Austin Beer Guide - Fall/Winter 2015

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Drink Respectably See our full craft beer menu: opaldivines.com Penn Field

Marina

Davenport

3601 S Congress Ave K100 Austin, TX 78704

Parmer Crossing 12709 N Mopac Expy Austin, TX 78727

Davenport Village 3801 N Capital of Texas Hwy #180 Austin, TX 78746

FROM THE EDITORS

Contents

Hops. Tap Rooms. Live Oak. These are a few of our favorite things. But, that’s not why we wrote about them in this issue. It’s certainly not because they are new, either. It’s because they are changing. Evolving. And it’s benefiting all of us in this booming beer city. Forget root beer. The newest hop-forward creations are not your father’s IPA. Okay, your dad did not drink IPAs, but you get it. The oil over alpha movement that started a few years ago with the different brewing methods and new varieties of hops (think mosaic… what are we talking about, you are probably always thinking about mosaic) is in full effect with a couple of Austin brewers leading the way to the IPA of the future (p.26). When we started this guide we had a feature on brewery tastings and tours. They were all open one day a week, maybe two if you were lucky. Your only options were tasters or “buy the glass, get the beer tickets,” but with the loosening of laws the past couple of years, the tap room has become a regular haunt for many the Austin drinker, possibly even their new local (p.34). Then there is the realization of most anticipated development in the Austin brewing scene in recent memory… Live Oak 2.0. For years we heard of a new brewery and Hefe and Pilz in cans, but later this year it starts to come to fruition. The original space has a special place in all our hearts, so before we hoist our steins under oaks near the airport, we bid adieu to the building and brewhouse that has given Austin a 17 year blissful buzz. We have also taken the regular hijinks you have come to expect to the next level, like Beer and Loathing on a PARTY BUS (p.44) and going beyond the beer to ask brewers your most burning real life questions (p.08). And as for our goofy ass faces on the cover, thanks to our good buddy Josh Cockrell for indulging us. Despite how it may sometimes appear on these pages, the guide is not about or for us. It’s for you about the beer and people we love. This is just a little wave hello. Or maybe goodbye. Cheers!. –JS Chris Troutman Aaron Chamberlain Josh Spradling Shawn Phillips

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NEWS & BREWMORS .......................................02

SEASON’S DRINKING .......................................08

OVER A PINT .......................................12 LIVE OAK OBIT .......................................20 HOP OILS .......................................26 TAPROOM BARS .......................................34

#CRAFTSLACKER .......................................40 BEER & LOATHING .......................................44

CENTRAL AUSTIN .......................................53 SOUTH AUSTIN .......................................59 NORTH AUSTIN .......................................65 GREATER AUSTIN .......................................75

LAST CALL .......................................92 COVER DESIGN ................... Josh Cockrell PROOFREADERS .............Sofia and Sarah

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NEWS & BREWMORS

This is the News GOOD AS GOLD Austin breweries bought home four gold medals at this year’s Great American Beer Festival, more than any other city. Who are they? Flip to page six for the full Texas rundown.

OPENINGS AND ALMOST OPENINGS

Beer Company (Round Rock), Rentsch Brewery (Georgetown), Ironsight Brewers (Cedar Park), and Bull Creek (Liberty Hill) are all up and running with regular tap room hours and somewhat limited availability in their suburban sprawl. And Whitestone Brewery in Cedar Park’s Railyard Shopping Center are getting closer to opening day.

Just days before going to press, Blue Owl FINALLY put their sour-mashed beer into market and opened their doors to the public at their crafty-craft brewery on the east side. It comes just in time, as we had a war chest of Blue Owl/blue balls jokes lined up for Jeff Young and company if we printed another guide without them in it. Because there is still not a Williamson County Beer Guide, we’ll do our best to keep you up-to-date with all happenings to our neighbors to the north. Bluebonnet

Out west, Treaty Oak Distilling is preparing to install a 30-barrel brew house at their new 27 acre ranch off Fitzhugh Road.

. . . TURN PAGE, MORE NEWS!—>

Brewmors

O

After purchasers of their $5k crowler product complained, Oskar Blues to open new brewery and tasting room in Austin solely to support #savethecrowler movement.

O

In an effort to keep up with Texans' contemporary palates, Lone Star to brew a cream ale.

O

Despite Jester King’s show of good faith by putting their beer in green bottles, Heineken unfortunately passed on the deal and instead purchased Lagunitas.

O

Pinthouse Bruh-wers concerned with lack of hoppy beers in current lineup, opt to open second location to remedy.

O

Blue Owl cans finally making it to market, but just missed their window as fickle craft drinkers' fancy turns from sours to root beers.

O

Beloved 80s and 90s actor Emilio Estevez settles down to find new home as head brewer for the forthcoming Saint Elmo Brewing in south Austin. Here’s hoping he brings some of that Mighty Ducks magic to our beer scene.

O

A Pale Mosaic cans out just in time to confuse with Evil Twin branding.

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Cuvee Coffee to follow up popular "Come and Take It" crowler t-shirt with "Please Give it Back" shirts.

Ironsight cans Photo: Ironsight Facebook

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NEWS CONTINUED . . .

PHP - SOUTH LAMAR A little closer to (our) home, 4th Tap is ohso-close to brewing their first batches and opening their tap room in north Austin. The initial lineup will launch with a grapefruit IPA, tart wheat, and herbal sorghum-based gruit. And as for Pinthouse 2 on South Lamar, they’re getting close. Real close.

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD Colorado natives and craft canning pioneers Oskar Blues surprised us all when they announced they will be opening their third brewery/taproom/music venue on Metric Blvd. in 2016. In close proximity to Adelbert’s, Circle, 4th Tap and Austin Beerworks, the area just north of 183 is already being dubbed Austin’s “Brewery District.” At this time, ABG has yet to take an official stance on such designation, but agrees there is a strong case.

CAN IT! Zilker Brewing’s first cans hit the shelves the first week of October with their Marco IPA. Not to be outdone Hops & Grain and Independence also launched new cans, A Pale Mosaic and Reaper Madness respectively. And keep an eye out for Blue Owl cans in the near future.

Thirsty Planet alum Ben Sabin and partner Devon Ponds, who has experience at South Austin Brewery and Port Brewing Company/ The Lost Abbey, have announced they are opening Friends & Allies Brewing on the east side. The production brewery, in the same area as Austin Eastciders, will not be completed until sometime next year, but in the meantime they will be brewing at 4th Tap and hope to have beer to the public before end of year.

Former Austin Beerworkers and all around awesome dudes Tim Bullock and Bryan Winslow recently announced they are opening Saint Elmo Brewing Company. The production brewery and tasting room is off East St. Elmo Road in south Austin and will be open sometime in 2016.

THEY CAME, THEY TOOK IT Did you buy crowlers? We didn’t buy crolwers, but apparently a lot of people did as there were consumers and bars both up in arms when the TABC deemed the 32oz cans illegal for bars to fill earlier this summer. It’s a technicality thing as the TABC decided crowlers constitute “packaging” beer, which only breweries/brew pubs are allowed to do. Cuvee Coffee Bar kept the machine and started a “come and take it” campaign. Always one to follow orders, the TABC did, seizing the machine in a “raid” played out on social media. Follow Cuvee to get your most up-to-date crowler news.

7EVEN Congrats to (512) Brewing on celebrating their 7th Anniversary this October. A few Austin breweries opened before them and a lot after, but for us they will always be the first “new” one we all got excited about.

Photos: Pinthouse South Lamar, Pinthouse Facebook ; Come and Take It, Cuvee Coffee

BREAKING OUT

Texas GABF Medal Count 9 GOLDS

Rocket 100, The ABGB, AmericanStyle or International-Style Pilsener Vintage Monks, Adelbert's Brewery, Belgian- and French-Style Ale (512) Wild Bear, (512) Brewing Co., Brett Beer The Regulator, Rahr & Sons Brewing Co., German-Style Doppelbock or Eisbock Oktoberfest, Rahr & Sons Brewing Co., German-Style Märzen Lobo Negro, Pedernales Brewing Co., German-Style Schwarzbier Saint Arnold Weedwacker, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., German-Style Wheat Ale Recalcitrant Dockhand, Black Star Co-op, Robust Porter BJ's LightSwitch Lager, BJ's Restaurant & Brewery - Temple, Session Beer

4 SILVERS

Sasquatch 2014, 903 Brewers, Aged Beer Karbachtoberfest, Karbach Brewing Co., American-Style Amber Lager Rapture Fusion Brown Ale, Rabbit Hole Brewing, American-Style Brown Ale Allergeez, Panther Island Brewing Co., Herb and Spice Beer

2 BRONZES

Real Heavy, Real Ale Brewing Co., Scotch Ale Barrel Aged Brown Ale, Twin Peaks Brewery, Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer

FALL EVENT CALENDAR Oct 23–Nov 1 AUSTIN BEER WEEK (MULTIPLE EVENTS)

austinbeerweek.com With an events for everyone, Austin Beer Week is the best 10 day week of the year. Prepare your livers and wallets. Don't miss: ABG Bike Pub Crawl.

