Ranger Creek 'Farm to Pint' Strawberry Milk Stout (Seasonal)

Hmm, this sounds intriguing. Time for another trip to San Antonio. Press release from Ranger Creek:

Ranger Creek Releases Unique ‘Farm to Pint’ Seasonal Using Poteet Strawberries

SAN ANTONIO, TX, April 23, 2012 – A big part of Ranger Creek’s philosophy of being a craft brewery is using local ingredients to make interesting recipes.  This concept ties modern breweries back to the older pre-Prohibition breweries that had no choice but to use what was easily grown nearby and readily available. 

The use of local ingredients like raw Texas honey in La Bestia Aimable, wildflower Texas honey in Lucky Ol’ Sun, and Texas mesquite wood in Mesquite Smoked Porter have been a good start to fulfilling this vision.  Ranger Creek’s new seasonal, however, brings the concept to life in a way the brewery is really proud of. 

Ranger Creek Strawberry Milk Stout uses 500 pounds of Poteet, Texas strawberries to create a delicious and completely unique beer.  The result is a dark, rich, creamy stout with a slight roastiness and undertones of rich chocolate, complemented by fresh strawberry flavor and aroma.  It is already one of the brewery’s most highly sought after seasonals.  Only one batch of it will be brewed, and it will be available on draft only in San Antonio (Flying Saucer, Luke, Alamo Drafthouse Park North and Alamo Drafthouse Westlakes), Austin (Draughthouse, Billy’s on Burnet), and Houston (to be delivered this week to Flying Saucer, BRC Gastropub, and others).

The beer was the brainchild of head brewer Rob Landerman and his wife Keely, and it brings to life the ‘Farm to Pint’ concept the brewery strives for.  “We work with local farmers quite a bit since we donate thousands of pounds of spent grain to them each month after we’re done brewing,” Landerman explains.  “So we’ve been playing around with ideas since the beginning and finally found the right one.  We’re taking fresh, premium, local stawberries grown nearby and using them to make delicious beer.  It’s the same thing that great local restaurants do, we’re just applying it to beer instead of food” continues Landerman, who is also a Certified Cicerone®.

Assistant brewer Holland Lawrence drove Vandito, the Ranger Creek van, out to Oak Hill Farms in Poteet, Texas to pick up the strawberries.  Lawrence, Landerman, and sales rep Dan Stone then cut all 500 pounds of strawberries by hand for use in the brew. The Poteet strawberries were then added at two separate times during the brewing process to make sure the taste and aroma really came through. The resulting brew highlights the strawberries in a way that the brewery feels the farmers that grew them can be proud of.   Pictures of the entire ‘Farm to Pint’ process are available on the Ranger Creek website.

Ranger Creek is committed to using local ingredients whenever possible.  Some traditional brewing ingredients like hops don’t grow well in the San Antonio heat.  However, they feel that there are plenty of ways to use locally grown products if you are creative, and that’s how the Strawberry Milk Stout was born.  This ‘Farm to Pint’ concept supports Texas agriculture and the craft beer culture in Texas. It’s not always cheap to do it, but Ranger Creek thinks it’s worth it to use fresh, high quality, locally grown ingredients, and they hope that Texas beer drinkers will agree.

About Ranger Creek

Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling is the only combined brewery/distillery in Texas, proudly located in San Antonio where they handcraft beer and bourbon one batch at a time. They are the only microbrewery in San Antonio, one of a few combined brewery/distilleries in the U.S., and the only combined operation making both beer and bourbon. They focus on interesting recipes and use local ingredients from the state of Texas as much as possible. The company uses much of the same equipment to make both beer and bourbon, which is possible because in order to make bourbon, beer must be made first. They encourage visitors to San Antonio to sign up for one of their regularly scheduled tours and come by for a visit.