FemAles
Badass Women.
Badass Beer.
Badass City.
erica teague - cactusland brewing
Story by Jeremy Banas
Photos by Shane Cook
01.13.2020
“We (my husband and I) entered a homebrew competition one time and we won a homebrew kit from Austin Homebrew Supply. I decided I was going to try to make a beer.”
Nestled just outside of San Antonio, in Adkins, Texas, Erica Teague and her husband Dustin’s brewery, sits in the middle of a historic farmland just inside Wilson County. It’s not a big shocker that some of her brews have a country feel – or should we say rustic?
“Dustin’s parents had this beautiful land available with an existing building,” she says. “We didn’t have the money others have to start out, so we asked his parents to join with us to open a brewery on the land. Fortunately, they said yes. Though I won’t lie, until it opened, I wasn’t sure I was sold on the entire idea of opening a brewery.”
Despite homebrewing with her husband, as well as the occasional solo brew, Teague didn’t brew at Cactus Land right away. She says she was content with handling nothing more than setting up the taproom’s exquisite décor and being the wife in the background. Once the brewery’s grand opening and she witnessed the response to their malted offerings, Teague’s outlook changed. She wanted more involvement.
“After the grand opening, I saw what this place could do. I asked Dustin where he needed me, basically whatever I could do to be involved more,” she says. “He started teaching me stuff. I was cleaning tanks, or where ever he needed me. I would often be at my day job and find myself researching early problems in our batches, trying to help learn what might have gone wrong, or what types of flavors different yeasts imparted to a beer.”
Not long after, Teague says her husband told her she had learned everything he knew. After that, recipe development and brew days were very collaborative for the husband and wife brew team. Teague’s fascination with what brewers yeast could do began to match well with her husband’s flair for recipe development. This symbiotic work style has allowed Cactus Land to tweak all areas of the brewery, not just the beer. From the taproom side of the brewery, to more efficient ways to handle their production, they do it all.
“Recently I’ve been able to make the transition to working full-time at the brewery. Dustin still has his day job, but this gives me the chance to brew more during the week, not just in the evenings or weekends, as well as study all aspects of brewing more. It gives me a chance to become better at this whole brewing thing,” says Teague. “It gives me the opportunity to really be a part of something that started out as Dustin’s passion—and has become mine as well.”
Teague’s love for the artistry of brewing really comes out if you spend any length of time with her. Whether it’s talk of blending different yeast strains to get a desired profile, or seeing the look on customer’s faces who taste the same flavors she tries to create, Teague feeds off the energy of owning a brewery and making great beer.
“Part of the fun of owning a small brewery is that we can take more calculated risks with what beers we brew,” says Teague with pride. “Doing something a little different than what is conventional. It may not turn out the way you wanted, but something beautiful can come out of something that turned out different than expected. It’s what allows us to have something for everyone, be it a sour, a blonde, or an adjunct stout. We have something for everyone. It’s what allows us to create a welcoming atmosphere and good beer for people when they come out to visit us.”
Alamo City Analysis
Don’t Make Your Publics’ Private…
By Elaine Arredondo Moreno
01.13.2020
School choice has been on the rise in cities across America for almost two decades. San Antonio has followed this trend and has had more than 50 charter schools pop up in the last 5 years. This has severely impacted public school enrollment, as more and more parents, especially those in marginalized communities, are opting to send their kids to charter schools in hopes of closing the achievement gap and allowing their child a better opportunity to get in and through college.
School choice allows public education funds to follow students to the schools or services that best fit their needs—whether that’s to a public school, private school, charter school, home school or any other learning environment parents choose for their kids.[1] This mindset has allowed educators more (sometimes less) freedom in classroom spaces. However, school choice has also opened the gates to what is real and possible in the realms of public education. Charter schools like the new San Antonio Preparatory, who opens its doors next fall, are fighting to make equitable classrooms a reality for students in marginalized communities. Other charter schools like Young Women’s Leadership Academy and Idea Public schools are showing trends of success when it comes to getting their students to college.