Oct 24

DRAUGHT HOUSE 47TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY draughthouse.com You know the deal. Killer beer list, tasty food trucks, DJ Jubal! We suggest the ABG Method: party early, go home, party later once the kiddos are in bed.

Oct 24

(512) BREWING 7TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY

512brewing.com Fresh off winning their first GABF medal, (512) Brewing is ready to party. Arrange a ride and line up early for a taste of (512) SEVEN.

Oct 29

5TH ANNUAL JESTER KING FUNK N’ SOUR FEST

jesterkingbrewery.com Grab the Rolaids and get wild. These will be some hot tickets, so act fast. Also, Zwanze Day is happening (probably) in the same week.

Nov 11 SUNRISE CELLAR RELEASE

twitter.com/SunriseMiniMart Time to restock your whale(z) tank. Bring your harpoon (wallet) as Sam and co. crack open their cellar full of tasty treats.

SEASON’S DRINKING

Dear Beerman... IT IS OBVIOUS BY THE TASTY BEVERAGES OUR LOCAL BREWERS PRODUCE, THEY HAVE A great knowledge of keeping us happy (drunk). Everyday we put our happiness in their hands. So for this season we asked brewers to tap into their inner Dr. Phil and tackle some of our readers' most pressing advice questions. Our only regret is that we have just two pages to devote to these very important questions. We hope you find solace in their sage advice. I own a 2001 Toyota Echo. My mechanic suggests getting my oil changed every 3,000 miles, but I’ve heard that’s a very conservative number. At what intervals would you suggest? MICHAEL GRAHAM Austin Beerworks I own a 2001 Toyota Echo. My mechanic suggests getting my oil changed every 3,000 miles, but I’ve heard that’s a very conservative number. At what intervals would you suggest... That was a joke about your car. JEFF YOUNG Blue Owl Brewing You shouldn’t own a 2001 Toyota Echo. As penance, you should change your oil every 3-5 miles. JOSH HARE Hops & Grain Brewing You know, I’m a personal fan of the VW oil change cycles. Given recent events it may all be bullshit but I’ve been rolling on 10,000 mile oil change intervals and it’s worked wonderfully for me. Now as far as driving a Toyota Echo, I can’t really help you there. CHIP MCELROY Live Oak Brewing Co. Keep the oil, change the car. Is it worth the savings to attempt cutting your own hair?

MICHAEL GRAHAM Austin Beerworks Sure. You will also save on contraceptives because you’ll never get a chance to use them. JEFF YOUNG Blue Owl Brewing Save millions by going bald. JOSH HARE Hops & Grain Brewing To hell with the savings, cutting one’s own hair is as close as you can get to spiritual enlightenment. Stop your penny pinching, buy some heady incense and put those clippers to work. Or go to SHED Barbershop and sip on a Hops & Grain Beer while the experts take care of you, 'tis equally as spiritual. DUSAN KWIATKOWSKI Live Oak Brewing Co. I cut my own hair after my Dad retired and then I got busy. JOE MOHRFELD Pinthouse Pizza Absolutely, it is way easier to get that “I don’t want to look like I just got a haircut” look. I want to get a tattoo, but am worried I’ll regret it later. What would you suggest I get and where (on my body) to avoid possible negative implications with work, family, friends down the road? MICHAEL GRAHAM Austin Beerworks

I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo on my penis of a bigger penis. JEFF YOUNG Blue Owl Brewing I put my horrible tattoo on my tit and I put my awesome tattoo on my arm. So placement is everything. JOSH HARE Hops & Grain Brewing If you’re worried about friends, family and work when analyzing your tattoo options you’ve already missed the point. Might as well go ahead and put a bald eagle on your chest and profess #freedom and #liberty. No one will argue with that. CHIP MCELROY Live Oak Brewing Co. A Live Oak logo tattoo, on your forehead. JOE MOHRFELD Pinthouse Pizza Start with a bottle of Tequila, drink it, and then make your decision of what and where once you finish that bottle. Make sure you get the tattoo that night though so you do not forget the brilliant idea you had! I earned a liberal arts degree in my undergrad, and am finding that my employment options are not as lucrative as I had hoped. I already have a fair amount of student debt, would you recommend going to grad

school to possibly provide myself more opportunities down the road? JEFF YOUNG Blue Owl Brewing Paulmitchell.edu has a great graduate program. JOSH HARE Hops & Grain Brewing Who the hell told you that a liberal arts degree would be lucrative? You should probably just find a job in a brewery. JEFFREY STUFFINGS Jester King Brewery Hell no. Travel, try new things, meet people, do dumb things. Something interesting, unexpected, and potentially life changing will come out of it. Your debt is probably always going to be there no matter what. CHIP MCELROY Live Oak Brewing Co. Yes, then after you have racked up more debt, start a brewery. JOE MOHRFELD Pinthouse Pizza This right here is the road map to success in the craft beer industry. Throw in another degree in brewing after you complete your Masters in something like “Cultural Studies” and 3-4 months of “job shadowing” at a respectable craft brewery and you will be poised to make a name for yourself in this industry. I’ve always heard its bad for your teeth to chew ice, but what about “Sonic ice?” MICHAEL GRAHAM Austin Beerworks You misunderstood. “Ice” is street slang for meth. Meth is bad for your teeth. Sonic is bad for your bowels.

JEFF YOUNG Blue Owl Brewing Sonic Ice is actually recycled shards of glass from all the broken car windows that shattered from the food tray. Yeah, fuck it, if you think it’s OK to eat at Sonic, you might as well chew on some glass.

constantly insists on eating microwaved fish at their desk. What’s the best course of action to make them stop?

JOSH HARE Hops & Grain Brewing Sonic ice is only acceptable after eating the cheese tater tots. Don’t worry about your teeth, they’ll figure it out on their own.

JOSH HARE Hops & Grain Brewing Next time they put the fish in the microwave drop to the floor and start screaming about the searing pain that the radiation is delivering to your brain. Talk about seeing stars and bright white lights and then just go silent for about 3 minutes, completely still. When someone gets close to you to see if you’re ok, scream in their face. That should fix the fish problem.

DUSAN KWIATKOWSKI Live Oak Brewing Co. Sonic ice is worse. When are shorts appropriate menswear? MICHAEL GRAHAM Austin Beerworks Wimbledon. JEFF YOUNG Blue Owl Brewing Only wear shorts if they used to be jean pants. JOSH HARE Hops & Grain Brewing When they began as jeans. JEFFREY STUFFINGS Jester King Brewery When it’s August and you live in central Texas. CHIP MCELROY Live Oak Brewing Co. You mean, sometimes they’re not?! JOE MOHRFELD Pinthouse Pizza Hard to imagine a time they are not appropriate, you may want to rethink some of your life choices if you find your self in situations where people find them inappropriate. I have a co-worker who

MICHAEL GRAHAM Austin Beerworks Hide a cobra in the microwave.

I go to a party and there is a tray of a dozen deviled eggs; how many eggs can I put on my plate on the first pass without looking like a lush? MICHAEL GRAHAM Austin Beerworks Firstly, there were 2 dozen deviled eggs at my party. Secondly, I called you lush because you ate half of them, said you were “possessed” and tried to fornicate with the angel food cake to “exercise the demon.” JEFF YOUNG Blue Owl Brewing As many as you want as long as you keep circling around the house and coming back to the egg tray and acting like that’s the first you noticed there were deviled eggs at this party. (Thanks, Louis CK.) DUSAN KWIATKOWSKI Live Oak Brewing Co. Those are supposed to move fast so up to eleven on the first pass depending on your cholesterol.

OVER A PINT

Garrett Crowell of Jester King Brewery ON ONE OF THE FIRST COOL EVENINGS IN SEPTEMBER WE MET UP WITH JESTER KING HEAD BREWER GARRETT CROWELL OVER A FEW TASTY LAGERS AT THE ABGB TO TALK SAISONS, CULTURING YEAST, TRADING BEER, CUTTING THROUGH THE HYPE, AND GREEN BOTTLES. SO CRACK A #GREENBOTTLE OF LE PETIT PRINCE AND ENJOY OUR DISCUSSION.

