Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling

SAN ANTONIO - Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling has officially opened and will soon begin supplying beer to local retail locations in San Antonio. Their initial product lineup will include four beers available on draft and in bottles starting in October.

Ranger Creek is owned by partners TJ Miller, Dennis Rylander and Mark McDavid, with head brewer Rob Landerman and assistant brewer Pete Landerman. Their custom-built 6000-square-foot "brewstillery" includes a 30-barrel brewing system and enough room to accommodate tours and tastings.

Ranger Creek will also produce Texas bourbon with much of the same equipment used for brewing, but due to barrel aging it will not be available until 2011.

Ranger Creek Brewing Location

SAN ANTONIO - Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling announced via their Facebook page today that they have signed a lease on a new property for their combined brewery and distilling operations. More details to follow as provided.

Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling

SAN ANTONIO - Another start-up brewing operation has been announced in San Antonio, Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling, a combined operation that will feature craft-brewed beer as well as locally produced whiskey.

Ranger Creek just announced the purchase of their brewing and distilling equipment yesterday. No date has been announced for the start of brewing operations, nor has a final location been provided.

Yard House Opens in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO - The first Texas location of the California-based beer bar chain Yard House opened this past week at The Shops at La Cantera in San Antonio.

The Houston location of the Yard House is scheduled to open on November 22nd.

Second Yard House to Open in San Antonio

A second Texas location of the California-based beer bar chain Yard House is scheduled to open in San Antonio by October. The new bar will be located on the north loop at The Shops at La Cantera shopping center.

Originally scheduled to open by March, the Houston location of the Yard House at CityCentre has been moved back to December.

Freetail Strong Beer Dinner

Freetail Brewing in San Antonio is planning their first beer pairing event, the Strong Beer Pairing 2009. This event pairs a five-course meal with a different strong beer for each course, some from other Texas brewers and some new in-house brews.

The event is scheduled for Tuesday, February 17th, at 7pm. Tickets are $50 per person and reservations are recommended.

Freetail Opens in San Antonio

Freetail Brewing Company opened yesterday as San Antonio's second local brewpub. Named after the Mexican free-tailed bat indigenous to the area, Freetail Brewing is owned and operated by local businessman Scott Metzger.

The menu includes brick-oven gourmet pizzas and fresh salads and sandwiches. The brewer is Jason Davis, who has experience with Austin's Waterloo Brewing and Celis Brewing, and most recently as assistant brewer at Blue Star Brewing.

Freetail opened having only other Texas commercial craft beers on tap but with plans for 13 different beers rotating throughout the year. House beers should be available by mid-December.

Texas Brewers in the News

Just clearing out some minor news items, along with one significant beer article. Lee Nichols of the Austin Chronicle wrote the article entitled, "Microbrew Renaissance," a near-encyclopaedic review of current Texas breweries and brewpubs that appeared over the Fourth of July weekend. Nichols also includes beer recommendations for each of the brewers featured, as well as a small quote from this blog.

Also in the Austin media was a piece from News 8 Austin entitled, "Beer may become the new gas, in price." This article features Austin's Winemaker's and Beermakers Supply and the rising price of brewing ingredients.

And nearly beer-related is this article from the San Antonio Business Journal announcing the "Pearl Brewery site is set to be home to Texas' largest solar energy project," focusing on new commercial development of the old historic downtown Pearl Brewery site.