Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Ranger Creek Releases New Whiskey Born From Belgian Beer

As I try to revive this blog I'm hoping to move away from simple cutting-and-pasting of press releases, but this is just too interesting not to share. Gotta get me some of this:

SAN ANTONIO, TX, September 19, 2013 – In the fall of 2010 the guys at Ranger Creek were installing the equipment at their brewstillery and anxiously waiting to sell their first keg of beer.  They had brewed a batch of Belgian beer that couldn’t be sold because they were waiting for government paperwork.  On the distillery side, they needed to run something through their still in order to test it.  So they looked at the beer and decided to distill it.   The end result surprised them by how interesting and unique it was.  Three years later they are releasing this happy accident to the public.

As a combined brewery/distillery, Ranger Creek is fascinated by the relationship between beer and whiskey.  They are also committed to finding answers to crazy questions like “How does a Belgian beer taste when distilled into a whiskey?“  The resulting spirit is something that could only be created at a brewstillery, and it’s so unique that Ranger Creek had to create a new term to accurately describe it: Belgian White Whiskey.  

The new whiskey is the evil twin of the beer.  While the beer is named La Bestia Aimable (The Friendly Beast), the whiskey is called La Bestia Defavorable (The Unfriendly Beast).  The packaging showcases the relationship.  The whiskey was put in a 750 ml amber glass beer bottle with a beer crown finish and a swing top to reseal it.  When placed next to its twin brother the relationship is apparent.  Pictures of both bottles are available here:  http://www.drinkrangercreek.com/community/press-media/ranger-creek-la-bestia-defavorable

La Bestia Defavorable will be available in Texas only.  The recommended retail price is $32.99/750 ml bottle at Spec’s and other fine spirits retailers across the state.  Bottles are available for purchase for $25.00 when visiting Ranger Creek’s brewstillery in San Antonio. Less than 500 cases of Ranger Creek La Bestia Defavorable will be released, so whiskey enthusiasts are encouraged to buy bottles while they last. 

Release events will commence in Ranger Creek’s hometown of San Antonio on Thursday, September 19 with a release party at The Brooklynite, featuring two special cocktails prepared with the new whiskey.  Bottles will be available on retail shelves starting on Friday, September 20.

EDIT: Details on that Brooklynite party:


The Brooklynite is Hosting a Ranger Creek Whiskey Release Party
Ranger Creek Introduces La Bestia Defavorable at The Brooklynite


WHAT:        The Brooklynite is hosting a Ranger Creek Whiskey Release Party! Ranger Creek will be introducing a brand new whiskey named La Bestia Defavorable this Thursday, September 19th, at The Brooklynite. No Cover and free samples of the new whiskey all night. Come out and try Ranger Creek’s new white whiskey that was born from a Belgian Beer! Cocktails and beer also will be available for purchase.  Food will be available for purchase via food trucks outside of The Brooklynite.

WHEN:        Thursday, September 19th
                  8 p.m. – 11 p.m.

WHERE:      The Brooklynite
                  516 Brooklyn Ave
                  San Antonio, TX 78215

PRICE:        No Cover and Free Samples

ABOUT THE

BROOKLYN-

ITE:            Showcasing premium spirits alongside house-made cordials, bitters and juices in craft cocktails, The Brooklynite Team prides themselves on being supremely balanced, unapologetically playful, totally unique and always providing top-notch service.



ABOUT
RANGER
CREEK:       Ranger Creek is a combined brewery/distillery proudly located in San Antonio, TX. We make beer and whiskey in our “brewstillery”, and we make it by hand one batch at a time with lots of love and attention. We like to focus on the relationship between beer and whiskey. As a combined operation, we can do things to highlight this relationship that no one else can, like age our own beer in our own bourbon barrels and distill our beers into whiskeys. We also use much of the same equipment to make both our beer and our whiskey, and we can do this because there are a lot of similarities between the two processes. 


MORE:        Website –  www.thebrooklynitesa.com
                                
                 https://www.facebook.com/RangerCreek

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Back in the writing game



Hello loyal readers (the few of you that are left). As you may remember, I was for about three years the beer writer for The Austin Chronicle, the alt-weekly in beautiful Austin, Texas. Today I'm happy to announce that I'm back in the beer-writing game, again for an alt-weekly: On Wednesday, I took over as the beer columnist for the San Antonio Current. It may seem odd for an Austin-based writer to be covering brew for a San Antonio paper, but since I work for a state senator from San Antonio, I'm down there quite a bit.

In fact, my first column is about my boss, and some really great beer-friendly laws she helped pass in the recently ended legislative session. Read about it here.