The wait is finally over. On November 19, Weathered Souls Brewing Co celebrated their grand opening in a very grand fashion. With doors opening at noon, the guys at Weathered Souls (located at 606 Embassy Oaks, suite 500) celebrated long and hard until around midnight with eight hundred of their closest friends. Attendees began lining up around 11:00am awaiting the formal ribbon cutting ceremony at 11:30am and to be first to get a crack at the brew they have been eagerly waiting try.
The décor inside the restaurant side of the brewpub is simple. Sleek concrete floors that are stained a glossy brown hat matches the marble style counter tops, tables and chairs. Comforting earth tones adorn the walls with a tile back splash accenting the sixteen taps available. Next to the restaurant side, is a rolling garage door separating the brewhouse that features a twenty barrel brewing system and several forty barrel fermenters, as well as the cold room and future barrel program.
As the Weathered Souls guys are fond of saying (heck it's even written on the brewery wall) “Its all about the beer” and they held true to that. Tappings which began at noon, featured eleven different brews covering multiple styles. Their core brews: ‘Malterial Girl’, a Blonde Ale with Kölsch yeast; ‘Autumn’, an American Porter; and ‘Test Batch IPA 002’, a West Coast Styled IPA were available, with a few special releases including ‘SpottieOttieHopalicious’ and ‘Who Got The Juice Now’ both of which are co-founder and head brewer Marcus Baskerville’s take on the controversial New England Style IPA. This trendy and emerging style is a bit controversial, as the style is typical unfiltered creating a haze. Some breweries have even added flour to artificially create the haziness. This often rubs many brewers in the rest of the country the wrong way, as many look at hazy beers as ones that might be brewed poorly.
Production Manager Seth Parker advised that although all of the beers were popular, crowd favorites were SpottieOttieHopalicios, Malterial Girl and essentially all of their barrel aged beers, including a barrel aged Imperial Stout dubbed ‘Cavernous’ weighing it at 12.5% ABV.
Two groups were key to helping Weathered Souls get off the ground. “The grand opening was performed by Michelle Boggs with the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation. The SAEDF was instrumental in helping us with the city and the red tape that can slow down a project such as this” said Holt. “Also in attendance was our friend Rey Chavez from the San Antonio Manufactures Association. We look forward to the knowledge that the association can provide.”
Holt advised that their hours going forward will be Monday through Thursday 4:00-10:00pm, Fridays 3:00pm-10:00pm, Saturdays noon-10pm and Sundays 1:00pm-6:00pm. Plans for distribution are pending, as they guys are wanting to get more established before ramping up production.