12 minute read
Food
Tapped Out
As the pandemic wears on, Texas craft brewers question how long they can survive
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BY NINA RANGEL
Between unclear and ever-changing state rules, nationwide supply issues and a lack of government relief, Texas craft breweries are struggling to survive the COVID-19 crisis.
Faced with those hurdles, two out of three Texas breweries don’t believe they’ll make it to 2021, according to a recent survey by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild.
And that’s not just a problem for ale enthusiasts but for the state’s economy, according to the Brewers Association. The national trade group has tallied 341 craft breweries in Texas, or two breweries for every 100,000 beer-drinking-age adults. Those businesses account for an annual economic impact of $5 billion.
“We’ve seen on-premise sales drop sharply, due to a combination of factors: capacity, shutdown limitations, a supply chain that’s feeling unexpected pressures,” said Bart Watson, the association’s chief economist. “And some consumers simply aren’t feeling comfortable going back to bars are taprooms just yet.”
With COVID-19 infections still surging across the state and a recent poll showing that nearly two-thirds of Texans disapprove of Gov. Greg Abbott ’s handling of the pandemic, local brewers say they don’t think that will change in the near term.
“There’s just a general sense of confusion around legislation and enforcement,” said Dustin Baker, co-owner and brewer at San Antonio’s Roadmap Brewing Co. “I don’t necessarily blame TABC entirely, because they’re in a diffi cult position: trying to interpret rules and regulations that have never before existed.”
In late July, the downtown brewery alerted Facebook fans of a recently discovered “loophole” in its license which should, theoretically, allow guests to order to-go beers and imbibe at the tables next to its building. Less than 24 hours later, the TABC came a-knockin’ and told Roadmap staff in no uncertain terms not to allow guests at the tables.
Roadmap’s att orneys still contend that their interpretation of the licenses provided by the city of San Antonio is correct, but Baker’s choosing his batt les.
“We’re at a point where we simply don’t have the resources to fi ght it,” he said. “It’s diffi cult to spend time and money to fi gure out how to open just a portion of your building.”
Roadmap is one of many Texas breweries that built a business around a taproom and never added a kitchen. In light of recent regulations, that decision is working against them.
Kitchen Conundrum
On July 30, the TABC issued an amendment to Abbott ’s order that shutt ered establishments whose alcohol sales make up 51% or more of total sales. Under the adjustment, Texas bars that have kitchens and can prove their business has recently been operating at less than 51% alcohol sales can reopen as restaurants.
“If you don’t have a kitchen, you’re screwed,” said Tim Castaneda, co-owner and brewer at San Antonio’s Black Laboratory Brewing said, summing it up. “That’s really hurting us. It’s frustrating that you can sit down at the restaurant next door and have a beer, but you can’t come have a beer in our taproom.”
Black Laboratory opened in San Antonio’s Dignowity Hill neighborhood on March 27 — 21 days after Texas’ fi rst confi rmed coronavirus case. Since the business was so new, it didn’t qualify for city or federal relief funds.
However, Black Laboratory did qualify for a Small Business Administration loan, which has helped it stay afl oat.
Castaneda said his business was lucky enough to have crowler-fi lling equipment on-site plus a stockpile of aluminum cans
food
Facebook / Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling
MA Ranger Creek worker fi lls curbside orders. Brewers have relied on curbside to weather the pandemic.
for takeout customers. But — and here’s where the hits keep coming — a nationwide aluminum shortage means Black Laboratory may have to make some big decisions come November when its stock runs out.
“We can do growler fi lls, and that may be something we look into if the canning situation escalates,” Castaneda said. “But I have a degree in microbiology, so I’m super conscious of cross-contamination and really can’t take that chance.”
Canning Plans
Yes, you read that right: on top of everything else, brewers are contenting with a nationwide aluminum shortage.
At the end of July, the Brewer’s Association reported that aluminum can manufacturers were operating at 100% capacity with no effi - cient way to increase production. That came as the pandemic-induced shift to at-home drinking steadily increased demand for canned beverages.
“The cans, you know, that can be a major thing,” Castaneda said. “Our whole idea was to be serving out of the taproom. We never planned on serving beer to-go.” 185
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5 17 Dennis Rylander, co-founder of Ranger Creek Brewing and Distilling, is also starting to see to worry about the aluminum shortage.
“We’ve only seen the beginnings of it so far,” he said. “All of our beers are in cans, so we’re impacted by large changes there. … We saw close to a 20% increase in can pricing, and very increased lead times.”
As a combined brewery-distillery, Ranger Creek faces issues on both sides of the state’s 51% guideline. The brewstillery can sell limited amounts to bars and restaurants and gets by with merchandise and virtual whiskey-tasting packages. But Rylander says it’s not enough.
“Our broader plea has been, obviously, for [the governor] to see that we take this very seriously,” he said. “When we are allowed to operate, we implement all of the safety precautions — if not more — than you’d see at a bar or restaurant.”
Finding Solutions
Ryland and other San Antonio brewers say they want the same thing from the state: to be allowed to reopen with the same limitations as restaurants. When Abbott closed bars, brewery taprooms and wineries for the second time on June 26, he dealt yet another blow to an already decimated industry.
Abbott justifi ed the closure, by arguing that people ignoring social distancing in bars had led to a spike in COVID-19 cases.
