INSIDE nORTH HOUSTON’S CRAFT BEER SCENE
2017
T
he craft makers behind our area’s beer scene come in many free forms and backgrounds, but they all share one common ground, and that’s the love for well-made beer. Meet the faces behind Brash Brewing, Buffalo Bayou, Eureka Heights, Great Heights, Holler, Karbach, Platypus and Town In City. -Christina Martinez
Cover photo by Christina Martinez
Meet the head brewers of the neighborhood Vince Mandeville, Brash Brewing
Ryan Robertson, Buffalo Bayou Brewing
Hometown: Sharpstown, Houston A beer always in your fridge: Real Ale Four Square Favorite local restaurant: El Palenque in Spring
Hometown: Rockwell, TX A beer that’s always in your fridge: something local Favorite local restaurant: Pink’s Pizza
For Brash Brewing’s Vince Mandeville, beer started for him when his father took him to DeFalco’s, a shop that has what you need to brew your own wine or beer. “What we bought was the step above the Mr. Beer Kit that everyone gets a Christmas,” Mandeville said. “We made it and it was horrible. [My dad] stopped brewing and I kept going. Fast forward to my mid-20’s, and I got really serious into it and decided to join a homebrew club to bounce ideas off of. I couldn’t find a club that I really liked, so me and a couple of buddies started our own brew club, which is still going today – roughly for 20 years.” In his early 20’s, Vince found himself managing bars and restaurants. He carried his passion for beer through his work in the service industry, but didn’t think it was something he could do full time. Eventually, a couple of his bar workers started working at Rock Bottom Brewing
Vince Mandeville.
and that is what flipped the switch for Mandeville. “It was at that point that I went to Brock at Saint Arnold for two years strait,” he said. “I bought a pint glass from him during tours and I asked him for a job at every visit. That was back in 1998 and ’99 and Brock finally gave me a job in 2001. I started as assistant brewer.” From 2001 to 2013, Vince called Saint Arnold home. He learned the ropes from Dave Fougeron, who was then Saint Arnold’s head brewer, now of Southern Star Brewing. In his time spent there, Vince moved from assistant brewer to brewer, then to head brewer, and then to barrel room manager, a stint in quality control and quality assurance,
and he was even the lab guy for a while. “You became a very well rounded brewer. Brock gave you the resources for everything you would need to know about brewing, cellaring, filtration. The only thing that I never learned was packaging and I get to learn that here.” When asked if his work at Saint Arnold prepared him for Brash, Vince laughed and said, “nothing prepares you for Brash.” Brock is very organized and it’s all very regimental and Ben Fullelove is an idea man, Vince said. “Ben comes to me and says, ‘I want to put this beer out’ and asks me if it’s possible,” Mandeville said. “Most of the time, I tell him ‘No’ and he says, ‘Are you sure?’ So I try. We test batch and, eventually, come out with a finished beer. There isn’t one beer or style that Vince leans towards as a favorite. Reason being, every single beer pushes his limits on what he can do and for that, he’s rather proud of all of his Brash works. Outside of work, Vince and his wife Diana live up near Spring and he has the upmost respect for his wife and is grateful for her support in his brew career - “she is the stuffs,” he said.
Like many other young adults on the cuff of 21, beer started at an early age for Buffalo Bayou Brewing’s Ryan Robertson. In his early 20s, Robertson says craft beer wasn’t on his map just yet. When he turned 21 and was able to shop and see what was on the shelves, imports are what were prevalent. Eventually, Robertson discovered craft breweries and from there “it was off to the races.” Robertson found himself reading up on home brewing and making the moves to try his hand at brewing. His family moved him to Florida and he found himself working in a brewpub in the kitchen in 2007. “I pestered them every day for a year to start brewing,” Robertson said. “Eventually, they said yes because really I was the only one around.” Robertson was with the brewpub for about three years, until new management came in and changed things around. The brewpub eventually went
out of business, bringing Ryan and his family back to Texas in 2010. Restaurant management in Dallas is where Robertson found himself landing after his Florida stint – working at Uncle Buck’s Brewery & Steak House, Grapevine. “I was spending most of my time doing restaurant management and doing brewing one day out of the week,” he said. “I was applying at the time for something full time to brew. I was in Dallas at the time and there wasn’t much going on up there. My business partner now had reached out to me and talked to me about what he was wanting to do with Buff Brew. At the end of the phone call, I was pretty much bought in.” Ryan says he’s always wanted to be creative and he never really got the opportunity in his previous roles, but it is quite the opposite now at Buffalo Bayou Brewing. In technicalities, Robertson says he was Buff Brew’s first
employee on the tail end of 2011 and they started selling beer in 2012. He’s spent five years with the creative brewery and they currently have goals and plans to expand. “We’ve done 60 something beers and out of the regular beers, More Cowbell is probably my favorite,” Robertson said. Outside of Buff Brew, Robertson is married with two kids. See Head Brewers P. 9B
Ryan Robertson.