How did that change how you were brewing? How did that affect you as a brewer? I think really just considering that yeast could be a flavor and not just these other things like caramel and cocoa nibs and cherries and things that you put in a beer, lots of hops. I think just realizing like, ‘Hey, I can use very simple ingredients and have yeast be this really intriguing component to a beer.’ That was really the segue for me to exclusively focus on that

as a homebrewer. Just the pursuit of coaxing different flavors and aromas out of yeast alone. And how did you get into creating your own mix culture of yeast? You know, just kind of taking queue from some of my favorite beers at the time like Saison Dupont and using their reputed house yeast that came from White Labs 565. It’s like a foundation yeast. And then using bottle dregs from Fantome and from Orval and blending those together and fermenting beers to approximate the inadvertent house character that a lot of the saison brews have, like Vapeur and Fantome. Those guys, they’re not pitching a mix culture. It’s not deliberate. It’s there in their brewery and it just happens to get into their beers. And it’s a beautiful thing. It’s really really remarkable. How did that translate into brewing for Jester King? Well I began volunteering for Jester King in March of 2012 and was bringing some of my saison beers out there to share with them. They really liked the beers and eventually brought me on to brew but to also create a

Photo: Garrett Crowell

ABG: Okay, tell me a bit about how you got into making the beer that you make today? What’s your story? Garrett: Well, I kinda discovered saison in either 2007 or 2008. I had a bottle of North Coast Le Merle for the first time and that was the first moment that I really discovered yeast character in a beer. I had been homebrewing for quite a few years before that but that was the first time that was the prominent feature in a beer and it was really intriguing to me. So I began researching what that yeast was and what the sensory profile of a saison would be attributed to and that led me to discover Brettanomyces and then mixed culture fermentation and things of that sort. So I began seeking out other saisons, just trying out whatever I could. And obviously had Saison Dupont which, to this day, is one of my favorite beers of all time and some friends of mine had recommended that I seek out some beers from Fantome just given that they’re very quirky and kind of quintessentially old world saison. The first ones I had from them were so intriguing and odd and the yeast character was very strange, unlike anything I’d ever had but also full of many other components that I feel were indiscernible from the yeast.

mix culture fermentation program there. Some of the beers that I was using at the time, in my homebrew house culture, the house culture eventually ended up in our house culture that’s at Jester King now. And funny story, before I worked at the brewery, before I volunteered, I was buying bottles of Black Metal off the shelf at H-E-B and trading them for bottles of Fantome and some of the yeast from those bottles of Fantome are now in our mix culture at the brewery. That’s great! Tell me the process behind creating and developing the house mix culture yeast that you guys are using now? So at Jester King, at the time, we were using a yeast that’s known as Wyeast 3711—it’s a French saison yeast—as our yeast for everything. So we’re very familiar with that. But I really like the character of the yeast from Brasserie Dupont, so we decided to combine those two as a foundation of which to add other mix cultures to. So we did that, started those two yeasts. Then, took some barrel slurry from some spontaneous fermentations and added it to it, cultured some yeasts and bacteria from some flowers that grew on the property, from an Agarita bush, and also used my homebrew house culture and combined that as well. So a lot of components went into one single blend which ended up becoming our house culture. Obviously yeast plays a huge influence in your recipe formulation, but what else influences creating a new beer? Well yeah, I mean, yeast is kinda foremost. I think when considering components that would be flavor or aroma profiles, you kinda have to consider that they would compliment yeast character and our yeast is very expressive but really, we’re most inspired by food. So, having a dish that’s really well balanced. The ingredients are components that are in that dish oftentimes translate really well into a beer. For instance, this year’s Hibernal Dichotomous—that was brewed with oranges, beets, and thyme. Was kind of a riff on a salad that one of us had and those flavor components were great. So, it was like, ‘Hey, let’s try and make a beer out of that.’ And it worked. Tell me about the shift to incorporate more fruit into the brewery. How you decide what fruit you’re using and when? So you know, Das Uberkind is a barrel-aged mature sour beer that we use, the base beer for just about all the fruit beers that we do. And from there, every year we do Atrial Rubicite which we get the raspberries from Washington. And lately we’ve been trying to focus on fruit we can get from Texas just for the sake of documenting our immediate surroundings. We feel it’s really

important to express our region. We’re a Texas brewery; we should be using Texas fruit. The focus, especially right now it’s harvest season for all the wineries around town so they’re all picking grapes, so we’re focusing on sourcing different varietals of grapes to pursue. For instance, we just packaged a new batch of Blanc de Bois today. So there will be more of that coming. And we’re trying to get a hold of some red varietals of grapes. And beyond that, Texas is really known, Fredericksburg especially, for its peaches. And this year, that was the focus for us because the peach harvest was awesome. Best peaches I’ve ever had in my life. So decided to go all in and do as much as we could on that one. In addition to your own projects that are inspired by food and seasonal fruit, you guys also do a lot of collaborations. What goes into collaborating and choosing a collaborative partner? Your favorite collaborations? Collaborations are a lot of fun for us to do. Really, we travel quite a bit as a brewery and having the opportunities to meet new people and see other breweries and especially every brewery tends to do things differently and we get pretty inspired by certain processes. And I think, nowadays, rather than pursuing a collaboration as a marketing thing like, ‘Hey, you’re a famous brewery. We’re popular. Let’s put our names and make a superbeer,” that’s really not the point. Like, we really want to find people that we’re inspired by or that share some sort of likemindedness, process, or philosophy, or even passion in creating a beer. I would say some of the more proper collaborative brews we’ve done have been with Live Oak. And, to us, they’re one of the best breweries in the world and absolutely one of the best at wort production. Their method of decoction mashing is just awesome and we certainly don’t have the capabilities of creating wort that good at Jester King. So we asked them to make wort for us in the past with Kollaborationsbier in which we took their Pilsner wort that was decoction mashed and brewed at their brewery and then fermented at our brewery with our mix culture. Really that’s been one of the most fun for us to do. Do you ever worry about losing your identity doing so many collaborations versus being known for your beers that you’re doing on your own? Yeah. Absolutely. In fact, that’s the main concern with doing so many collaborations. The dilution of identity. For us, we want to certainly maintain creative integrity at our own brewery while combining our creative efforts with another. But we certainly don’t want to you know compromise the work we’ve put into making our beer a unique thing that’s very relevant to our immediate

surroundings. So yeah, that’s certainly a concern. And I think really to avoid that, just being careful about who you do collaborations with. And it’s not like, ‘Oh, this brewery’s not good enough.’ They’re really great breweries that approach us about doing collaborations but sometimes it’s not the best fit and doesn’t work out. So it doesn’t boil down to you guys running out of ideas and you’re going to other people for...? Ha! Yeah. No. It’s deliberate. We meet people that we’re really inspired by. And we want to combine our efforts to make something we couldn’t have made on our own individually. Jester King have a lot of hype and you’re aware of the craft beer culture, trading culture and buzz that surrounds you guys. How do you keep yourself in a creative mindset while you’re also aware of those expectations? How do you continue to just make the beer you want to make without playing into those expectations or hype? Really, just creative integrity first and foremost. We certainly try to steer away...you know, we’re so grateful for having a consumer or customer or fan base that really embraces what we do. It’s huge. And I couldn’t be more thankful for having people that support us no matter what. But first and foremost is, for me personally, I’ve got to be inspired by a beer. And I feel there is a formula that exists for a successful beer and sometimes it’s not very inspiring to follow that. In which case, we make beers that aren’t received well and that’s okay. First and foremost, we want to make beer that we’re happy with and inspired by. And that doesn’t always mean making beer that the public would like the most. Or we would sell the most of or would get the best reviews, what have you. It’s really ... I feel we have a good opportunity to try new things and experiment with new ingredients and recipes and things like that. What do you think is your most underrated beer? Le Petit Prince for sure. Like I said earlier, there are beers that fit a formula of success and pale, low-alcohol beers certainly do not fit that formula. Honestly, that’s what we all like to drink. We make beer. We like to drink beer while we make beer and that requires a low alcohol beer to do so and really, it’s just that we find the nuances and delicate character of that beer to really showcase our personal philosophy as a brewery and what we’re really all about more so than you know, Black Metal or something like that. I love Petit Prince, also. I thought it was really exciting when you guys did the green bottle experiment, which you got some pretty mixed reviews from. What went into putting

them in the green bottles? I would say, the singular moment that would have defined the idea of putting beer in green bottles was drinking Cuvee des Jonquilles from Brasserie Au Baron. It’s... They call it a biere de garde, but I would say it’s more like a saison. But it’s a small French brewery. All their beer is in green bottles, been in green bottles for 25 years. No one’s made a fuss about it. And I feel like a little bit of light struck character is kind of the hallmark characteristic of that beer. And also, Saison Dupont, having had that beer in green bottles, on draft, and most recently in brown bottles around town. I guess their importer suggested they package their beer in brown bottles. To me, the brown bottles and the draft version has always lacked something that I always perceived as being a component of their yeast character, which very well may be, and it’s being coaxed out by UV light, what have you. The green bottles have something that I feel the other two versions are missing. So I felt that Petit Prince was the best format to pursue experimenting with that. It’s our simplest beer that expresses the most yeast character with fairly assertive hop character as well. So we packaged a batch in March. We did a full pallet of green bottles, just all in, let’s do it see what happens. It’s my personal favorite beer we’ve ever made to date—that batch in particular. So from there on, especially the version in green bottles, kind of as a baseline, experimenting with more of the regular beers like Mad Meg, Noble King, even did some El Cedro and Wytchmaker recently in green bottles. Just seeing what happens with those and going from there. Yeah, we’ve caught quite a bit of grief from it from the beer community. “Oh, don’t you know green bottles are the worst thing you can do for beer.” And, I don’t know, for me, I feel there is no right or wrong. There’s just fun and not fun. And green bottles are a lot of fun for me. It’s very nostalgic. Like, when I was old enough to drink beer, I would drag the four-wheeler around with my dad and drink Dos Equis in the sun. I still do. I really enjoy that. It’s a great kind of nostalgic experience. I guess Petit Prince is right up there with Rolling Rock. Yeah! It’s a crusher! Is there anything you’re particularly excited about? Last year was our third year of spontaneous fermentation and starting around December, we’re gonna start blending our first one, two, and three-year blend of that year. And that’ll be the first spontaneous fermentation beer released from our brewery. Very hopeful that it’s gonna be great, but like everything, time will tell and we’ll see.

