Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Dixon.
Matt, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born & raised in Lewisville and have lived in the DFW area my entire life. I fell madly in love with beer during trips to places with established scenes like Portland, Southern California, etc. and wanted to help cultivate & grow our own scene. What started as a hobby website/social media account called Dallas Brew Scene naturally evolved into bus tours of local breweries to share my own passion with others. We ran our first tour in February of 2013 and have been rockin’ ever since!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There were only about a dozen places open for business in our first few months, some of which weren’t necessarily easy to get to via bus in one afternoon. Also, Texas laws were, believe it or not, even more restrictive when we started than they are today. Breweries and brewpubs weren’t legally allowed to sell beer to consumers in any capacity. The convenience of taprooms like those at Community Beer Co, Lakewood Brewing, and the like didn’t exist so, while the number of possible tour stops continued to increase, the brewery operating hours did not. The law changes a few years back allowing breweries to sell directly to consumers for on-premise consumption (only brewpubs are allowed to sell off premise aka to-go beer) have made scheduling more diverse tours easier since there are more & more taprooms around DFW open for longer hours.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Dallas Brew Bus is the original locally owned & operated brewery Tour Company in the DFW region. For five years, we’ve been providing one-of-a-kind experiences and sharing our insider local scene knowledge (I also run NTX Beer Week) to bus loads of thirsty riders. I’m most proud of the many strong relationships I’ve built with repeat customers, our brewery partners, and others along the way.
What were you like growing up?
I’ve always been a sort of outgoing introvert, interacting with others on my own terms whenever possible. Forced interactions or talking about topics I have zero interest in have never come easy to me, but, when a subject I’m passionate about is on the table, it’s near-impossible to get me to shut up. The same went for learning about any given topic; I’d have difficulty focusing on things like geometry but would spend hours at a time teaching myself to play guitar, learning everything these was to know about my favorite bands or skateboarders, etc.
Pricing:
- Most regular public tours cost $60
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dallasbrewbus.com
- Phone: 469-226-5452
- Email: info@dallasbrewbus.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/brewbus
- Facebook: facebook.com/dallasbrewbus
- Twitter: twitter.com/dallasbrewbus
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dallas-brew-bus-dallas-2
- Other: www.dallasbrewscene.com
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
