Noble Rey now open in Dallas

All images the property of Brian Brown/Beer in Big D.

After more than three years in development, the Noble Rey Brewing Company can finally claim the title of being the newest craft brewery in North Texas. Owner Chris Rigoulot and his team began welcoming consumers during a series of soft opening events last week before the official debut this past Saturday.

First appearing on the scene in early 2012, Noble Rey would be forced to scrap plans to open in Grapevine and Oak Cliff before winding up at its permanent location in the Dallas Design District. Now settled at 2636 Farrington Street, the brewery sets up as the northern bookend to a two mile stretch of the city which includes neighboring brewers Peticolas, Community and the Texas Ale Project. Cross the Trinity River and Four Corners is in the vicinity as well, which if you ask me means there's an opportunity for a rather epic brewery crawl for anyone willing to take up the challenge.

The entrance (left) and brewhouse (right) at Noble Rey Brewing Company.

The building Noble Rey occupies takes up a total of 8400 square feet. An eyeball estimate suggests a little less than half of that is devoted to production, with the rest set aside for the taproom. The work space contains a two-vessel, fifteen-barrel brewhouse flanked by a wall of thirty-barrel fermenters, while the public area has two bars, couch and table seating options, arcade games and a TV equipped with a gaming console.

Taproom offerings on opening day featured an array of mostly Texas taps, including beers from Noble Rey's Pilot Series. Thanks to a brewpub license, upwards of twenty guest beers will pour from the larger of the two bars on days the taproom is open, with as many as four house beers being served at the other. While only select Noble Rey products were on tap this weekend, a larger selection of the brewery's beers will be made available once operations ramp up later this week. That's when Rigoulot and brewer Justin Krey will begin crafting commercial batches on the brewery's production system. Not that you would have noticed, necessarily, but all of the beers served in the taproom up to now have been produced on Noble Rey's pilot rig.

Guest beers are on tap at Noble Rey Brewing Company.

One of those I sampled was Clockwork Orange, billed as the brewery's standard Steam Punk brewed with blood oranges, Himalayan pink sea salt and a French saison yeast. Here, the bitterness from the fruit addition provided a nice balance to the somewhat sweet, grainy malt making up the foundation for this beer. At least to my taste I thought the salt and yeast influence was fairly subtle, but Clockwork Orange is a beer I'd gladly come back to again in order to do some additional research.

As for the rest, once in-house stock gets built up, patrons will have the option of taking home Noble Rey beers in both glass growlers and aluminum crowlers. Further out, cans will be another take-home option, though Rigoulot mentioned during an impromptu tour he gave that canning would happen a few months down the road. For now, you'll have to get your fill on bottles and cans from local and national breweries which are on sale to-go in the taproom.


Noble Rey Brewing Company
2636 Farrington Street
Dallas

Taproom hours: Wednesday-Friday 4-9 p.m., Saturday 12-10 p.m.