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BREW MASTER: Wagner relys on Mitsubishi forklifts to keep his operation running smoothly.

Operating Texas' oldest and largest craft brewery is no small feat, as investment banker turned brewmaster Brock Wagner found out first hand.

As the owner of St. Arnold's Brewery in Houston, Wagner and his team of 18 employees are responsible for a continuously increasing annual production of more than 14,000 barrels of beer, making it the largest brewery of its kind in the entire state.

Early on in his second career, Wagner recognized the importance of materials handling in the brewing process. "Everyone tends to think of the more attractive parts of the process like brewing, making beer and most importantly, tasting beer," Wagner explains. "Often overlooked are the daily parts of the job that are critical for enabling us to put that beer on the shelf, such as materials handling; however, without them we'd be stuck."

Brewing beer is such an integrated process and if one step breaks down, it can result in total disaster for the end-product. "Reliability is extremely important to us, and Mitsubishi forklift trucks have proven to be very dependable," says Wagner. "We need to know that every morning our forklifts will be ready to operate all day without any malfunctions."

To help ensure optimal performance, Wagner selected the FB20NT Mitsubishi forklift trucks three-wheel electric model, which provides service intervals twice that of the industry standard. "With a small fleet such as ours, maintenance downtime on even one forklift can translate to a serious decline in production," Wagner says. "A planned maintenance schedule allows us to prepare accordingly, and avoid a gap in production."