With all the positives, it may be hard to look for cons to the School Choice movement. With public school enrollment decreasing at alarming rates, we have to wonder if School Choice is doing exactly what it intends to do: give student a better opportunity at post-secondary education. The fact of the matter is that both charter and public schools are funded by tax dollars. If charter school development is increasing so rapidly, what are we, as a city, state, and nation, doing to combat these efforts and increase the enrollment at schools that have been around for generations. Even though charter schools only make up 5-10% of schools in Texas[2], we must wonder what the next 10 years will look like.
With this information, it is no surprise that the education system in the United States has been playing catch up in order to compete with other education systems across the world. In 1965, we saw Lyndon B. Johnson pass the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This pivotal piece of legislation sought to bridge gaps in K-12 education by increasing various resources in order to provide an equal and quality education.
Bexar Country is home to 19 different school districts. This includes all public school districts in the San Antonio and surrounding area. However, the number mentioned above does not include the charter school districts and private schools that have flourished across the San Antonio area in the last decade. School’s like IDEA and KIPP Academy have become a staple in areas of lower socio-economic levels. San Antonio alone has about 33 different charter districts in its city limits.[3] In an article published by the Huffington Post, Joy Remotivs blatantly brings an awareness to the lack of funding charter school receive in comparison to the public school counterparts. This increased gap is only heightened in school districts that already receive less funding than their counterparts within the same city. The increasing borders within the education system work against disadvantaged youth, and funding is only one aspect of that.
Overall, schools in marginalized communities are severely underfunded whether it is charter or public. With this knowledge, how do we ensure that every child has an equitable education that will give them the steppingstones to be successful in a post-secondary educated world? Is school choice the answer, or is there a larger issue at play here?
Bexar Gems
crites downtown lock and key
Photos and Story by April Garcia
1.13.2020
Located downtown in San Antonio, right on Main St., Crites Downtown Lock & Key is the oldest locksmith shop in San Antonio. This Bexar Gem is owned and operated by Lisa Quiroz, a locksmith who has been in business for 35 years. “Back then, it wasn’t common for a woman to be a locksmith,'' she said.
The passion for locksmithing began while she was working at a department store when she was 16 years old. “I was working in the toy and fish department and I hadn't really been around the whole store and as I’m walking around, I heard a loud noise from a key being made.” It was then that she realized what department she wanted to work in. From there on, her passion for key-making escalated. Everything she learned was self-taught by reading as many books about “locks” and “keys” that she could get her hands on. She even taught herself how to make car keys. Lisa also believes that a big part of her passion and perseverance comes from her late father who she saw work on machinery as she was growing up. Lisa eventually opened a few of her own locksmith shops, but because of life’s mishaps and some bad investments, it unfortunately didn’t work out. After working in the industry for 15 years, she decided that she would take a break and focus on getting her two children through school. Right before she took over Crites Downtown Lock & Key, she found herself going from having a big house and everything she and her two children needed, to having almost nothing. “There is no other way for me to go besides back up, because I'm already down”. That was the mindset Lisa kept. She knew that in order to succeed and to get to where she wanted to go, she had to apply her mind and her self-taught skills. Through trial and error, she now owns and operates the oldest locksmith shop in San Antonio.
Once Lisa took over the business, she made sure to keep the original name. “I didn’t want the nostalgia of this place to die and whittle away.” Lisa’s shop is oddly quaint and has a lot of character to it. There are vintage locks she has accumulated over the years that she has on display, along with antique safes, which she says she knows how to crack. Some of these antiques date back from the 1800’s. While hanging out with her, she brought out a lock from the early 1900’s that she dismantled in front of me and showed me how she reassembles and restores them. During the short time I spent with Lisa, a few of her regular customers stopped by in need of her expertise. One was from another locksmith shop. I was able to see her in action. Just by simply observing the lock and taking it apart, she was able to fix the problem within a matter of minutes. The man being assisted even said that no one at his shop was able to figure out the issue, let alone fix it.
My conversation with Lisa was much more inspiring than I had anticipated. From everything she has gone through, she keeps going, and she sees life differently because of it. Even during the time when she practically became homeless, she said, “I didn’t feel much of a loss because money is not going to make me happy. Yes, it’s necessary, but it isn’t what makes me happy. I’m rich in my heart and I have a lot of kindness to give.”
