Craft Beer News

Grapevine Craft Brewery makes its beers a little harder to get

Grapevine Craft Brewing changed up the way it serves beer.

Quick, run, don't walk, to the market and get a six-pack of beer from Grapevine Craft Brewery, because they're about to become collector's items. The brewery will no longer sell beer at retail stores, restaurants, and bars.

According to a release from owner Gary Humble, the brewery will no longer sell its beers for distribution to wholesalers in the state of Texas.

"Meaning, our beers will now only be found in our taproom and beer garden in Grapevine," Humble says. "This was a hard decision, and one that was not made lightly. We value our customers and our fans. But at this time, it just doesn't make financial sense for us to continue distributing our brands at a loss."

Humble emphasizes that Grapevine is still brewing, with the taproom and beer garden open seven days a week, pouring specialty beers like Cherry Berliner Weisse, Single Hop IPA Series, and the new Red Wine Barrel Aged Imperial Brown Ale.

Humble sent out a release in response to a tweet from @Specs_Beer_Dept, which inaccurately announced that Grapevine was closing.

"The rumor mill has begun, thanks to a popular Texas retail chain, who made an error in speaking on behalf of our company on Twitter, [so] it's time for us to set the record straight," Humble said.

The brewery has had an eventful ride in its three-year history, dating to its early days when it brewed in temporary quarters in Farmers Branch. They're also still engaged in legal action to loosen restrictions in Texas against beer sales at taprooms.

"As some savvy consumers may know, we have linked arms with Deep Ellum Brewing Company in a lawsuit against unfair, and what we consider to be unconstitutional, practices, which prevent production breweries from selling beer to-go from taprooms," Humble says.

They're also continuing their contract brewing operations as North Texas Brewing Company, making beer for other Texas brewers, and forming partnerships such as the one they struck with Austin's Infamous Brewing in 2015; Humble says they're booked to capacity.

The Dallas-Fort Worth brewing scene has undergone an incredible boom in the past six years, with change as a constant, such as the recent acquisition of Revolver Brewing in Granbury by Miller Coors' craft and import division, Tenth and Blake Beer Company.

"It's no secret that the last year-and-a-half in our industry has revealed a whirlwind of mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances of large and small brewers alike trying to navigate a difficult and rapidly changing landscape," Humble says.

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Chef News

Fort Worth's Will Rogers Memorial Center welcomes bright new chef

FortWorthtx.gov

Will Rogers Memorial Center

There's a new chef in town: Waylon Cornelius, named executive chef of catering and concessions for Craft Culinary Concepts, the food and beverage provider at Will Rogers Memorial Center.

Will Rogers Memorial Center is the 120-acre entertainment complex anchoring Fort Worth’s Cultural District, owned and operated by the City of Fort Worth. Cornelius will oversee menus for trade shows and other events at the center which bring in more than 2 million visitors a year.

Craft Culinary Concepts is headquartered in Glendale, Arizona, and manages food and beverage programs for entertainment, sports and cultural facilities.

Chef Waylon Corneliusfortworthtx.gov

According to a release, Cornelius joined the team this summer and is already shifting the expectations of guests from a typical “BBQ and beans” menu to a bill of fare satisfying every kind of palate.

“We always have fajitas ready to go, but we also make a beautiful Beef Wellington or baked salmon with a pink salt crust,” Cornelius says in a statement.

For consumer trade shows, Craft and its partners Caribou and Taco Heads offer more choices for the thousands of guests who attend events at WRMC annually.

“Some of our equestrian guests are away from home and here for several days, and they need more than popcorn and hot dogs,” Cornelius says. “Our concessions offer biscuits and gravy, burritos made in-house, strawberry salad, fruit and yogurt cups.”

A native of Mansfield, Cornelius grew up helping in a farm-to-table kitchen. He was raised on a farm with his mother, grandmother, and grandfather -- a Vietnam veteran who enjoyed vegetable gardens and raising hogs and chickens. He studied computer science after high school and holds an associate's degree in Cultural Resource Management and Policy Analysis from Tarrant County College.

He's a 2003 graduate of AIMS Academy of Culinary Arts in Dallas where he was mentored by a number of great chefs. While training as assistant executive sous chef at the AAA four-diamond Grand Hyatt DFW, he worked with Executive Chef Sutti Sripolpa, chef Eric Dreyer (who went on to be Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef), and Chef Jean-Claude Plihon, under whom he honed his French cooking skills.

As executive sous chef at the opening of Perry’s Steakhouse and Grille in Southlake, Cornelius gained expertise with volume. While at HG Sply Co., he learned about gluten-free items and other food allergies.

HG Sply is also where he crossed paths with Chef James R. Schell III, Craft’s general manager at WRMC, who recruited Cornelius to the complex.

"James said he needed someone who can hit moving targets, push the culinary team to be more avant-garde and use locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, so here I am," Cornelius says. "Culinary is a small world."

“I want people to say, ‘When we were in Fort Worth, you won’t believe what we got at Will Rogers!’” Schell says. “Even the celebrities who perform [in the auditorium] are surprised. When Chicago played here recently and we served dinner backstage, they said they felt treated like the Rolling Stones.”

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