Appreciate Your Local Brewer

    Well, it's the night before the big day, and I am sure that this post is jinxing it, but tomorrow is slated to be the first full batch at Ranger Creek Brewing and Distilling. I'm excited, a little anxious, but not really nervous, surprisingly.
    Lots to think about, sleep to get, and tons to do in the morning to get to brewing. Our boiler is not yet fully automated, so it's going to be a shitload of running back and forth checking to make sure it's pulling water, the pressure is right, etc, meanwhile trying not to get my flesh seared as I wriggle beside and behind it. Fun stuff, but it's part of what makes it craft, right? Hands on, potentially life threatening, full force-sweat drenched, and buck wild. That's how I roll.
    Commercial brewing is awesome. It's a challenge and it's rewarding, and while aspects of it are easier than homebrewing, many people don't appreciate fully the amount of labor, stress, and sweat go into making a single batch of beer. You may appreciate the beers and the good folks who made 'em, but think of each step being taken:
For a 10 bbl (310 gallon) batch of my lager that I'm making tomorrow, I need to mill over 600 lbs of grain, or 11- 55lb sacks of grain. That's the lightest of my 4 beers. Each of those sacks of grain is getting picked up by a brewer and dumped into a mill to crack the grains and ready them for mashing.
At the brewery I work at, there's no a.c. in the brewstillery, and I know most breweries of our size and in our area don't have a.c. either. Know why? It's costly and ineffective to try to cool a place that's exposed to the outside air, and has hot equipment working all day. Today in San Antonio it was 106ºF with the heat index. Add a steam boiler, hot liquor tank, mash tun, and boil kettle, and you've got yourself a regular sweat lodge.
Post mash, a brewer is left with a big steel pot with hundreds of pounds of hot, wet grains that need to be shoveled out into big containers for farmers to take away for their livestock. These wet grains weigh, literally, twice as much as they did dry. And they are over 100ºF hot. More sweat...
    On and on through the process the brewer works to bring you some good juice to enjoy with loved ones. Like I said, it's rewarding to do- but quite difficult. One slip up in time, temperature, pH, gravity, cleanliness, etc, and it's all for naught. Now don't get me wrong, I don't say this to make me look good or pump myself up. I haven't done it on my own yet. I'm saying, next time you pour a cold local brew, sip deep in admiration and appreciation of the artistry, talent, and hard-goddam-work that the good folks at Live Oak, NXNW, Uncle Billy's Independence, (512), Southern Star, Real Ale, Freetail, Blue Star, Saint Arnold, etc, etc, etc put into that single libation. Awesome, right? I stand in awe of it daily, and I am humbled and honored at the ability to do it myself and join these brewers that have done it before me. Who the fuck am I but the new kid in town. Well, I hope I sweat enough and pay enough attention to the process that the good juice you drink in a few weeks is worthy of the Texas craft beer drinker's lips. Again, I am honored to have this job and be able to bring you some awesome beer soon, and believe me when I say I intend to do just that.
    Don't just support your local craft brewer, appreciate the shit out of them. Drink their beer and help them be successful, and they will reward you with some good juice.

Tomorrow I'll be rocking my Austin Homebrew Supply t-shirt as I brew my first batch at Ranger Creek. If it wasn't for the patience and sage-like wisdom, kindness and communal spirit of all the guys who have known me by name for years, I'd be far from where I am. Ed emailed me today wishing me luck on my first batch tomorrow. That's fucking nice, and encouraging as all hell. I love the community spirit of craft beer!

-Ranger Creek Rob