Brewing News
What’s brewing in San Antonio: Silver lining ahead for former brewery
Carlos Valdez is taking over the former Second Pitch spot with Silver Lining Brewing Co.
Editor's note: The bustling San Antonio beer scene is always changing — usually with openings and closures, but there are other twists along the way. Let's discuss it over a cold one.
Back Unturned up for Samuel Adams "Experienceship"
This year is proving to be a special one for Back Unturned Brewing Co. The downtown brewery introduced a craft cocktail program over the winter, and will mark its fifth anniversary this fall. In June, owner Ricardo Garcia and his crew will see if Sam Adams Boston Brewery will award them a special opportunity.
Back Unturned learned earlier in May that it's one of six finalists for Sam Adams’ third Crafting Dreams Beer Bash, set for June 7 in Boston. The bash celebrates Sam Adams’ Brewing the American Dream, a philanthropic program, which provides mentorship and capital to food and beverage entrepreneurs. According to a news release, the event and the program collectively are designed to emphasize the passion of craft beer-making and craft brewers.
Garcia and counterparts representing five other U.S. breweries will be at the Crafting Dreams Beer Bash, where they will share their stories and offer samples of their beers before craft beer fans cast a vote for the 2024 “Experienceship” winner, who will receive one year of mentorship from the Sam Adams’ team.
The Experienceship victor, the release states, will get to work with a group of experts and mentors, learn the craft and business of brewing, and collaborate on a specialty beer with Samuel Adams. The annual initiative is inspired by Samuel Adams founder, Jim Koch.
A Colombian immigrant, Garcia initially lacked restaurant and brewing expertise, but he turned homebrewing into Back Unturned, a venture that now offers a variety of beers accompanied by pub grub and, more recently, cocktails and mocktails.
"We are super excited to have been selected for this competition and hope to make our community proud. We are excited to learn more and help others along the way,” a Back Unturned social media post read in May.
The June 7 event will include foods from Boston-area food vendors in the Brewing the American Dream network.
Alamo and Freetail rule the "World"
The Brewers Association held their annual World Beer Cup competition in April in Las Vegas in conjunction with the Craft Brewers Conference. The competition honored the best beers in 110 categories covering 172 different beer styles.
Two San Antonio breweries were among 15 Texas breweries honored at the World Beer Cup.
Freetail Brewing Co.’s 401K won the gold medal in the American-style pilsner category.
Alamo Beer Co.’s Fancy Meeting You received a bronze medal in the American-style sour ale category.
Silver Lining ahead on the Northeast Side
Local craft beer fans were shocked by the abrupt closure of Second Pitch Brewing Co. in March. However, local entrepreneur Carlos Valadez recently announced on Instagram a plan to reopen the former Second Pitch space near McAllister Park.
"I’m thrilled to announce the start of Silver Lining Brewing Co. I was given the opportunity to acquire an award-winning local brewery company, which then led to the ultimate idea and decision to restart, rebrand and restructure to start a whole new brewery company,” Valadez said in the post.
The former brewers and owners of Second Pitch, Jim and Samantha Hansen, said Silver Lining was neither rebooting nor acquiring their now-defunct brand of beer. However, Valadez in his social media post mentioned former Second Pitch tap room manager Nick Eppinger as his business partner in taking over the Silver Lining.
Talking with CultureMap San Antonio, Eppinger said he and Valadez are still addressing issues regarding the physical brewhouse equipment, but they hope to soon determine when they can go forward with producing new beer and reopening the Northeast Side brewery.
In the meantime, Silver Lining will continue to use its social media to engage the public on tidbits about the history of beer.
