Liquor before beer? Ranger Creek says never fear

Three guys are sliding into their 30s, thinking about changing career course, making plans over beers at the Flying Saucer in San Antonio. Let's open a craft brewery, they say. No, how about a whiskey distillery?

And after many pints are put away, they come up with a third option: Why not both?

Malt advocates and beer nerds, I give you Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling, which calls itself the first combo brewery and distillery startup.

It is for Texas. In a landscape where new breweries are popping up like bluebonnets after a wet winter, this is new.

According to Mark McDavid, one of the founders, the initial discussions between him, T.J. Miller and Dennis Rylander (all three with MBAs, Rylander and McDavid from UT's McCombs School, so if this venture fails it won't be for lack of book learnin') focused on why the idea wouldn't fly. Eventually they talked themselves into it — beer can be a great persuader — and they're recruited Rob Landerman, an accomplished home brewer who's currently at the Flying Saucer in Austin, as the man who'll wear the rubber boots in the brewery. They have the 30-barrel brewhouse ordered, are homing in on a location and aim to have product rolling out the door — albeit only in the San Antonio market to start — in September or late August.

So why a hybrid operation? Casual drinkers might think they're distinct and temperamental arts, but they have a number of similarities, including converting starches in grain to fermentable sugars under heat, then adding yeast to produce alcohol. Some equipment can be used in both operations. Just as important, whiskey and bourbon need to age before they ship and during that time there's no money coming in. Why not use the down time to brew beer?

"We created this really nice synergy that is going to be really exciting," says McDavid, 31. "We can use both sides of our business. We can use our own bourbon barrels to age our own beer in it."

Although San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the country, it has no homegrown craft brewery (it does have brew pubs). McDavid and his partners think it's time to change that.

"We'll have a pretty good portfolio with interesting but approachable beers," he says. "We'll have one lager and three ales. They will go from a sort of an approachable mass market beer to the types of beers that will have beer nerds go crazy. I think Texas beer drinkers are getting more adventurous. It seems like we're getting to the point where you can be a little more experimental, as long as you're brewing a really good beer."

You can follow their progress and work up a thirst at drinkrangercreek.com.

Well, we knew that was gonna happen:Friday, the first night of the Dogfish Head Off-Centered Film Festival at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, is way sold out. Maybe it was the 15 beers, maybe it was the 15-course dinner Paul Michie dreamed up, maybe it was the thought of hanging out with DFH founder Sam Calagione and the jazz of local band Torch.

The good news is as of this writing, tickets are still available for the Saturday event, where they'll screen the films entered in the competition and sample whatever beers we haven't cleaned the place out of the night before. More here: drafthouse.com/lakecreek/shows.php?id=530 .

Second annual American whiskey fest at Opal Divine's Penn Field: Canada is part of America. Did we annex them or something? Anyway, the fest — beginning at 7 p.m. April 29 — will feature top American bourbons, ryes and whiskeys from Canada. Participants include Beam, Maker's Mark, Knob Creek, Bookers and more. Tickets are $30, available at opaldivines.com and a good deal, especially considering the price includes an hors d'oeuvre buffet.

Speaking of whiskey, the updated sixth edition of "Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch" is just out (DK Publishing, $29.95). Jackson died in 2008, but his reverence for the spirit, the alchemy of oak and peat, informs every page. In addition to covering each working distillery in Scotland, there's much new or expanded material on whiskies around the world, including Japan (you'll be hearing a lot about them soon) and, uh, Sweden? Ja!