Being that I'm in the midst of an investigation into why Houston has been without an operating brewpub since Two Rows closed in October, while other Texas markets like Austin get to have multiples, the news that San Antonio-based Freetail Brewing Co. is opening a location in downtown Houston comes with a profound sense of satisfaction.

As if maybe, just maybe, my months of pointing out this grave injustice spurred founder and CEO Scott Metzger to make things right for us beer-lovers here in H-town.

Metzger announced Freetail's plans to expand to a second location besides its San Antonio original back in November, and has finally settled on a 20,000-square-foot historic building in downtown Houston, not least because of dedicated harassment campaigning by Houston Tweeps.

"Quite honestly, I would have never even thought about Houston as a potential spot — I was born in San Antonio, grew up here and always considered myself more a central Texas kind of dude," Metzger tells CultureMap. "But I started thinking about a second location, and some people I know from Houston started bugging me."

It began with posts to Freetail's Facebook page, Metzger says, but the campaign mounted to a full-on Twitter attack, complete with #freetailhouston trending locally.

"They started organizing little rallies every time someone heard I was in Houston," Metzger says. "We had one at Kitchen Incubator, and we had like 80 people there spur-of-the-moment. That's when it started dawning on me that our target demographic in Houston is really excited to the point they're making these kinds of efforts. That was kind of the tipping point."

The new location will contain three floors, including a company store where you'll be able to pick up packaged product (since you can't get it at the grocery), a restaurant and ample after-work bar space complete with a game room full of darts, pool, shuffleboard and the like.

It'll be a welcome change from Freetail's current San Antonio location, which is housed in what Metzger calls "a cookie-cutter strip mall at the outside of town." The Houston location, he says, will have a character of its own.

"The place [in San Antonio] has been described as 'bring your own entertainment.' There's going to be a large dining area in Houston, a mezzanine space for parties and a third floor that'll be devoted to a more bar-type feel. I'd describe it as a similar feel to Wynkoop in Denver — dynamic from one floor to the next."

Metzger says that Houston's rather piss-poor brewpub history didn't escape him. "A lot of folks talk about the trail of failed brewpubs that litters Houston's past, but I don't think a brewpub is something that can't thrive here," he says in his official statement.

Metzger says he draws confidence from the success of craft beer businesses like Saint Arnold, although that may be a bit like comparing apples to oranges when it comes to thriving under Texas liquor laws.

Even Saint Arnold founder Brock Wagner seemed to hint at that fact in his response to Tuesday's news, which appeared in the same release from the Downtown District: "I have told many people that if I could, I would love to open a brewpub here." Although Wagner says that Freetail's success would dispel any idea of a brewpub curse upon Houston, it implies there's some reason Wagner can't open a brewpub — or won't.

Namely that it's just not as economically attractive as running a stupidly successful craft brewery.

We asked Metzger why he'll be successful where others have failed. (No pressure.) "You know, you start digging into the past of all these individual brewpubs, and all have some excuse for why they closed," Metzger says. "At some point, it's just a leap of faith. Can I avoid making the same mistakes, or has the market changed? And I think both are true. I think obviously we have to go in thinking we can succeed."

The new downtown facility will have an eye toward the future, with enough space to accommodate sales to wholesalers in the event that HB 660 (which Metzger supported and which was killed earlier this year) eventually passes. HB 660 would allow brewpubs to sell their products to retailers and distributors, which is currently outlawed in Texas.

"In the '90s microbrews were just this hip little thing people drank, kind of this fringe thing. Now it's a majorly accepted part of our leisure and entertainment culture," Metzger says. "Distributors are starting to realize where the market is, and that traditional protectionism is starting to wear away."

Plus, Metzger says, Houston's beer culture is active, and inspiring. "I think Houston is maybe kind of on the cusp of a little craft beer renaissance."

The location of this new chapter for Freetail Brewing Co. isn't yet public, but we'll keep our ears to the ground for you. In the meantime, we suggest getting out your voodoo dolls, Ouija boards and whatever else we need to do to dispel this curse before Freetail moves in.

Vive la renaissance!