Just as there is in life, there is a desire for balance at a brewery.

Whether it is simply knowing how many events are too many, or focusing on a few beers instead of trying to brew every style imaginable, success can often come down to finding that balance between ambition and practicality.

For Rio Bravo Brewing, 2023 was exactly that, as the brewery staff did their best to find an equilibrium that works for all departments. I caught up with director of brewing operations Austin Giorgetta and marketing director Jennifer Baker earlier this week to go over all of it for our annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series.

“It went really, really well,” Giorgetta said of 2023. “I tried to run the (exact) numbers earlier, but we finished with about 2,000 barrels of production versus about 1,400 from the previous year. That’s about a 42 percent increase in production.”

A big reason for the increase was a new deal that has all of Rio Bravo’s core beers at every Albertsons store in the state.

“We’re hoping to further that sales increase, and then we can get into more chains and just be all over the state,” Giorgetta said. “I think that’s the goal for 2024, just try to keep that momentum and ball rolling.”

Rio Bravo also cemented its status as an event-heavy brewery, with plenty of space inside and outside to accommodate happenings of all sizes.

“We compared all of our events that we had in 2023 to the past couple years, or even just 2022, (and) we saw an increase in all of them,” Baker said. “It was our biggest Oktoberfest yet, by far. That’s something we’re leaning into. For 2024, we’re looking at our biggest events and focusing on those, trying to grow them even more. That’s always a fun time here, sell beer, have a party.”

Baker said that the entire events team did have to take a step back this past year in order not to overwhelm the rest of the staff with event after event.

“We’re really focusing in on exactly that, not trying to kill ourselves trying to do everything,” she said.

Giorgetta said it was still a reaction to the post-COVID-lockdown period, with people wanting to get out and do more. In turn, everyone at Rio Bravo wanted to do more and more until they started to realize everyone was stretched a bit thin, from the front of house to the brewing team in the back.

“You’re looking to explore and test the boundaries, it was that sense of normalcy after being cooped up for so long,” he said. “You wanted to get out and do as much as possible. From that has come the focus to do the things that make us successful.”

On the beer front, it seems like every year one brew jumps up and stands out, either earning a spot in the core lineup or just rocking the joint as the top seasonal. Past hits have included Squirrel Nuts and Summer Honey Blonde. For 2023, it was a seasonal lager that stood out.

“Our Oktoberfest,” Giogetta said was the one that customers talked about more than any other. “So we tweaked it, and I think we’re going to have more of those (style of) beers next year. We’ve stood stagnant for a little bit, and now we’re kind of fine tuning some things. The Oktoberfest, we put that on and it was the best seller the entire time it was on. We’re going to re-release that on Friday. That was actually probably the one beer that we had where people were coming up to me and saying you need to keep this (on tap). I’ve never had that before.”

As Baker noted, there is nothing in the beer rule book (if there was such a thing) that says a certain style can only be released at a certain time of year. As all of us in the Crew are big Oktoberfest-style lager fans, we wholeheartedly agree with this.

Giorgetta said the brewery is playing around with some new stout recipes, including an oyster stout that would be closer to what one might find in Great Britain.

“The other one that we have on the docket, from the success of the tequila gose that we had, we’re going to do a base Berliner Weisse and add ginger and mint and then age that in a bourbon barrel and have that as a spin on a (mint julep), and then release it close to the Kentucky Derby,” he said.

While folks wait for that to be released in May, Baker and the events team are already plotting out some fun in the first half of the year.

“One that’s coming up — I feel like it’s coming sooner because February always goes so quickly — I feel like every single year since we’ve been open that our St. Patrick’s Day party has grown by a lot,” she said. “We always have a beer pong tournament. This time we’re going to make it bigger and get teams signed up ahead of time. We also have a big women’s festival in March, which is International Women’s Month, and we have a lot of women-owned businesses come in here for a market. I also feel that’s when the Pink Boots Society collaboration beer comes out, so we’ll have that on tap. That was a really big one for us, so we want to grow that, too.”

Other returning events will range from the now-annual crawfish boil to the State Fair food takeover that comes out the weekend before the actual fair in the fall.

“We’ve done a crawfish boil the last couple years and that’s been a really good event for us,” Baker said. “As with every event, we’ve worked out the kinks and come up with the best scenario. This last year was so smooth for our kitchen. That’s a big thing, too, we have the ability to do a lot with our kitchen, but we also have to be realistic with what the capacity is. This last year we did time slots instead of everybody at once. That made a huge, huge difference.”

That also keeps with finding that balance for everyone on staff.

“Let’s focus on the big (events), and give ourselves some space and energy to have those smaller ones,” Baker said.

Beyond the beers and events, there is still the the former Lewis Brake and Clutch building on the southeast corner of the property. To date, it has only been used for excess storage space for grain, aluminum cans, and whatever else was taking up too much space in the brewery. Baker said that her father, co-owner Randy Baker, has been remodeling the interior, though no one has made a final decision on what they will do with the part of the building not being used for storage.

Whenever they do come up with a firm plan for that building, we will be sure to let everyone know what it is. Other than that, Baker just encouraged everyone to keep an eye on all of Rio Bravo’s social media pages to keep track of the next beer release and the next events, both big and small.

A big thanks to Austin and Jennifer for meeting up fairly early in the day, before the building had even warmed up all that much. The new American stout, Welcome to the Show, was also a very nice addition to the seasonal lineup.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister