do something else.”
Kretz began planning his dream brewery over a year and a half ago with research, putting a team together, finding a location, and securing funding. He found Boerne was going to be the perfect spot to open.
“We absolutely wanted to open in Boerne. That was the goal all along. It was difficult to find a location given the fact that Boerne is a lot smaller than San Antonio and there are only so many places that are suitable to put a business like this,” Kretz said. “It’s a cool little town. It’s just an awesome little town. And I think it has the vibe that we that we’re going for.”
Kretz believes the name 28 Songs Brewhouse and Kitchen resonates with the people in the area. He explained cardinals use 28 different songs to communicate and he hopes the brewhouse will be a place where anyone can come and enjoy.
“Down here, people have what seems like a spiritual significance or connection to cardinals. When they see a cardinal, it’s reminding them of lost loved ones. Everybody has a story and everybody can relate to it. We absolutely love that,” Kretz said. “We want a brewpub in a basic sense; a place where people can gather, eat, drink, socialize, and have fun.”
Last Wednesday, January 4, the construction began and the signage was placed over the old Main and Market building on North Main Street and Market Avenue. The brewery is located at 110 Market Ave., Boerne, TX 78006. He mentioned the brewery would be minutes north of downtown Boerne and other local breweries, but distance could play in favor of his business.
28 Songs Brewhouse and Kitchen is set to open in Apriland owner Donald Kretz is bringing his years of home brews to the city of Boerne.
Photo courtesy of Donald Kretz“It’s an alternative to the downtown area. We’ve got a large parking lot close to the highway interchange. It gives folks that alternative who don’t want to battle for parking spots or walk in the rain,” he said.
The brewery will have a massive taproom that can seat 120 people with an additional 40 seats in the patio area, as well as shuffle board, live music, and a digital jukebox to give the customers some fun and interesting activities. There will also be 28 taps, which after a few months Kretz says will all feature craft beers from the brewery.
Another note for aficionados is the brewery will be a five-barrel brew house, which will consist of 10 kegs at a time, eight different fermenters that can hold large-batch brews, and a small pilot system for small-batch recipes.
Kretz has restaurant and bar experience from his youth, but no commercial brewery experience, which he explained wasn’t an issue because the other brewers in Boerne are just like him.
“The thing is for a small-scale nano brewery like this that’s common,” Kretz said. “When we look around at the other breweries here in town, all of these were started by folks just like me, folks from other careers, who have been avid home brewers for years and wanted to kind of take it to a new level.”
28 Songs Brewhouse and Kitchen is set to open in Apriland owner Donald Kretz is bringing his years of home brews to the city of Boerne.
Photo courtesy of Donald KretzHe noted that there could be some challenges with getting folks to come, but he hopes customers will visit and enjoy drinks, have a great time, and come back again.
To Kretz, 28 Songs Brewhouse is all about getting away from the grind and having a good time.
“I got to that point with my past career that I would lay awake in the morning thinking about homebrew days,” Kretz said. “I want to be able to be excited every day when I wake up in the morning because I know that I’m going to be doing something that’s going to be a tremendous amount of fun.”
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