Orignally posted Aug 20, 2010 14:32 – By: Jeremybanas
The name Ranger Creek conjures up thoughts mountains, streams and everything outdoors. Not the vision one might get when thinking of Texas. Yet, here they are, Ranger Creek Brewing and Distilling. Texas’ first brewstillery. Yes, that means they will be making fresh Texas craft beers and homegrown Texas Whiskey. When they start brewing, Ranger Creek will be the first production craft beer brewery in San Antonio in quite a while. San Antonio is best known for for The Alamo, The San Antonio Spurs, Davy Crocket and the Dallas Cowboys. A great city to be sure and a must visit when heading to Texas. They’ve even hosted the mens and womens Final Four a couple of times. I’ve spent many a night meandering down the twists and turns on the world famous Riverwalk.
When I heard these guys were going to be opening soon, I just had to contact them and stop by. I had to know more. I wanted to see what the buzz was all about. Texas has a steadily growing craft beer scene, one that is long overdue. I contacted their head brewer Rob, and head of Marketing, Mark and all was set for a visit.
- Where the brewing magic happens
After map questing the directions, I located Ranger creek in the most unlikely of places, near an industrial park. Not where’d I’d expect to find a brewery. I parked next to a vehicle who’s bumper sticker read “I’d Rather Be Homebrewing’ and I knew this was the place to be.
Ranger Creek will start out with four regular beers likely next week. Their German Dortmunder-Export lager dubbed South Texas Lager; which uses pilsner malt and German Tettnang hops; A Mesquite Smoked Porter that is all Texas, brewed with malted grain that is mesquite smoked on site at the brewery in a custom built smoker; A Oatmeal Pale Ale that uses Texas grown oats, malted barley, English Fuggles and American Amarillo hops; and lastly their Dark Belgian Strong Ale known as La Bestia Aimable, or the Friendly Beast after the French explorer explorer La Salle’s ship the Aimable and honoring Texas’ Mexican heritage.
The show piece of the brewery is their 30 barrel still which I have to say is a site to see. Manufactured in Europe, it is just …beautiful. I was able to get a tour from both head brewer Rob Landerman (who was busy putting together their cold room when I stopped by) and Marketing guy Mark McDavid who came buy during his lunch hour.
- The Still
It was fantastic to see how they rig their brewing equipment. Both Rob and Mark were easy to understand as they explained the brewwing process for the beer as well as the whiskey. Once open, they plan to have weekly tours of the brewery and tastings for the public, as well as a special tasting event more geared to the locals each month.
Suffice it to say, that many people love to go on tours of the wine country in California, Washington and other parts of the country. With craft beer being more diverse than wine, and Texas growing at a fast pace with more brewpubs and breweries each year, make a Texas brew tour a must for your visit to South Texas.
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