Welcome to another episode of Over a Pint, our 29th.
Wow. It's been over a month since we posted one of these. Huge thanks to Sean for stepping in and helping out wt the video editing. Things have been slow going over in Camp BTA since Shawn and JIB have both left to work in Hawaii.
This time we sit down with Silas Parker, the man behind Dark Side Fermentation out of San Marcos. Silas brews and ferments his craft belgian style ales out of the Root Cellar right off the square in downtown San Marcos where the beer is available to drink on premise or to go.
Silas shared some beers with us while he described his operation. Currently he has five beers in the Dark Side lineup with another few he's tinkering around with. He has a blonde, a dubel, a strong golden, a tripel, a quad and a European styled pale- all bottle conditioned for three months in 24 oz belgian bottles with corks and cages.
He described his beer as such: "I'm interested in rich raw beer that reminds you of something you would drink while sitting in a castle somewhere by candlelight... with a few people in cloaks sacrificing something."
Dark Side attempts to brew with as much local ingredients as possible. All Dark Side water is drawn from a local well tapping Aquarena Springs where Silas trades spent grains for water from the well owner. When we arrived he had just finished collecting elder berries by kayak from the San Marcos river. These berries are destined for the next few months' worth batches of his quad, Mark of the Yeast 78666. In addition to the elder berries, he uses locally grown wormwood, yaro, and sage in this big quad.
He brews two barrels a week and said Root Cellar sells out every Sunday. He jokes saying they are San Marcos' oldest brewery. According to Silas, the business doesn't rely on students, one of the few in San Marcos, and is very supported by the town.
Silas and Root Cellar's partnership over Dark Side Fermentation began in late 2009 after Silas had approached owner Kyle Mylius with the idea and left him a few bottles to sample. He started with a half barrel (15 gallons) system and quickly grew into a full one barrel brewhouse.
With a one barrel brewery producing eight barrels a month, Dark Side can safely be called a nanobrewery. But it's no surprise that all this is a pilot project to test out small batch recipes. Dark Side Fermentation is Silas along with Root Cellar owner Kyle Mylius. They have plans to expand to full brewery within the next year, possibly out on Ranch Rd 12. He said they would like to amp up production and switch over the license in a year to a brewery with intentions to distribute within a 75 mile radius of San Marcos. He said they plan to do kegs with a bottle emphasis.
For the immediate future, Silas is looking to barrel age. He said he has plans for a 17% abv barrel aged barley wine named the Barley Legal.
In the video we are drinking the Mark of the Yeast 787666, which recently got a label redesign (see the images below the video). I have not had one of Silas' beers I haven't immensely enjoyed. They are worth the 45 minute trek down I-35 to retrieve them.
So if you can, crack open a cold one and join us over a pint.
Enjoy!
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TBC Videoby TuckBrewCoop364 views
Yea!! Silas! Glad to have found this. I remember when you were getting started in your back yard!! way to Go !! Silas' beers are definitely some of the best beers I have ever had. And i don't drink those big name beers to start with!!
ISTVANX 4 months ago
I want a pint of that right now
Ipluckithard 1 year ago
this is cool
BuildingIntelligence 1 year ago
Silas is an awesome dude, thanks for this interview. the beer is awesome, especially MOTY 666
strictlysensimillia 1 year ago