For Ryan and Traci Dixon, True Vine Brewing Company is a unique, comfortable experience – whether patrons visit the main location on Earl Campbell Parkway or try out the still-new True Vine on the Square in downtown Tyler.
Wherever they choose to go, “The majority of the people that come out here, they really love the vibe,” Ryan said, “and I think that’s one of the things that sets True Vine brewing apart.”
The idea began fermenting about a decade ago, and True Vine was officially founded in 2011.
“We started seriously brewing beer out of my garage with big dreams,” Ryan said, “and from there developed the company and the plan, all of that. It was literally a start-up garage venture.”
Part of the moniker was inspired by nearby Vine Avenue.
“We’re inspired by a lot of heroes,” Ryan said. “One of our biggest heroes in life is Jesus. He said He is the true vine, and we are the branches, and apart from him we can accomplish nothing. We believe that as a family and as business owners.
“We named it True Vine for a myriad of reasons, and it’s worked out really well because it’s unique.”
The fledgling company also found direction in the biography “The Search for God & Guinness” about the history of the famous brewery.
“They utilized their position in their community to make it better than they found it,” Ryan said. “That was one of the finer points for us making a brewery.
“We also love horticulture and growth, everything that goes into the organic side of brewing.”
The first home for True Vine was off Englewood Avenue in Tyler. With all their licensing and other necessities in place, the brewery had its grand opening in March 2013.
“We had three very unique and bold beers at that particular event,” Ryan said.
They couldn’t have handled much more, Traci jokes.
“It was a 2,000 square-foot site,” she said. “The whole facility was the size of our current taproom now. It was a tiny space.”
The company remained there for several years.
“There were a lot of challenges there,” Ryan said. “We eventually stumbled on a new location for the future of True Vine, off of Earl Campbell Parkway,” staging a grand re-opening on True Vine’s five-year anniversary in March 2018.
2020 included another grand opening, in partnership with Plaza Tower: True Vine on the Square officially debuted in mid-February at 110 N. College Ave. #102.
A month later, unfortunately, the rise of COVID-19 forced a shutdown, a shared reality across the area, country and world. Finally open for business again, the Dixons and their team are excited for the future of the new location in addition to the prime HQ.
“We’ve always loved the downtown, Ryan said. “True Vine has always wanted to be a part of that, we just had to wait until the time was right and the opportunity was right. We’re excited to be a part of that life down there.”
“Our brewing philosophy is, honestly, taking an artist twist on traditional beers. Everything has to have some reason for going into the beer. There has to be some sort of purpose behind it.”
According to Ryan, there are about two dozen beers on draft at the main location on Earl Campbell Parkway.
“There’s a lot of them, which is exciting,” he said. “They’re all unique, and they all fit a specific style of what people are into these days,” in addition to presenting patrons with new options, “something you haven’t had before or something with a different twist.”
Ryan was a home brewing enthusiast long before the True Vine concept began to formulate.
“I’ve been involved in cooking and art and beer and wine for many years,” he said. “That kind of love for those things created a desire to learn how to brew beer and to get into the craft beer scene here in East Texas. Craft beer really started to hit here in Texas. It just created a love for trying to create it myself. I’m a little obsessive compulsive as a human being, so when I get involved in something I kind of go crazy with it.
After researching and reading, experimenting with recipes and brews, there was still some early trepidation about jumping into the business side of the craft.
“We had some concern in the very beginning just because no one had ever done a small craft brewery in a very traditional city in East Texas and Tyler,” Ryan admitted. “We were nervous about the success of it. Could it be successful?”
Yes.
“We were blown away,” he says now, almost a decade later. Canning their brews was an essential next step, and True Vine launched that venture in 2016: “That’s been very good for us and for our community as well. It’s been really very well-received.”
Culture and community are big parts of the enterprise.
“We love, love, love having people at our taproom and the events we host, our weekly hang time and live music,” Ryan said. “It appears as though people like it.”
Traci agrees: “One of our core values here at True Vine is community,” she said. “Everything we do here is to strive to create community, to bring people together around craft beer.”
From the early days, hundreds of people would pack into the small yard of True Vine’s warehouse space. Years later, that atmosphere persists.
“It’s just neat to see Tyler come together and sit around a table and have a conversation and make memories,” Traci said. “To create a product that allows that to happen is very humbling.
“Tyler is a unique community. We have a lot of great, supportive, awesome people here in this town. Whenever there is a new business that comes out, people are willing to try it out, support it, go and see what it’s all about.”
It’s a community with a great potential for success, she added, especially to entrepreneurs, especially in the heart of Tyler.
“There’s been a lot of things happening in Tyler over the past several years. It took us a little while to find our place,” Traci noted. Years later, “We’ve seen so much growth and potential in downtown and beyond with art and craft goods and music.
“As a brewery business, it definitely has its ups and downs just like any business, but I think Tyler is a great place to start a business right now.”
It’s also a great place to grow a business, Ryan says.
“Plans for the future are just to keep increasing our production capacity here at True Vine Earl Campbell as well as opening additional taprooms throughout our area, similar to what we did downtown, then to continue to make Tyler proud,” he said. “That’s one of our big goals: to be that hometown hero that people can be excited it started in their community and take a six-pack to friends out of town when they go visit.
“We want to be part of Tyler’s history.”
