When Austin’s Jester King was announced as one of the breweries pouring at this year’s Brewvival, it was news that took a lot of people by surprise. Not only because the farmhouse brewery made no indication of finding a home in SC, but also because they weren’t a presence in bigger markets that usually get distribution before us, such as Georgia and North Carolina.

Even more surprising was when a pretty sizable amount of Jester King’s beers began popping up on shelves in Greenville, Charleston and Columbia.

So, how did they get here? Rafa Distributing, a.k.a. Lauren Shor, a solo distributor that has landed a pretty nice slate of accounts after less than a couple of months in existence.

In addition to Jester King, Rafa represents Evil Twin, Stillwater, Southern Star, Argus Cider – which you may have seen pop up lately – Local Option, Against the Grain, Hof Ten Dormaal and 12 Percent Imports.

The goal of Rafa? “My goal is to put good shit into people’s mouths,” Shor recently told CHSbeer in a Q&A you should go read. The focus now is to keep the company’s slate small and manageable because, in Shor’s words, “Distributors suck and breweries hate them. However, they need to use them by law. So I wanted to create a brewery-focused distributor.”

After you read the Q&A, go follow Rafa on Twitter.