Thomboys Brewing Co. signs lease on space in Van Alstyne

Image credit: Thomboys Brewing Co.

A new project to be called Thomboys Brewing Co. has set its sights on Van Alstyne after signing a lease on a spot in the city's 121 Business Park, located just west of U.S. 75 at 14333 FM 121.

Thomboys is led by Bryan Thomas, who is looking to forge his own path with this self-branded venture after building a brewing resume which includes stops at Ivanhoe Ale Works of Denison, Steam Theory Brewing Co. of Dallas and others.

Obviously, it's very early in the development process, but Thomas hopes to get to work right away on the space with the goal of opening by the end of the year. Once that happens, plans are to focus on distribution at first, with a taproom to follow at a later date.

Cooley Bay Winery adds brewing ops in Van Alstyne

Photos: © Brian Brown/Beer in Big D.

It's now cool to order a craft beer at Cooley Bay Winery, as the company has begun brewing and serving its own brand of beer on-site at 545 Collin Mckinney Pkwy in Van Alstyne.

In fact, the terms brewery, cidery and meadery will all apply to the venture going forward, fulfilling the vision owners William and Jennifer Windlow had in mind when they purchased Cooley Bay in December 2024. And with specialty sips of all types available, Cooley Bay will be the only known business in North Texas producing beer, cider, mead and wine in one place on a regular basis.

On making beer, Cooley Bay's new phase is the culmination of a years-long journey towards doing the thing William knew he wanted to do. He went from his first homebrewing attempts around 2008, to starting a homebrew club in Texoma in 2010, to recruiting investors to open a brewery in 2018, to getting derailed by COVID, to forming a new group and being a signature away from buying Franconia Brewing Co. of McKinney in 2022.

When that deal fell through, Windlow shifted his focus to explore partnerships with the idea of adding beer production to an existing business model. Those efforts eventually led to a discussion with the original owners of Cooley Bay. Turns out they were ready to move on, so the timing was right for the Windlows to take over the business earlier this year.

From there, small-batch brewing operations launched in June leading up to Cooley Bay's house beer debut on Thursday. For the inaugural pours, a traditional and enjoyable style lineup with a blonde, ESB, Irish red, and stout was chosen purposefully, as Windlow wants to keep things simple while gauging the taste preferences of the local community.

Along those lines, other classics in the queue include a rye beer, a saison, an English brown, a Scottish light and a Belgian patersbier. Then, seasonals like an Oktoberfest should be expected as well.

Indeed, standards may be the norm, but Windlow assures that fun stuff will also pop up from time to time (and more often if the demand is there). That said, no matter the recipe, every beer at Cooley Bay will be brewed with all natural ingredients - no syrups, no extracts, no artificial flavorings. If something calls for a citrus element, for example, what's added to the mix will come from the actual fruit.

As for what Cooley Bay offers beyond their quartet of craft beverages, a small bites food menu has charcuterie and snack boards, flatbread pizzas, sliders, crab cakes, and a dessert of the week. One snack board, incidentally, is the new Beer Board featuring house-made beer bread and beer cheese. It was created, of course, to celebrate the release of Cooley Bay beers.

Cooley Bay Winery (& Brewery) serves patrons Thursday through Sunday, with hours beginning at 2 p.m. each day.