“The idea that people are safer because a restaurant serves food … obviously, we believe that to be false,” Road
Facebook / Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling
map’s Baker said. “We’re not looking for special circumstances, we just want to even the playing fi eld and operate like other places that are being allowed to serve alcohol safely [on-site].”
Economist Watson’s research shows that states that have allowed brewers to deliver their wares directly to consumers have shown a sales rebound during the pandemic. However, that can’t happen in Texas under current rules, which prevent brewers from selling beers directly except in their on-premise taprooms.
“Direct-to-consumer shipping would be extremely helpful,” Ranger Creek’s Rylander said. “Other states have removed the limitations on direct sales, making it so that a brewery or distillery can direct deliver. That would benefi t us greatly.”
A direct-sales precedent has already been set in the Lone Star State, local brewers argue.
In March, Abbott implemented a rule change allowing Texas restaurants to sell beer and other types of alcohol via takeout and delivery. Brewers say they don’t understand why that rule can’t be widened to include them.
These homegrown businesses have been forced to reimagine their business models multiple times as the craft brewing industry evolved. Now, many worry that without regulatory help for the state, COVID-19 could shut off their taps for good.
“It’s tragic, because [the pandemic] is an event that’s impossible to forecast,” Watson said. “It’s a case where breweries can — and have — done everything right, and they still just can’t get through it.”
Summer Shandys
Several San Antonio craft brews make great additions to hot-weather beer cocktails
BY RON BECHTOL
It’s hard to think of a more refreshing summer quencher than beer, but going back, folks have found ways to give water, barley, hops and yeast an even more summery twist.
The shandygaff sprang forth in mid-19th century Germany as perhaps the fi rst beer cocktail — a oneto-one mix of beer and ginger beer or ale. There’s evidence that a similar mix also evolved in the UK around the same time, and later versions were made with lemonade.
Whatever its origins, the name of this summery cooler was eventually shortened to the shandy, the name by which it’s known today.
Seasonal beers have long been a part of brewing evolution, and European brewers, sensing an opportunity, began bott ling brews with the fl avorings built in. These augmented beers were typically lower in alcohol and made for easy summertime drinking — a coupling that eventual production in cans only served to reinforce.
In one of those believe-it-or-not origin stories, Germany also gave birth to yet another summery beer concoction: the radlermass. Originally conceived as a cyclist’s quaff , this one was invented in 1922 by an innkeeper south of Munich whose establishment was on a bike trail he helped create.
One day, overwhelmed by the demands of thirsty cyclists, he added lemon soda to his beer to stretch the supply, and the rest is history. This term, too, was eventually shortened. It became the radler, and the line between it and the shandy eventually began to blur.
And now, here we are: in the grip of a serious summer. Never one to take the easy route when a complication can be had, I decided to return to the radlers and shandys of yore and mix my own from largely local ingredients.
Don’t Forget the Lime
During the course of my investigation, I mixed up a radler — with actual cycling associations — made with strictly San Antonio ingredients: Highwheel Bett y, a German-style kolsch ale made by Dorcol Distilling & Brewing, and Limoncito, a lemon and lime soda produced by Southside Bott ling Works. Tradition suggests six ounces of each in a tall glass, but I preferred seven ounces beer to the soda’s fi ve. To play against Limoncito’s honey component, a squeeze of non-traditional lime doesn’t hurt either. It slips down at a peloton’s pace.
Grapefruit shandy-radler are also easy to knock back in the summer heat, and I found there are a couple of ways you can go here.
One is to dose your beer of choice with an equal part grapefruit soda. Fancy options include the bitt er San Pellegrino version. Mexico’s Jarritos is fi ne, too. But to go totally local, make your own grapefruitade from Texas ruby reds and simple syrup.
Here’s how: Add one and a half ounces of fresh grapefruit juice to an ice-fi lled shaker, followed by an ounce of simple syrup and three ounces of water. Shake, strain into a pilsner glass and top off with beer. I asked Jason Davis of Freetail Brewing Co. and TJ Miller of Ranger Creek Brewing which local beers would make a good foil. Based on their suggestions, I selected the Freetail Bat Outt a Helles Lager, but I would be equally happy with Ranger Creek’s San Antonio Lager. Yup, another squeeze of lime perked up the proceedings.
Ginger and Wheat
Inspired by the original shandygaff recipe, I looked for a diff erent style of beer to go with a ginger brew I had on hand, the actually alcoholic — many aren’t — Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer, a Scott ish
Ron Bechtol
product. Your results, as they say, may vary, depending on which ginger beer or ale you use. And they may also vary if you choose Alamo Beer Co.’s Luna Blanca White, a Belgian-style wheat beer brewed with coriander and orange peel, over Ranger Creek’s LoveStruck Hefe, a German-style wheat beer. Either works well, and the recipe can be scaled up to work with a pitcher.
Add four ounces of ginger beer or ale to a tall, icefi lled rocks glass. Drop in a few lemon slices and mint sprigs and top with as much of a 12-ounce can of beer as fi ts. Finish the cocktail with a generous squeeze of lemon juice, and remember, like a michelada, you can add more beer as you drink.
Speaking of micheladas, I also played around with a shandy in the style of our neighbor to the south. That one took the form of the more rudimentary chelada — no tomato or other additions to get in the way. Simply add mix two ounces of lemon juice and a couple pinches of salt into a 12-ounce beer. I used Freetail’s Puro Pils for a puckery, San Anto vibe, but any of the above ales and lagers can be played with for a cross-cultural experience. For an even more puro product, add a litt le Tajin to the salted rim.
