Texas is the first or second largest beer-consuming state in the U.S., said Carter Huber, Valley branch manager of Glazer’s Distributors. Valley residents contribute more than their fair share to that ranking. “Per capita consumption is higher here then it is in most parts of country. The phenomenon is the same in El Paso. The market is totally different. My analogy is that beer is to Mexico what wine is to France.” And, hugging the border, Rio Grande Valley residents celebrate the holidays of two nations.
“Day in and day out, our sales go up from late May to mid-August,” Huber added. Memorial Day, which is a three-day weekend, chalks up higher sales than Fourth of July. Yet the number one weekend for beer sales is Easter, although the Christmas season brings the strongest continuous demand and sales volume. “We don’t look at 30-day increments. We look at 90-day periods to determine beer trends. If it rains, it makes a difference for beer sales.” Weather, gas prices and the season all impact beer buying.
In 2004, Glazer’s — Texas’ largest beer, wine and spirits distributor–bought Valley Beverage, the regional Miller’s and Coors distributor. Braced for high demand whether on a surprisingly busy Mother’s Day, Halloween or hot weekend, until seven years ago, Glazer’s ran its delivery trucks only four days a week. But the dynamics have changed, Huber said, requiring five days of deliveries. “Our days are not eight hours; they can be 10 hours or longer. We deliver in the daytime and are loading at night (with a different crew).”
The company operates a 120,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse for beer and a smaller warehouse for wine and spirits. “We have most of the imported beers,” Huber said, while walking through the huge warehouse where cases of beer — Dos Equis, Heineken, Coors, Batch 19, Redd’s Apple Ale and microbrews — are stacked up to stratospheric heights. Currently imported beers comprise less than four percent of the Valley market, while in Austin imports account for about 15 percent of sales.
Yet the Valley is growing and becoming a little more adventurous with beers. The restaurant Roosevelt’s at 7 has more than 45 beers on tap as well as another 40-50 bottled beers, according to manager Ric Macias. “There’s such a variety now with microbrews and specialty craft beers in different styles. People like the variety and want to try a lot of them, so we offer samples.” During the summer, Macias said, customers tend to drink more of the lighter beers. Nevertheless, Roosevelt’s sells more beer in the winter months, trending to porters and stout.
Genuine biergarten
Tucked away on North Ware Road, Schneider’s German Gasthaus and Beergarden was opened in October 2010 by natives of Frankfurt, Germany, Helmut and Ursula Schneider. He’s a chef with 30 years’ experience while she oversees the beer garden.
Given Texas liquor laws, the Schneiders can’t import German beer directly, but they’ve tapped into Texas suppliers who deliver a steady stream of Spaten, pilsners, weiss beers and other favorites from their homeland. “We want to make it authentic,” said Schneider, whose menu includes dishes from Frankfurt and across Germany … Wednesday through Saturday for dinner at five.
Their devoted customers include many men who were stationed in Germany in the army, people of German heritage and schnitzel aficionados.
Brew pubs
People drink beer in good times and bad, said Mel Ocker. That attitude led him to open Tejas Brew Pub on South Padre last summer. He hired experienced Colorado brewmaster Don Wolfe, who gained renown as the brewmaster for Flying Dog Ale. Ocker had not expected that 800 other microbreweries would apply for federal permits that year and that all would line up to buy brewing equipment. It took Tejas almost one year to procure everything needed to brew their own beer.
But in February, Tejas finally had its first beer ready, said Wolfe. “We’re doing the same styles that I brewed in Colorado.” On the menu now are Tejas’ smoked porter, Taxi Cab amber ale, Island Time IPA, the unique palezner (a pale ale and pilsner blend) plus numerous imported and craft brews.
Most ales take a couple weeks to brew while lagers take as long as six, said the brewmaster. Tejas is trying to obtain two more serving tanks, so they can offer a greater variety. “The water here is a little more challenging (as an ingredient) than in Colorado,” Wolfe admitted. Before using it, he strips the water and then amends it. But the variety of ingredients available to brewers has greatly improved to include what he identified as great European malts and Patagonia grain.
Wolfe said there’s a real loyalty to certain styles, which have varying alcohol content (4.8 percent for amber ale to 6.2 percent for IPA). “We’ve seen a great growth in the sales of our beers and a decline in the ones we purchase from distributors. It’s been kind of staggering how much of our product we are selling. I’m tickled with the beers we’re pumping.”
The region’s first brewpub opened in 1995, Padre Island Brewing Company which has five microbrews on tap at a time.
Beer culture
Carter Huber at Glazer’s pointed out the growing success of IMAS’s annual Brew-seum. This year’s multi-day event (which sold out 1,100 tickets in two days) featured 60 American craft and international beers, plus a home-brewing competition.
“You can see the love of beer culture skyrocketing here in south Texas. There’s more diversity now,” said Gaby Jones, IMAS director of marketing. “That’s the time the beer distributors can really shine and demonstrate what they have to offer.” Brew-seum also attracts a younger crowd of business professionals.
Let the brewski adventures begin.
For more information, call Schneider’s 956-451-7195; Tejas Brew Pub 956-772-1711; Padre Brewing Co. 956-761-9585; Roosevelt’s at 7– 956-928-1994; Glazer’s 956-686-0545; IMAS 956-682-0123.
June cover story by Eileen Mattei
