USA, TX: Roadmap Brewing Co. to open its doors on September 15

All roads lead to beer. That’s the slogan for Roadmap Brewing Co. and come Sept. 15, the road to San Antonio’s newest brewery leads to 723 N. Alamo St., mySanAntonio.com reported on August 31.

Located just a half mile from Alamo Plaza, Roadmap will edge out the Alamo Beer Co. as the closest brewery to the Alamo when it opens its doors at noon that day and pours the first beer.

The husband and wife team of Dustin and Hannah Baker, along with parents Scott and Joan Baker, make Roadmap a family operation. The brewery is a culmination of an idea started more than two years ago.

“My dad (Scott) always had a dream to open a bar after he retired, but I was able to convince him that a brewery was the better way to go,” said Dustin Baker, the Roadmap brewmaster. “He’s the financial arm of the operation. I’m the sweat-equity guy.”

Baker, who brews with a seven-barrel system, plans to have eight or nine beer varieties available during the opening. Roadmap has room for 12 beers and one cider on the tap line. Four flagship beers, which are stored in a walk-in refrigeration unit, include: Mama Duke’s IPA, a Kölsch style beer named Obligatory, the Wake Up Call coffee stout and a saison called Say What.

Some of the specialty beers that Baker, a former school teacher, was making on Thursday include a batch of beer made with 126 pounds of raspberries and a jalapeño stout. Beers will be sold in 16-, 10- and 5-ounce pours.

“My philosophy with beer is that there is a time and a place for everything,” Baker said. “Most of our beers will be in that 4 to 6 percent (alcohol by volume) territory. My goal is to create highly drinkable beers that are fun and people can relate to them.”

The brewery has undergone a stunning transformation from its previous days as an office space and car showroom. A 200-foot trench was dug into the concrete for plumbing lines, all of the electricity was rewired, and the bar and restrooms are all new construction.

There are no walls separating the bar and seating area from the brewing area. Everything is exposed in an open-air environment with high ceilings. Eight-foot long communal tables are scattered throughout the property, with room for about a dozen poeple at the bar.

There’s also a large open area for cornhole games and other events that Baker likes to call the “air-conditioned beer garden.”

Roadmap aims to be a drinks-only destination, with no plans in the works to incorporate a kitchen, although they will regularly have food trucks parked outside the brewery.

Roadmap Brewing Co., 723 N. Alamo St. Hours (tentative): 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. Fridays, 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. Saturdays, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays.

03 September, 2018