ADVERTORIAL

ABG’s View of TCBF

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GREAT 2015

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WE CAN’T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR !

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OBITUARY

Live Oak's Short Goodbye

CHIP MCELROY AND BRIAN PETERS LEASED THE OLD SAUSAGE FACTORY ON EAST 5TH AND ALLEN Street in the spring of 1996. After nearly a year of retrofitting, cleaning, and scraping grease off the ceiling, they had their 30 barrel brewhouse, two fermenters, and two conditioning tanks (all repurposed dairy equipment), in place and brewed their first batch, Pilz, on February 20th, 1997, and sold the first keg to Dog & Duck in April of the same year. That first year they sold 368 barrels, then 810 in 1998. In their last year in this location they sold 8,939 barrels with a total of 58,604ish barrels sold in the lifetime of the east 5th brewery. In 1997 they were working that brewhouse once a week, and as they are about to move out, almost 7 days a week, year round. To those lucky enough to tour or visit the original brewery, you knew you were walking into a special place. A place too unassuming for the quality of beer being produced. A place that was a testament to the talent and skill of the brewers brave enough to helm her brewhouse deck. We are all looking forward to the new Live Oak, but will always look back on the old sausage factory on east 5th with fondness.

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THESE UNASSUMING SECOND COUSINS OF THE CANNABIS FAMILY ORIGINALLY JOINED THE BEER STAFF FOR THEIR PRESERVATIVE QUALITIES, BUT HAVE NOW BECOME KING. FEW ARE THE BREWERIES SANS A HOP FORWARD BEER FRONT AND CENTER IN THEIR STARTING LINEUP. HOPS HAVE BECOME AS AMERICAN AS BASEBALL, APPLE PIE, AND HASHTAGS. AND MUCH LIKE BASEBALL, APPLE PIE (OK, THIS ISN’T WORKING) AND HASHTAGS, ER, THEY HAVE GONE THROUGH MANY ITERATIONS IN THEIR BRIEF HISTORY OF REIGNING KING OF CRAFT. First it just had to be “hoppy.” With the introduction of Anchor Brewing’s Liberty Ale in 1975, and then Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in 1980, America soon asked hops to go steady and consummated that relationship in the back of a black and gold stingray with Joy Division providing the soundtrack to our burgeoning love affair with these green bug-like flowers. Then we cared about DIMENSION OF HOPPINESS how many minutes the hops boiled, 60, 90, 120, whatever. The longer, the better? We didn’t really know. Then it mattered the moisture status of the hops when they hit our beloved IPAs—wet, dry, semiWords by CHRIS TROUTMAN Photos by SHAWN PHILLIPS dry, damp? For a hot minute we cared a lot about how bitter and used a shaky measuring unit called the IBU to crown our heroes. Thank the beer gods those pallet wrecking days are behind us. We cared about the hop delivery methods whether they be torpedoes or some fellow named Randall. Then we went back to kindergarten having to learn our colors—black, red, white, and anything under the rainbow was the thing to drink. Having learned our colors thoroughly, someone thought it a good idea to involve math and we had to calculate our beers on the fly to figure how many half IPAs plus a double IPA meant we needed a ride home. Drinking became a real life fuzzy word problem a la the SATs. Then it became SO important when it was bottled and how soon we were able to drink it. Three week or older IPAs were dumped in a hoppy genocide across

the nation as we adopted the “born on trend” birthed by our “enemy.” Sure. Then at some point they made us think all our glasses were wrong, and we could only really taste the hops if we drank from a proprietary glass type, that strangely looked like a sex toy meets a glass bong. But boy did it accentuate the hops. Made them fucking pop. And of course we can’t ignore the multiple offerings of adjunct enhanced IPAs. Be it grapefruit, peppers, smoke, barrel-aging, or beard yeast, they were suddenly the new tits. Nevermind the wrapping paper, we were always trained to step one, smell the hops in the beer. Step two, taste the hops in the beer. Step three, shiver from the hops’ bitterness in the beer. Tasting hoppy beers was as easy as one, two, three. Until recently. Basically, hops are flowers that contain acids and oils. Yeah, we’ve read some books. Traditionally, these acids and oils have been rendered into bittering, aroma, and flavor elements via their introduction to hot wort (pre-fermented beer), or steeping in cold fermenting beer (dry hopping). The hotter the atmosphere of the beer the more bitter, the cooler the more flavor and aroma. Acids stay hot longer and make it more bitter while oils evaporate in the heat, but will meld with the beer when cold and impart the “flavor” and “smell” of hops. Pretty simple, yeah? Hops contain a few types of oils, but because we’re Americans, Myrcene oils are the ones we’re concerned with. These Myrcene oils add all the classic killer app

hop touch stones—citrus, pine, floral, all the other limited descriptors you read on a BeerAdvocate review of the current “it” IPA. Myrcene oils are what makes the dollars drop. So acids, make bitter, and oils make taste and smell, but recently brewers have been using newer higher oil varieties of hops to create a fourth fucking dimensionbody. Or as it’s known in enthusiasts circles, “mouth feel.” THE OIL MAN “To me, mouthfeel has always been a big part of it. But I think it’s getting pushed to center stage a bit more,” says Pinthouse Pizza director of brewing, Joe Mohrfeld. “I think people are finding the mouthfeel to be a bigger component of it. I believe it’s shifting to a more balanced IPA." “I think they almost add a front and middle to the flavor of the beer that used to be lacking. I think a lot of the more traditional IPAs, where they might have been a little thin through the middle and finish real bitter, the hops can carry the middle not just the malt,” Mohrfeld continues. “The hops actually give a malt feel where we used to rely on malt to do that and the hops to finish it. So they’ll get that bigger aroma but they can get even bigger aromas now but they also carry the beer a little bit more… but that big juicy middle. That juice comes from the oil.” Mohrfeld has been chasing the new school IPA for a while now, and if IPAs were gratuitous show’s about wealthy spoiled

socially deplorable wives of men somewhat deserving of their own reputations and respect, he’s the fucking Ted Turner of brewers. With specialties Fully Adrift, Best Coast (is the future), ATX Pale, and You Holdin’ Bro, in addition to his already duly respected Man O’ War IPA, Mohrfeld and his posse of brewers have the oily hop maneuver on lockdown. “I think it’s been a while that’s been the focus, just trying to figure that out. I think more brewers have been focusing on it, you know? And I think for us ever since we’ve been open, we’ve been trying to figure it out. Constantly trying to come up with how do we produce the best of what we call the new school IPA. Or try new processes to figure out how to make it the best. Were just kind of learning as we go.” “Fully Adrift was really the first where we thought we kind of cracked the code, so to speak. We brewed that beer and we tried some stuff we’d never tried before. And it really worked and we’ve kind of shifted a lot of our practices to follow that a little bit more. Because it worked.” Mohrfeld credits the craze to the west coast, but not the traditional west coast, a new school west coast. Is this starting to read like a legacy of hip hop article? Good. “I think the first time I had a beer that really stood out was the oil content significantly took over the flavor aspect of it was the first time I had Alpine. I think Alpine’s beers just like really were the first ones to capture that heavy oil content,” he said. “I remember when Sculpin first kind of raised eyebrows in the profes-

sional world. Like the first year Sculpin was at GABF (Great American Beer Fest), to my memory all the brewers just hovered around their table because they were like this was totally different. You know it was like it wasn’t Union Jack anymore.” And just like that, there was a new ballgame. “I don’t think it was west coast. I think it’s new school. They define as the millennial IPA, or whatever.” This new school or millennial IPA, derives its personality from very little bittering hops and hops in the boil, with a heavy dose of the green bugs once the heat has turned off in the whirpool and then even more dry hopped during fermentation. This creates a pleasantly silky, juicy, flavorful IPA that brings all the boys to the yard. Mohrfeld continues, “I think it’s all in that hop. I would define it as when you do a fresh rub on a hop cone, that harvest? That’s what you want. You want all that juiciness. You need just enough bitterness to keep everything, like, clean on the palate. You don’t want a wet beer. You don’t want it to be cloying. But you don’t want the bitterness to be the part that defines the beer like a lot of the east coast beers,” he said. As insightful as he may be, Mohrfeld is not the only oil man in Austin. THE PROSPECTOR “On the simplest side of this the answer is ‘it adds more oil to the finished beer.’ But it’s much deeper than that,” said Josh Hare, brewer/owner of Hops & Grain Brewing. “To me it’s more a textural addition to flavor.” Hare has been in the hop oil biz for a while and has most recently released his oily opus, the Pale Mosaic cans, a “new school” juicy IPA with low bitterness and abundant aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel."

