Michael Peticolas
The keynote speaker for the 2025 Bluebonnet Brew-Off will be Michael Peticolas.
Michael Peticolas is a fifth generation Texas trial attorney and owner/operator of Dallas’s Peticolas Brewing Company.
After practicing law for a decade, Michael Peticolas turned to his passion for craft beer. In 2010, he enrolled in the ABG’s Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering program, wrote a business plan, and formed the Peticolas Brewing Company. The following year, he built a brewery and on December 30, 2011, Michael brewed his first batch of beer, an Imperial Red Ale called Velvet Hammer. During the first year of operations, Michael acted as the brewery’s sole brewer, cellarman, distributor, and brewery representative. Volunteers pitched in from day one and several ultimately gained employment after proving themselves via the volunteer program.
In its first year of operations, Peticolas Brewing Company won numerous local and national awards, including the biggest award in the brewing industry, a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF). A GABF gold medal is an objective measure that a beer is a world class example of a particular style. Peticolas Brewing’s Royal Scandal, an English pale ale, won the award after less than 2 months in the market.
In 2014, Texas craft brewers elected Michael to the board of directors for the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. After serving for a year, the board elected Michael co-chair of the legislative committee, which seeks to expand the rights of Texas craft brewers via legislative measures.
Peticolas Brewing also sued the State of Texas in an effort to declare an anti-craft beer law unconstitutional. Litigation is ongoing, but a favorable judgment will be a victory for all Texas craft brewers. Peticolas’s legislative and judicial efforts, as well as the award winning beer, have established the brewery as a craft beer industry leader in Texas.