Remember the Alamo Beer

That was until the mid 1990’s and the arrival of Eugene Simor from his hometown Santa Ana, California. While snacking on a box of Alamo-shaped novelty crackers, it donned on Eugene on there wasn’t an “Alamo” beer in San Antonio. The sugar buzz combined with a beer bender lead him to research the ALAMO trademark. To his surprise, the ALAMO trademark was available. Immediately, he began the legal process of securing the brand.

In 1997, the first batch of ALAMO beer was brewed and sold with the help of friends at Frio Brewing Company, which closed down after a few year.

With the close of Frio (and Yellow Rose), Eugene was left with nowhere local to brew ALAMO. Through a story in the San Antonio Business Journal, Eugene discovered Real Ale Brewing Company in Blanco, Texas. At the time, Real Ale was brewing only a few thousand barrels of beer each year in a storefront basement just of Blanco’s town square and did not have the distribution in San Antonio.

Eugene made the 50-mile trek up Hwy. 281 to visit the brewery and learn to brew beer with Brad Farbstein, owner of Real Ale. Brewing started at 6 am each morning, and Eugene was eager to help and ready to learn.

It didn’t take long for Brad to realize Eugene and his catchy trademark weren’t going to give up without a fight, so after a few months of working out contract details, the two entered into a deal to begin brewing ALAMO Golden Ale.