Hare continues, “I think what most people are enjoying about these hops is that they tend to clean up bitterness, almost making it less noticeable and more balanced. Some people describe them as juicy because it almost gives the texture of orange juice. Many of the folks that we talk to in our taproom aren’t fans of highly bitter hop forward beers but really enjoy the flavor of hops. Higher oil hops when used on the cold side can add a wonderful complexity to a beer that seems to almost make it more accessible.” “I think that a lot of traditional IPA’s were using quite a few high oil content varieties but mostly as bittering or first wort additions. As both breeding programs and grower interest in the craft industry has grown we’ve seen a sharper trend toward high oil content hops. To me it’s more of an evolution in the world of hoppy beers than a separation between old and new.” With their Pale Dog, Zoe Pale Lager, Greenhouse IPA series, A Pale Mosaic IPA, and a plethora of experimental and one-off IPAs and pale ales under his brewers’ belt, this is not Hare’s first time to the hop rodeo, er you know what I mean. That is to say, he knows his way around mother nature’s green candy. “We have a number of beers that showcase high oil content hops. Our A Pale Mosaic is the first one that comes to mind. Not only is Mosaic a fairly high oil content variety but we also layer a little Nugget in there as well. What really showcases these hops the most though is our Dispensary Series which is a series of six beers, Pilsner, Pale, IPA, IIPA, Porter and Red Ale that are all expressively hopped to showcase the many layers of the hop cone while also delivering a characteristic texture in all of the beers, leaving a very pleasurably oily mouthfeel.” Hare caught the hop oil bug not so much from competition, but from the green

goodies themselves. “The first time that I really gained an interest in understanding the breakdown of the hop cone was when I took my first trip to the pacific northwest for the hop harvest,” Hare said. “It was such an eye opening experience to interact with the farmers and hop suppliers as they discussed which varieties to pick. Moisture content and oil content were the most talked because moisture can make or break the storage stability of hops after they’ve been harvested and dried and oil content because not only does it make the hop cone heavier when harvested at the right time but it’s also what the industry is looking for.” Although Hare has his hop oil game on point, he’s not the first to capture the new school IPA magic in a can.

THE WHIPPER SNAPPER “I always am very, very impressed by the beers that I can smell when I crack the top, whether it’s a cap or a can. If that initial burst of CO2 that comes out is aromatic enough to get to your nose before you even raise it to your nose, that’s purely, you know, sensory,” said Spencer Tielkemeier. “There’s no measuring that per se, but it’s like one of those things that always kind of strikes me as a kind of a defining quality of beers that have really oily hops.” Tielkemeier caught the green fever years ago when he was donning the rubber boots for (512) Brewing and brewing their

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on tap only sleeper IPA, an IPA that if ever captured consistently in on-the-shelf packaging would change the hop game in Austin. He went to middle school at Uncle Billy’s on the lake under the watchful tutelage of Brian “Swifty” Peters and now has his steady hand on the helm at one of Austin’s most exciting new breweries, Oasis, TX Brewing Company, where he has caused a local hop head mania with their newest year round addition, the Meta Modern Session IPA. With the Meta Modern he has utilized the hops’ oily characteristics to create the illusion of a heavier bodied fuller beer, but without a high amount of alcohol producing malts. “Ours is super dry, we don’t try to keep it, you know, sweet or beefy or anything like that. But the oils do have, I think a mouthfeel effect, and it’s more like a—it’s almost like a slickness or something like that, that really comes through. Especially in Meta, but in Slow Ride as well, because those beers finish very, very dry,” said Tielkemeier. “We don’t get accused of not having enough mouthfeel, at least not that I’ve ever heard of. So, anyway, I think that it does have a pretty strong effect, especially on beers that have heavy dry hop additions.“ Tielkemeier brews his beers to be consumed in multiples and thus keeps the ABV low and the quaffability high. “It seems to me like the 120 IBU double IPAs are not nearly as desired or as popular as it was five years ago. And good riddance, for my pur-

poses, but that’s just my opinion,” he said. “I think that people realized how much they could get out of a beer that wasn’t 100 IBUs, like, just because you’re making a bigger IPA with tons and tons of hops and it doesn’t mean that it needs to be 100 IBUs, or that it has to be at the limit or whatever.” Although he’s been feeding wort hops for years, it wasn’t until he took the head brewer role at Oasis that he began to think oil first. “I remember going to CBC (Craft Brewers Conference) in 2011, or something like that, in San Diego, and Matt Brynildson from Firestone Walker led a seminar about how they had formed this hop quality coalition, like ten other bigger breweries like Bells and New Glarus,” Tielkemeier recalled. “Their motto was, ‘Oils over Alpha,’ and so, I think that they probably had a lot to do with pushing growers—because this is a new territory for the growers too, because up until ten years ago, they were totally just catering to whatever Budweiser wanted, or whoever else.” “I actually credit Joe a lot, from Pinthouse. I think he was doing that stuff right from the get-go at Pinthouse and I really, really enjoyed his stuff from early on. And I already was kind of trending in that direction, but it certainly solidified my thinking that lower IBUs on your hoppy beers makes for a really, really pleasant drinking experience, I think.” Along with Mohrfeld and Hare, Tielkemeier finds his oily inspiration from a lot of these newer breeds of hops, especially Mosaic. “We use a lot of Mosaic and that’s probably my favorite of them. I think, I always say that Mosaic is kind of like a combination of all of all the things that you love about various hops, but all in one. So it’s really dank, it has some wild sort of garlicky, onion characteristics to it, but it also has a super strong tropical and citrus note to it, like a very strong pineapple and like a grapefruit rind and stuff like that. And so, it kind of combines the best of both worlds.” In sum, with new varieties of hops debut-

ing each harvest and passionate brewers meticulously refining their craft, things appear that we are entering an exciting new age for the IPA—as though this style actually needed a boost in popularity. “I think that’s where people’s palates are going. I think that’s where brewer’s minds are going. I think we’re all getting really excited about what these new varieties offer because I think they’re giving us a new tool in the toolbox to produce these beers that we couldn’t do ten years ago,” Mohrfeld explained. “And I think the flavors, I think traditionally if you had an IPA you would go: Is it hoppy or not hoppy? I think now it’s like, in my opinion, a really well done IPA has more complexity than any kind of wine that you’re going to put it to. It just takes the palate to pull it out. It’s not just fruity. It’s dissecting like ‘This is ripe berries, this is stone fruit, this is pear.’ And it’s going through that versus, ‘yup this is floral citrusy, this is rose petals, and this is tangerines’, you know? I think it puts a little bit on the IPA drinker and forces them to be a little bit more active in tasting. But I think if they are, they're going to be given a lot more to be excited about. I think someone who is really working on their palates I think is going to be way more excited with new school IPAs.” Tielkemeier agrees. “Yeah, chasing the IPA edge is a hard thing right now, because basically we live in a beer culture that is IPA everything. It’s either red IPA, black IPA, small IPA, big IPA, so yeah, I think so. The more varieties come out, the more wild flavors that you get out of stuff,” he said. “So, probably as we go further and further along, not everything will be as straight citrus as it once was and everything like that. It will be a lot more varied, and that’s cool. I hope that we get, as we keep going along, hops that have different characteristics that everybody still has the ability to make an IPA that’s really distinct, and everything like that.” Hare believes the onus is also on the brewer to un-

derstand the new hops’ potential and use science to curate the best hoppy experience for our thirsty palates. “The reason why it’s a thing to me is because it forces you to dig deeper into understanding the raw materials that we use,” said Hare. “To really utilize any new hop variety you have to understand its potential contribution to a beer before just throwing a bunch of hops into a fermenter because you read about it on Probrewer and it’s what all the cool kids are doing. I feel like there’s an incredible contribution that can be made in the world of beer if we all had a deeper interest in knowing more about hops. Being methodical is so much more gratifying than being sporadic.” With these brewers as pioneers, cutting through the dense jungles of new hop varieties and using methodical experiments to create repeatable processes to “juice” these hops to their max flavor potential, none of us hop junkies should be surprised when we begin to see more beers like these on the market and begin to recognize the taste and characteristics of these new school oily IPAs popping up on tap walls all around. They are the future of IPAs. I’ve tasted the future, my friends, and it’s fucking yummy.

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TAPROOMS: THE NEW LOCAL?