FemAles
BADASS BEER.
BADASS WOMEN.
BADASS CITY.
Mara Young
Co-Owner/Founder
Community Cultures Yeast Lab
Photos and Story by Jeremy Banas
01.24.2020
yeast /y ē st/ n.- the microorganism that is responsible for fermentation in beer. It metabolizes sugars extracted from grains, which produces alcohol and carbon dioxide, and thereby turns wort into beer. Yeast influences the character and flavor.
Located in the heart of San Antonio, Texas sits Community Cultures Yeast Lab; a place where Mara Young and her husband run a jack-of-all-trades yeast lab, propagating wild yeast from all over the world for the brewing, distilling, and baking professions. Community Cultures also partners with universities and research facilities for planetary sustainability implementation. In simple terms, they help make beer, spirits, bread, and the world a better place.
“My background is essentially 20 years in higher education. After that time, I wanted a change. I wanted to do something out in nature. We were told that there aren’t really weren’t any American yeast strains, outside of the Chico yeast, which probably still came from somewhere else,” says Young. “So Rob said, okay, cool. I'm going to find American strains sourced in America. European strains have enjoyed their ride for a while now. We feel that the United States deserves access to its own unique and native yeast strains. Rob had already come up with this idea back in 2015 and by the very beginning of , he essentially proposed the idea for me to take this on full-time, helping him collect yeast from all over the world, and help serve and assist the craft beer community with native strains from right here in the United States.”
Young never imagined that she would delve into a career in science. She says after all those years in higher education, (she directed biology in the School of Math, Science, and Biology at the University of The Incarnate Word) she realized her passions lay elsewhere. She wanted to do something outdoors-related, something adventure driven. When her husband launched the idea for Community Cultures, she was intrigued. But science was her education, not her background. This didn’t stop Young though, and she took her husband up on his offer handling marketing, website administration, etc, and used this as a way into getting the experience she wanted.
“I received two undergraduate degrees in Religion and Cultural Studies from the University of the Incarnate Word, with a Master's Degree in Religious Studies at Incarnate Word’s Pastoral Institute. I have over 15 years of administrative, managerial, and business experience, all of which helps me to manage Community Cultures day to day operations, marketing, and customer relations,” says Young. “I also manage intern training, lab maintenance, as well as sustainability and conservation outreach, and partnerships.” Young is on her way to becoming a full-fledged scientist. She will soon add an additional masters to her professional toolkit- this time in Environmental Sustainability and Engineering.
“So that sort of the idea of terroir and food and craft beer in general, just kind of lent itself to finding a terroir in Texas. But again, that kind of was the inspiration, and then it launched from there.” Says Young.“Then, of course, kombucha strains, whiskey strains, wine strains, and a million other things. Once we established a real business and got the LLC, we started getting a broader clientele that included outside Texas. Then things just sort of exploded. Um, and now the native strains are still of our pride and joy, and something special and unique, but they're like a fraction of what we actually do now.”
Coupled with the real-world experience she has gained in the last couple of years, Young will be even more poised to help Community Cultures grow and evolve into its full potential. She’s already helped tweak their marketing and catalog to fall more in line with their original vision. And as the company continues to focus on the propagation of known commercial brewer’s strains, they will continue thriving to find new native strains for brewers, bakers, distillers, and also strains that can actually help the environment.
Alamo City Analysis
Mission: Southside
By Elaine Arredondo Moreno
01.24.2020
The Southside of San Antonio is filled with gems that have been a part of the culture for generations. From Mission Drive-In to Palm Heights (if you know, you know), there is something for everyone. Part of what makes the Southside what it is, is the rich past lurking around every corner. This history includes several historical missions whose cultured past is engrained in the vibrancy of our city. Mission Espada, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan, Mission Concepción, and Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) are each vital pulse for the city’s southside.
