Today's For the Love of Craft Beer is featuring a pioneer in the Nano-Brewery frontier, Silas Parker of Darkside Fermentation in San Marcos, TX. Never heard of it? Well you're probably not alone. I only heard about it around a year ago, but quickly became intrigued by their bold Belgian inspired offerings. Darkside Fermentation is a very small operation (one-barrel system), done within the confines of The Root Cellar Cafe...so it's technically a brewpub. One of their most popular beers is called Mark of the Yeast (a Belgian style Quadrupel), a play off their zip code 78666...clever huh? I detected a lot of passion from Silas when talking with him, and when there's passion, there's a quality product. So next time you're in San Marcos, head on over to The Root Cellar Cafe and have some quality food with some quality beer. Enjoy!
These are the questions I asked him:
- What does craft beer mean to you?
- Some readers might not know what a 'nano brewery' is...so what exactly is a nano brewery?
- Do you see yourself expanding the brewing operations, or do you want to keep it small? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of keeping a small operation?
- Every brewer/home brewer has a memorable beer they brewed (mine was an IPA). Do you have a beer you remember brewing and just going 'Wow!'?
And here was his response:
Needless to say, things ain't what they used to be. People throw around the term "craft" because without that little adjective, you are just making Beer. Plain Beer. Perish the thought. And like all things overused, it has lost all meaning and reflects nothing about the maker of the beer or the beer itself.
Webster gives all the distinction we need to understand so-called "craft" brewers:
1. skill or ability, esp in handiwork
2. skill in deception and trickery; guile; cunning
-i.e. Marketing Ploys, Misrepresentation, Snakes eating Snakes, etc.
One thing to note is the term "HANDiwork." If I had to draw my line in the sand, I would identify the true craftsmen by the hands-on intimacy with their product, not by the large automata bristling with gauges and blinking whatnots. If you're not sticky at the end of the brew day, you're not crafting anything.
Indeed, I am an idealist. I use open fermentation, natural conditioning/priming, corked bottles, and anything else I can employ to prove the point that fancy equipment and technology does NOT make for a good beer. Attention to Yeast Health, Cleanliness and Patience are a timeless recipe for success. This is easy for me to say brewing on a One-Barrel system, but there is no reason these Ideas cannot be expanded to almost any scale.
The next step for Darkside Fermentation is the expansion into a Brewery outside of San Marcos City Limits. The goal is a Zero/Low impact operation that replenishes the immediate ecosystem and sustains itself in every possible way. We'll start the brew day on a custom-fabricated 7-Barrel system where the only pump necessary is for Recirculation/Lautering of the wort; gravity does the rest. From there we drop down into a subterranean, positive-pressure HEPA fermentation suite. Four copper-clad open-fermentation vessels will serve as primaries, with wine barrels for secondary fermentation. The still beer from the barrels is primed and bottled, then conditioned for another month or two.
Water will be a blend of hard Hill Country aquifer water and rain catchment. Spent grains will feed on-site livestock and supply a small Oyster Mushroom operation.Waste/Wash water will either be filtered and reused, or used to water the Brewer's garden downhill from the brewery. EVERYTHING GRAVITY-FED where possible. Hopefully we can get a grant for a Windmill or Solar Panels as well.
This is as large as I will ever grow. In the business sense, I am asking for much more work, more materials(bottles), and more complexity (However, businessmen shouldn't be crafting beer). Artistically speaking, I will have room for experimentation, extended aging for Gueze and the like, and full control over my self-designed system. Large Automata has astronomically more vectors of failure and malfunction than a small system, and none of it is necessary in making good beer. Worst of all, these large systems DEMAND CIP (clean-in-place) chemicals to be run through them at a disturbing quantity and frequency. My new facility will be cleaned with ol' fashioned elbow grease, in an effort to slow the constant poisoning of our planet by "Successful People."
Case in point; one of my first attempts at Belgian-inspired beer was a Delirium Tremens clone, 10 gallons, brewed in keggles, trashcans, and carboys. This was the beer that actually won the heart of my current partner, convincing him to allow me to start up Darkside in his restaurant. There is still a bottle of it sitting in the office as a reminder of where we began.
You've gotta put the love into your beer, a lesson that we lost when men took over the art of fermentation. Avoid imposing time and financial restraints on your product, whatever the beer needs, provide it. You are the steward of millions on millions of yeast cells, don't let them down and the respect should be mutual.
Cheers,
Silas Parker
Saccromancer