Words by CHRIS TROUTMAN Photos by SHAWN PHILLIPS

YOUR GOING-OUT-PANTS ARE ABOUT TO GET a lot more mileage as we are entering a brave new era in beer drinking. Since the change in laws in 2013, we’ve seen a transformation in taproom culture in Texas as it’s begun to slowly resemble what has been a common experience in more brewery friendly states such as California, Colorado, and Oregon. With several local taprooms extending their availability, beer lovers now have the real option to go drink at a taproom ANY NIGHT OF THE WEEK! In Austin, due to city zoning and regulations, only a few breweries are allowed to sell beer by the taster, pint, or pitcher, but others accommodate guests with glass and ticket or token purchases that will still allow drinkers to enjoy several beers. But as demand grows and changes in city regulations and state laws continue to move in the brewers’ favor, we’ll begin to see more taprooms keeping hours similar to bars. “What’s great about our location is that it enables Zilker Brewing Company to function as both a bar and a brewery. It’s the best of both worlds,” said Forrest Clark, one of the founders of Zilker. “ZBC strives to be a neighborhood establishment. We get a lot of regulars that live in East Austin.” Being in a neighborhood zoned for alcohol sales, Zilker is one of the few in Austin able to function like a bar in that respect, and hopefully, pending city regulations and zoning

restrictions, will become the model moving forward. With a sharply designed taproom and double roll-up garage doors opening to east 6th, Zilker is an urban fresh beer outpost. Just a stone’s throw east of Zilker you will find the expansive and welcoming Hops & Grain taproom. H&G have been slinging fresh beer since they first opened their doors on east 6th in 2011, but have recently expanded their taproom to a separate suite in the brewery building, and extended their hours from 8am to 10pm, seven days a week with coffee service and wi-fi. “We’ve definitely seen an increase in traffic but the surprising thing is that a lot of the increase in traffic is coming during the daytime hours,” said owner Josh Hare. “We absolutely embrace the early traffic. We’re big fans of day beers at the brewery and welcome anyone else who shares that same affection.” Despite Hops & Grain’s taproom availability, it is still a few degrees away from Hare’s ideal conception due to city zoning restrictions. “The major hindrances are regulatory. We made the decision to open seven days a week as a way of continuing our passion for being reliable to our customers. But, having the ability to sell beer to go would be a major step forward,” said Hare. “Due to our zoning we are only able to sell souvenir glasses and offer free samples. Having an on-site tasting room has been core to our business model since day one.” Also on the east side, Blue Owl have just recently opened their brewery and taproom. “Since we're an urban brewery, we have the ability to make a comfortable setting for tasting our beers that is in an eclectic neighborhood just a couple minutes from the city center,” said head brewer and co-founder Jeff Young. “We require a large

educational element to our beers to explain what sour-mashing is. Our taproom focuses around tours and explanation of what we do and how we're different.” Co-founder Suzy Shaffer adds, “We want to create an experience that is approachable like our beers. We hope to make a comfortable environment where new sour beer drinkers will learn the basics of beer in a simple format. We'll also happily geek out with beer nerds.” Across town, Austin Beerworks operates in a similar manner to Hops & Grain, but only Thursday thru Sunday. Unlike Zilker and Hops & Grain, the Austin Beerworks taproom is a little less intentional. “When we first opened, it still wasn't legal for Texas breweries to sell directly to consumers, so a tasting room wasn't part of our original business plan,” said co-founder Michael Graham. “We've since adjusted, but that's why our tasting space might seem like an afterthought - it was.” Four days a week, towards the end of the brew day, they transform their brewery into welcoming taproom with an expansive bar, hanging lights, and real German made beer hall tables. “Our hope is for our guests to feel like they're visiting a working brewery - not just a place to have a beer,” said Graham. “You know how bumper stickers give you a pretty good idea of the driver's worldview? We want the taproom to be our brewery bumper sticker,” Graham said. “Plus, having a tap room lets us play around with new recipes. We have a pilot system our employees take turns brewing on. It's a great way to let our staff have some fun and to always have new and unique offerings available on our tap wall.” Down south, Independence boasts a new tasting room and regular weekly hours after years of only hosting visitors on the first Saturday of the month. “We are still getting the word out that we are open every Saturday,” said co-owner Amy Cartwright. “After years of only being open once a month, it’s been hard to get the word out that we’re open every Saturday. I focus on really great tours for Saturday visitors coupled with tasting room only beers, casks, randall creations.” During the week, Cartwright aims to make the Indy tasting room a haunt for their neighbors. “We’ve created a fun place to visit/ wait out traffic in our immediate neighborhood, as well as created monthly events to give regulars a reason to come back,” she said. Outside the urban taproom experi-

ence, we are #blessed to have several more “remote” or get-away taprooms to burn away our weekend hours. Still being somewhat more of a “destination” hasn’t stopped these breweries from opening up regular hours and operating world class taprooms. Real Ale taproom manager, Gabe Gregerman, said they decided to move from the old Friday afternoon-only tastings and tours to the full-on taproom for consumers to experience the brewery and create a connection to who they are and what they do. “We have done a couple draft pre-leases out here and hope to do more. It also shows the depth of our portfolio, we have 14 taps to choose from, plus we frequently tap a cask.” Being out in Blanco, Real Ale will still be more of a destination for folks living in Austin, but that’s sort of the point. “Really it’s our location—not being in a heavily populated area, we will likely always be more of a destination than a hangout,“ Gregerman said. Real Ale’s Hill Country neighbors, Jester King, have been blazing the trail in the taproom first movement. Since roughly 2014, the popular brewery has been exclusively debuting and selling bottles of all their highly anticipated new beers. “After the law changes in 2013, we now function like a proper bar or taproom,” said Jester King co-founder Jeffrey Stuffings. “Guests can purchase our beer or guest beer, wine, cider, sake, and mead from our menu. They can also purchase bottles or cans to go.”

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“We make beer with a sense of place, meaning that the flavors and aromas in the beer are tied to the land, air, and water around our brewery,” said Stuffings. “Drinking beer with a sense of place in the location where it's made heightens the experience. Operating a tasting room has done a lot for our beer making as well. Because we make a better margin off of selling beer on site, we've been able to hire talented people, purchase better equipment, and expand our barrel room.” Just across 290, Twisted X offer their take on Tex Mex inspired beers in a full taproom with hours seven days a week. “A taproom is one of the easiest sales in the world to make - far beyond the $5.00 pint,” said Twisted X taproom manager Courtney Cobb. “A taproom gives us the ability to represent ONE brand, our own brand and interact directly with the end consumer. This is where you can foster life-long fans. The type of fans that when perusing the shelves of a grocery store, reach for your own brand because they loved the feeling of your taproom.” Being in a smaller community, Twisted X attracts their share of regular locals. “I came from Boulder, Colorado, so I genuinely believe that people are beginning to and will continue to view taprooms as a place to enjoy beer, hang out, play some games, eat from a foodtruck, etc.” In the file under “views” category, Oasis, TX Brewery are operating a full service taproom out on Lake Travis Thursday thru Sundays. “It’s a relaxed atmosphere, the Lake Travis view is a huge draw,” said taproom manager Lauren Estes. “We have a mix of regulars that stop over to try new Pub Series beers or our all year beers. There are some tourist that discover us and are right on board with our concept and atmosphere. Other locals seek us out that may have tried our beers and want to check out the location and scene we have.” Being about 30 minutes west of town, Oasis sit on the between a regular watering hole and a tourist destination, but still garner a group of regulars. “They have been so excited about our beers and developments in taproom

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events,” said Estes. “Many of our regulars live in the surrounding area, but many people drive out to drink our beers, discover new things we have going on and enjoy the lake and relaxed atmosphere.” Of course brewery owners are over the moon to convert folks via fresh pint after pint, but one has to wonder how actual beer bars feel. “As a fan of craft beer it makes me happy to see breweries getting their dues and to have the ability to earn more of that margin. Hopefully it adds to sustainability of great beer in Austin,” said Hopfields owner Bay Anthon. “As a business owner it does make for a more challenging competitive market, but there is enough growth in craft beer for all the good beer bars/restaurants to do fine.” “Taprooms, while indirect competitors of ours, are not a threat because we offer two vastly different experiences,” he added. Josh Wilson, brewer and manager at Draught House hasn’t seen any loss of business due to the rise of taprooms, but doesn’t doubt it’s a possibility. “All of us have to do what is best for our businesses,” said Wilson. “Taproom revenue and the ability to connect with beers fans are important for breweries. Of course we want to pour the good beers so they should sell them to us. That said, there are only so many drinkers so I would think taprooms would have an effect on some bars.” Co-owner and manager of Billy’s on Burnet Alex Walston said, “there is definitely a shift in the market. We have had to adapt to that shift. Many special events, beer releases, and beer availability has gone to the breweries. There are fewer special beers that are making their debut at Billy's.” Walston points out that specialty beer and releases aren’t the only drivers to the local bar. “Luckily we have an opportunity to offer a wide variety of local offerings from many breweries at once,” he said. “We also have a very loyal neighborhood following, which is our bread and butter.” “Business models change. Markets change. These changes are fantastic for Austin and the Craft Beer community. You just have to find a way to adapt and build on the changes,” Walston concluded. Chances are, you’re reading this in one of the aforementioned taprooms right now as you sit comfortable in your Going-Out-Pants and are enjoying the hill country, warehouse, urban, lake view, or other ambience and fresh beer. And remember, please tip well.

TAPROOM SCHEDULER IF IT'S A DAY THAT ENDS IN A "Y" YOU COULD BE DRINKING AT A BREWERY

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

MONDAY

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

8am–10pm

Closed

Closed

Closed

TUESDAY

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

8am–10pm

Closed

Closed

5–10pm

Closed

6–10pm

11am–5pm

5–10pm

Closed

Closed

5–9pm

5–9pm

8am–10pm

Closed

5–9pm

5–10pm

Closed

5–9pm

4–10pm

11am–5pm

Closed

4–10pm

4–9pm

4–9pm

8am–10pm

5–8pm

5–11pm

5–10pm

FRIDAY

11am–9pm

11am–3pm

5–9pm

Closed

11am–5pm

1–6pm

12–10pm

12–5pm

12–6pm

8am–10pm

1–5pm

1–7pm

1–4pm

SATURDAY

12–6pm

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

1–6pm

12–9pm (12–6pm after Oct.)