Mission Concepción is one of the earliest landmarks in San Antonio. Built in the early 1700’s, the church took over 50 years to construct, finishing in 1755. According to Mission Concepción’s World Heritage Site, the original space included a living space for priests and the indigenous people that took refuge or were forcefully placed there. The realities of the mission life were hard during these struggles that eventually fell to ruins by the 1800’s, while the indigenous struggled with disease and acclimating to life inside. Mission Concepción was eventually rededicated in 1861 after its first renovations. From then on, the Catholic church sponsored several renovation projects to update and upkeep the property. It remains one of the best kept historical sites in the U.S. with its chapel’s renovations being mildly limited.
Overtime, the UNESCO World Heritage site has grown in need of renovations to keep up with the demands of parishioners and tourists. Mission Concepción closed its doors for renovations in early January of this year which was done in order to preserve the original space for generations to come. In the coming months, renovations include a new HVAC system and reinforcement of the dome inside the sanctuary. The HVAC system will ensure that South Texas temperatures are not an issue, while the reinforcement of the dome will allow prevent things like future leaks. Prayers are for these improvements to be done by April 2020. With Easter being one of the biggest liturgical holidays for the Catholic faith, parishioners and tourists hope to see its doors open in time.
Many parishioners will be displaced for the time being. However, the church’s website states that mass will continue at the Chapel at Blessed Sacrament Academy at 1135 Mission Road. Masses will be held at 10 am (bilingual) and 12 pm (mariachi mass) until its doors open again.
FemAles
badass beer.
badass women.
badass city.
CHRISSY HOBBINS
SOUTH TEXAS MARKET MANAGER
ST. ARNOLD’S BREWERY
Photos by Kevin Hobbins
Story by Jeremy Banas
02.13.2020
Leaning back in her chair, Chrissy Hobbins points to the beer on the counter top and says,“This is why I do what I do.”
The glass was filled with a light-colored ale called Art Car, an accurate rendition of an American IPA (India Pale Ale) – moderate in body and hoppy, with a hop character reminiscent of tropical fruit, with slight floral notes. If not for the fact that we were in San Antonio, Texas, this beer could have been mistaken for a classic West-Coast IPA.
“I love craft beer, and the ability to interact with passionate beer fans,” Hobbins says.
As an energetic and versatile Texas transplant, she is the South Texas Sales Manager for Houston based, Saint Arnold Brewing. Saint Arnold was founded in 1994 by Brock Wagner. Her territory includes New Braunfels, San Antonio, and smaller towns around Alamo City, like Kerrville and New Braunfels. Hobbins manages not only her sales team, but also their distributors, and their small brand ambassador team.
Hobbins has done a lot in the six years she worked in the beer industry, though her professional life didn’t start out that way at first. Growing up in Washington, Hobbins went to school to work in the medical field and did so for six years as an operating room assistant in Olympia. Hobbins bounced around the medical field a little, but ultimately ended up working for a remodeling company.
Hobbins’ husband, Kevin, is a sales manager for Austin based Independence Brewing. Collectively they have become known as The Hobbinses, a play off the Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, where Gollum refers to all Hobbits, as Hobbitses. “Kevin hates, it.” Says Hobbins. “I love it. I later created a joint email just for family and “The Hobbinses.”
After the meeting, the courting for five years, and the marriage to her husband, she found a new desire to work in the beer world. The couple moved to San Antonio in 2012 for her new job. Nine months after landing in the Alamo City, her son Porter was born, named after her favorite beer style.
After Porter was “brewed”, Chrissy Hobbins started volunteering to sample beer.
“I ended up doing sampling for Karbach on the weekends at H-E-B. From there I picked up a gig at Branchline Brewing, helping them with their beer demonstrations. From there I went exclusively with Branchline as their sole sales rep.” says Hobbins. “After Branchline closed, I went to work for Southerleigh Brewing working in their warehouse, selling beer, cleaning kegs, and putting labels on bottles.”
The gig at Southerleigh Brewing led to a short six-month stint with local distributor Hops and Vine, but when the opportunity came to work for Saint Arnold, Hobbins jumped at it. “It was a very competitive interview, I want to say there were around 12 really strong industry people applying,” she says. “It was probably one of the most stressful interviews I’ve ever done because of how many people were qualified.”
Hobbins also mentioned that she had quite a surprise during her interview. While answering questions with her interviewer, a gentleman in non-descriptive clothing walked past her. Later during the interview, he came back and sat down next to her. It was none other than Saint Arnold founder Brock Wagner. “I was so nervous!” says Hobbins.