12–5pm

Closed

8am–10pm

1–5pm

1–7pm

Closed

SUNDAY

Brewing Co. (p.79)

Jester King Brewery (p.80) Last Stand

Oasis, TX

Real Ale

Rogness

Brewing Co. (p.84)

Strange Land Brewery (p.86) Thirsty Planet

Brewing Co. (p.86)

Twisted X

Brewing Co. (p.88)

WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

Closed

Closed

Closed

Closed

11am–9pm

2–8pm

Adelbert’s Brewery (p.66) Austin Beerworks (p.68) Circle

Closed

Closed

Closed

1–8pm

2pm–12am 12pm–12am

Brewing Co. (p.70)

Closed

Closed

1–8pm

4–10pm

Hops & Grain Brewing (p.56) 8am–10pm Independence Closed Brewing Co. (p.62) Infamous Closed

Brewing Co. (p.80)

Closed

1–8pm

4–10pm

12–10pm

Brewing Co. (p.82)

1–8pm

Closed

2pm–12am 12pm–12am

Brewing Co. (p.82)

Closed

Zilker

Brewing Co. (p.57)

38

*9(-;:3(*2,9 SOMETIMES AMIDST OUR DAILY

duties of managing a world class magazine with 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, 5 weeks a month, 13 months a year duties chronicling the Austin beer scene we make time to slow things down, take it all in, and check our craft barometer. We recently declared that craft was dead. Or, more so that it should die. Just good beer and bad beer, but it’s all beer. Well, we’re still waiting on that day, but there is a much more pertinent change in the winds. Over the past year or two, we’ve noticed the craft beer camp begin to slowly pull into sides on polar ends with one collective landing more so in the Active category (bottle chasers, traders, tickers, whalez hunters, bottle sharers, cellar owners, label approval watchers, attentive to glassware, enthusiasts) and the other the Passive category (beer by the pitcher, koozies over glassware, default to lagers or session beers, slackers). While we all strive to be one big happy community, as the community grows it also diversifies. And I believe we have approached a moment of diversification. Note, diversification doesn’t necessarily mean division. There are plenty of craft folks whom would find one foot firmly planted in each camp, but as each travel down our own personal craft journeys, we tend to lean one way or the other. Or maybe it’s an evolution. We begin with that first sip of Shiner, Fat Tire, Fireman’s #4, or what have you and discover we don’t

have to fake liking it, and then suddenly finding ourselves seeking out IPAs instead of avoiding them, then thanks to the internet quickly find ourselves ticking, trading, chasing, sharing, and queue waiting just to find and “taste” craft America’s next Holy Grail (not the actual Holy Grail ale, it’s got no trade cred). We live in this drooling frenzy for a few years letting message boards and “influencers” dictate our budgets and weekend plans, and some of us even allow this frantic passion to manifest into brewing our own hooch at home. You find yourself collecting tiny glasses with sponsors logos and lines with ounce marks on them, and are suddenly interested in food pairings and flavor palates. Then your vacations begin to revolve around breweries and tours, and your “bucket list” becomes more about scoring suds than anything else. You dabble in blogging and maybe even found a magazine or podcast. And then one day you wake up and realize that for a while you’ve only really been satisfied by well-made, crisp, clean, balanced malt, subtly hoppy lagers - American or otherwise. And it so happens that several of your favorite go-to craft breweries have slowly been sliding these into their portfolios. They say our taste buds change every 7 years, or maybe it’s 5, Google’s being a little unsure on this one, so maybe it’s possible this

^VYKZ I` */90: ;96<;4 (5 WOV[VZ I` :/(>5 7/03307: is driving the evolution. Or maybe it’s burn out. Or maybe just leveling out. The craft pendulum has swung from the extreme sour, barrel-aged, hoppy, or rare, back towards the middle, well-made lagers and sessionable staples and seasonals. You don’t eschew all your old habits, but you begin to ďŹ nd you’d prefer to Netix and chill with your bae and a sixer of Hans’ on a hot Monday night over attending a bottle share. Your once cherished, thoughtfully curated and painstakingly categorized and recategorized cellar begins to get dusty as you ďŹ nd yourself reaching for Zoes in the fridge crisper drawer. Speaking of dust, your prized glassware collection, home to a glass style for every beer style, sits untouched in your cabinets, or maybe now in a box in the garage, as you favor koozies and aluminum or an occasional tall lager glass for sipping your suds of choice. Your visits to Draught House witness more beers in pitchers than snifters at your table. You begin to buy beer at the price per cent, not the alcohol percent. You don’t pair beers with food, you pair beers with preparing food (read grilling). You deleted all beer related apps from your phone in 2012 and haven’t looked back. Just thinking of GABF arouses your acid

reux. The only beer you chase is when one of your Slow Ride cans slips from the six pack holder and rolls down the drive. The most expensive beer you’ve bought recently was a 99 pack. You don’t exactly trust bars that don’t serve by the pitcher. Descriptors like “sessionâ€? and “German styleâ€? or “Czech styleâ€? grab your attention more quickly than “barrel-agedâ€?, “wildâ€?, or “imperial.â€? You “trackâ€? the beers you’ve tried via the pile of cans out back by your grill. You’re completely unaware of a beer’s “ratingâ€? or “score,â€? nor does it concern you. The only large format beers you’ve opened in 2015 have been green bottles ďŹ lled with Le Petit Prince. When someone talks about “whalesâ€? you think of the largest mammals on earth. It’s not that you’ve become “too goodâ€? for the craft pleasures of day’s past, it’s just that you’re a little tired of getting excited all the time. You still appreciate a great beer, and the time and craft that goes into making one, but you don’t necessarily have to lie to your boss to excuse a long lunch due to stopping at four grocery stores, two liquor stores, and a few gas stations in search of this week’s bottle or six pack the internet tells you to get. But would that bottle end up in your backyard later and some poured for you to taste, you wouldn’t protest. The point is, a few of us, along with a few of you, are pioneering into an uncharted new realm of craft slacker-hood. Of course, we all will still support and drink well-made local beer, but we’re just taking it a little easier these days. We still appreciate and often crave a super juicy IPA, but we’re not crushing bombers of them or trading in the mail to get them. And if you think about it, a lot of this lackadaisical ‘tude is due to the readily available, easy to ďŹ nd, exceptionally fantastic beer brewed in our city these days. We’re used to excess and a never ending supply of ďŹ nely crafted beers, special releases, one-offs, casks, sours, or whatever becomes the next beer to get it up for. We know that if you just wait a hot minute you’ll realize the beer will be available when you’re ready for it, or the hype will die down and we can all get back to just drinking beer to party. So maybe I’m saying we’re becoming the craft millennials. Nah, just craft slackers.

ARE YOU A CRAFT SLACKER? TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ AND SEE HOW YOU MEASURE UP YOU ARRIVE AT A PARTY AND ALL THEY HAVE TO DRINK IS A KEG OF LONE STAR, SO YOU ___________. a. Dive in and do your part to kill the keg.

b. Toss everything but the mustache glasses. c. Weed out most of the uff but still keep the special glasses from trips and your fancy snifters.

b. Break open the sixer of Pearl Snap you brought, cause who comes to a party empty handed.

d. Get rid of the spouse/partner and keep the glasses.

c. Leave the party to ďŹ nd something “acceptableâ€? to drink.

YOU END UP IN DENVER FOR GABF SO YOU SPEND ALL YOUR TIME _________.

d. You didn’t go to the party, you’re at home doing cellar inventory and waiting for TABC to release this week’s label approvals.

a. On the Prost patio.

ON YOUR WAY HOME FROM WORK YOU REMEMBER YOU’RE OUT OF BEER SO YOU _______. a. Stop at almost any gas station or grocery store and pick up a 12 pack of Hans’. b. Swing by a brew pub for a quick growler ďŹ ll of whatever mosaic IPA they have owing. c. Pull over and check Twitter to see what your local craft beer store got in today. d. Group text your buddies to see if there are any bottle shares happening that night. WHEN YOU HEAR THE TERM “PORCH BOMBâ€? YOU THINK ____________. a. Farting outside when the wind isn’t blowing. b. A aming sack of shit from the neighbors shithead teenager. c. An email or malware virus. d. Beer mail from your CA trading bruh. YOUR SPOUSE/PARTNER HAS BEEN NAGGING YOU TO REDUCE YOUR GLASS COLLECTION FOR A WHILE AND SO YOU FINALLY DECIDE TO ________. a. Lose everything but the koozies. They’re all you need these days.

b. Nursing a hangover and hunting out free food opportunities. c. Visiting surrounding cities to avoid the crowds and enjoy the bounty of CO breweries. d. In line for What the Funk, then on your phone either ticking beers or complaining about Jester King running out of bottles. ANSWER KEY A=3pts, B=2pts, C=1pt, D=0pts

12-15 pts Congrats! You’re as slacker as they come. But honestly, you’re probably not even reading this, you’ve got a sweaty can calling your name. 8-11 pts You’re doing something right. You care a little more than a slacker would, but nothing to be concerned about. Enjoy your beer! 4-7 pts It could be worse. Just give it time and we’re sure you’ll tone down a bit and learn to relax and give beer the steering wheel. Or second set of footprints. Or whatever. 0-4 pts Well, if you’re still even reading, you’re pretty far from a craft slacker. This probably isn’t for you. Ugh, yeah, sorry. No hard feelings?