After two and a half years at Saint Arnold, Hobbins still loves it. “I definitely want to continue with Saint Arnold,” says Hobbins “They’re a great company to work for. I love getting out and interacting with accounts, and consumers.”
As Saint Arnold continues to grow, Hobbins is surely to grow with it. Well respected in the beer industry for her ability to relate to accounts and consumers, Chrissy Hobbins is poised to dominate in an industry in Texas that is really making its mark internationally.
Reflexiones
by nathanial a. barrera
02.24.2020
HOMECOMING
Wanna be a baller,
shot -caller,
20 inch blades on the Impala,
Call her, gettin’ laid tonight
Swisher roll tight, got sprayed by Ike
I hit the highway, makin’ money the fly way
But there’s got to be a better way…
I hadn’t been back in San Antonio for more than three days before I was confronted by the unique complexion of its atmosphere.
At once, mean yet passionate, this tipsy tia of a city showed me her candy-red claws and then comforted me, her dedicated mijito, back to health one Sunday evening as I returned to my mother’s brand-new car, parked somewhere along the St. Mary’s Strip.
The psych-band was sweet but the faces of my friends were sweeter so I gotta say I was in a good mood as I pulled out my keys and beeped the beeper and I bet I wouldn’t have noticed if not for all the glass on the ground.
It was a hit-and-run, mayne, no lie.
As in, someone hit my car so hard it’s now totalled, and then they ran away.
Forreal — like forreal, forreal.
And I hadn’t even had a single chamoy shot.
With warming waves of shock washing over, I called my mom and admired the broken glass on the asphalt as it sparkled into a universe of little red stars.
Fuck.
I looked up at the real night sky for a second then back down through the cracked windshield.
Someone left a note under the windshield wiper.
Someone left a note under the windshield wiper with a description of the vehicle and the guy and his license plate number.
Goodness, even what direction he went, whatever that’s worth.
I pried open the door and sat in the car. The back axle was obviously bent because the steering wheel wouldn’t stay straight.
I knew that driving this mangled car would be a rowdy time even before I hit the highway so as I flew down 281 with all its wild twists and turns, I held a focus I hadn’t held in months.
Cruising through the midwest, stoic and beautiful as it may be, you see its contemporary genesis in the American railroad system — Bismarck to Fargo, each town is just a stopping point for that Great Forgotten Engine to break and refuel for another hundred miles.
San Antonio is different.
San Antonio came from aqua pura and it shows.
I felt alive and centered, like walking on a tightrope, as I finally floated through this city born by a river.
She’s happy you’re home, but bitter you left.
Just like your favorite tia who punctuates her hugs with a smack every time.
In that night, at that moment, I saw the all-encompassing intricacies that make up San Antonio’s reckless, yet wise demeanor and the vision came easy.
We all have our lives here and our problems in those lives can often consume our attention. But I believe a city like ours always has a funny way of reminding you to keep out of your own head every now and again.
Like, say, maybe the dude that hit me, maybe he just broke up with his ruca and he went out and got wasted on The Strip thinkin he was gonna get laid tonight and he hit my car. I’m not saying it’s cool, but those may have been the circumstances and I can’t say I’m above those feelings.
And the folks who wrote the note — they were probably just enjoying their night out, mindin their own business when some crazy ass foo’ just slammed into my damn car right in front of them.
I hope they get somethin real nice for taking the time to do that because I know they didn’t have to.
This place requires empathy and a lot of people simply don’t get it.
Hell, a lot of folks in America don’t even try to get it.
But its coo’ cause we still ballin, makin money the fly way with these Swishers rolled tight.
These petty kings, royal jesters, shot-callers on 20-inch rims, vibrant and real and beautiful and complex, are always striving for a better way, even while they work hard through the ways they’ve always known.
From The Dominion to the Courts — from the hoods in the south to the burbs up north — may everyone here stay forever paid and forever blessed and forever strange.
They may not get it, but it’s just our way...
...LONG LIVE THE TONE...
….S.A. ALL DAY...
-Barrera