RANGER CREEK OPA

Available at Central Market, select HEB’s, Spec’s, Whole Foods, and your favorite independent retailers like East 1st Grocery, Sunrise Minimart, and Whip In.

Ranger Creek OPA American Pale Ale with Oats 5.8% ABV | 33 IBU | 14 SRM Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling, San Antonio, TX

D R IN K R A N G ERCR E E K .CO M

Come visit us for a fun, unique Saturday Brewstillery Tour!

BEER & LOATHING

Riding for the Feeling Words by CHRIS TROUTMAN Photos by SHAWN PHILLIPS

IF YOU’VE BEEN A FAITHFUL BEER AND loathing reader you’ve most likely noticed that as our adventures have expanded in scope, so have our attempts to alleviate ourselves the social and moral responsibilities of driving after imbibing in a manner that would/could incur loathing worth print. We’ve done the #3 bus, Uber/Lyft, bikes, foot, and even coerced Aaron’s brother-in-law to drive our drunk asses around (and possibly some other modes I’m not immediately recollecting). But this outing we have achieved our ultimate goal: a mother fucking party bus. Party. Bus. And boy, did we. Party. We partied on the fucking bus. Thanks to the ATXcursions folks for indulging our fuzzy dreams and bringing the party bus, plus driver (thanks, Bo!). OK, so this trip was more than just an excuse to party on a bus. Being dads, and having good taste, we have all been fans of local musician and recording artist Bill Callahan. And as we were tossing around B&L ideas, we stumbled upon a crude Instagram poster of a Bill Callahan show hosted at the Driftwood resort, Oohla Bean. We put two

and two and a few other together and conceived the idea to saddle up with the ATXcursions crew to hit up a few of the newer Hill Country brewing crew (note: we previously have ventured out to Jester King, Barber Shop, Real Ale, and Pecan St. Brewing) and end our trip in the loving aural arms of a Mr. Callahan at Oohla Bean. We procured our tickets via End of an Ear and on a Sunday morning met guides Virginia and Nate (also a NXNW North brewer) at NXNW Slaughter with brewer Hayden Winkler, and ABG Best Personality ‘13 (Editors' Choice) and ‘14 (Readers' Choice) Tony Drewry. The four of us, plus some wives (thanks to babysitters) revved up our Sunday with NX beers, more beers, and more beers plus a bloody Mary with brunch/lunch at the bar. We threw back our beers and finished our plates with gusto as we had lots of road to cover and beers to drink in the next few hours. With our appetites satisfied and a healthy noon buzz we took to the bus. We had a generous supply of Austin Beerworks and Hans’ (because dads) cans to load up the coolers and quickly jumped on the bus and rode the concrete waves southwest to Last Stand. As

we were still in that awkward "getting to know you" phase, Bo played some classic “everyone likes it” party jams as we settled into the expansive seats of the ATXcursions party bus and cracked a few Austin Beerworks Pearl Snaps as we careened down 290 with the windows down. It was a hottish late August day, but the pilsners and rushing wind kept everyone in good temperatures for the 20ish minutes it took us to reach our first brewery. Owners Kerry, his wife Mandi, and Migs were locked and loaded with a slew of their “nailed it” classic craft styles in their cozy tasting room off of Fitzhugh Road. Last Stand feels like the craft brewery you found on vacation back in 2006. Great representations of classic craft styles each with their own personal twists

served in an endearing tasting room/beer garden with personal touches hand crafted furniture with as much attention to detail as the beers themselves. A space that lures you to sell your house and move out there to spend countless evenings and weekends between work and live like you’re retired already. We grabbed a sampler and made our way to the oak scattered beer garden. All their beers were a hit, and with the cool breeze and prematurely falling leaves on the recovered wooden spools and reclaimed pallet furniture the coffee porter tasted just right. They had a few IPAs/ Belgo IPAs on and those were all tasty, but the majority of us fell for the pale ale. After a few rounds a couple of us snuck over to their neighbors at Revolution Spirits in hopes to sneak a taste or two of their Cuvee collaboration Cafecito. Luckily, although not open on Sundays, they were around and generously obliged our requests. Cafecito is dangerously tasty, and would we have been allowed to, would have ended our afternoon there. But the gentle persistent baritone of Mr. Callahan called us back on the bus and our faithful driver Bo safely fled us to Twisted X. A few more roadie Pearl Snaps, Fire Eagles, and Hans’ and we cut to the left side of Driftwood, in Dripping Springs actually, as we arrived at Twisted X’s swanky huge brewery. We disembarked the bus, and tread our way into the taproom. It’s not as “wild west” a scene as you’d expect from such a nomenclature. But it was close. With southwestern blankets and succulents adorning the indoor picnic tables, and a nice fella playing guitar in the corner, it was a mix hybrid of a taqueria and a winery tasting room. In a good way. Being dads, we went straight for the lagers. But kept in the spirit of things with the Fuego—a tasty jalapeno pilsner that’s crisp, clean, and bitey. While our host and Twisted X tasting room manager Courtney Cobb organized a quick tour for our group, I inadvertently ended up in a twit convo with Danny (@TXBrewAndBBQ). In my mind we had a level headed, elevated, moderate discussion about TX, BBQ, and Brew, but Danny, if you recall differently, my most sincere apologies. I do remember telling him a few times not to take us seriously on Twitter (and that goes for you too, dear reader) and that if we pick on you it means we love you. We’re craft codependent. And our therapists say we don’t necessarily need to apologize for that. So, anyways, Danny, keep up the good BBQ and Brew tweets and such.

So we all had a great time at Twisted X. We slugged down the rest of our Fuegos and hopped back on the big red ATXcursions party bus with our longest trek ahead of us. Up to this point, bus had been merely a means to an end. But in this stage in our Sunday debauchery, we found the truth; heaven is the back of the ATXcursions bus, windows down, cold Hans’ pils in koozie, and best mates shoulders to shoulder. Like the apostles in the upper room, we suddenly found ourselves in the upper room, with Tony Messiah Drewry in our midst breaking Hans’ and giving thanks. No church was closer to God that Sunday than we, and we still had a ways to go. Time flew, Fire Eagles were consumed, miles were clocked, and we suddenly were upon Middleton in the west outskirts of San Marcos. A medieval fortress of a brewery, Middleton’s gates are guarded by a food truck, and inside beneath the twin towers an evil union of west coast and Belgian brews unite to create a Hill Country destination none of us expected. Brewers Calvin Kouba and Nathan Woeber greeted our bus worn drunk asses with open arms, while Slingin’ Sliders sustained us with golden twists of magical spuds. We

each chose from their spectacular variety of Belgian/West Coast brews and congregated in the brewhouse amongst dogs, kettles, fermenters and good vibes. Things got more than fuzzy at this point, and despite my refined journalist’s training, I fail to recall how we ended up ascending the precarious iron staircase to the roof/balcony. Memory returns as we sat on picnic tables talking views, brews, twisted potatoes, American Spirits, and TX State. As much as I can trust my memory, Middleton is a magical place that everyone should visit. Like Last Stand, it has a classic “brewery” feel to it, and everything we had was more than worth the drive. The Middleton boys sent us on our way with buku bombers in a box that quickly ended up on Aaron’s head once we settled back into our respective bus seats. Bo enhanced the mood with some Ozzy and the bus was soon converted to a Crazy Train as we careened down Ranch Road 12. By now we were one with the bus. Bo was our spiritual guide leading us along the path of fermented righteousness. We locked and loaded more cans in koozies and as Classic 70s era rock pulsated through this bus’s bones, we were moved by the spirit to bus surf. As we engaged in this haphazard ill advised activity, we reached the next level. The true purpose of beer. Beer was brewed for partying and we were partying for beer. An emotion that cannot be conveyed in print was emoted amongst our eclectic group of journalists, wives, brewers, lovers, drinkers, and friends. What a ride. We were riding for a feeling. “Beer” and “Thank you.” Unfortunately, we cruised up to the concert venue Oohla Bean blaring some nasty Van Halen jams

through our open windows as some poor artistic souls were baring it all via a xylophone performance. See, the opening act was scratched in lieu of a show and tell type talent show. We quietly (I hope) exited the bus, passed out fresh cans and ceremoniously shotgunned another round before we donned camping chairs and made our way into the wood thicket from where the music was originating. After all being awarded wrist bands, we made our way to the unusually domesticated meadow amongst the oak and Hill Country brush to find spots to launch camping chairs and settle in just as the minister Callahan began his homily.

35 TAPS

Re-Up. 1401 W. Koenig

Ln.

Forgive me for putting on my smug pants now, but if you call yourself an appreciator of “craft” and you were not amongst that meadow that Sunday evening, you’re a hypocrite. Oohla Bean was serving Hans’ by the can and zen by the buttload. Rev. Callahan commenced with a mixture of the previous records with high points from Apocalypse, one song of which, America!, I was later informed that I postured in standing ovation of during the entire performance. According to other’s recollection, it was a stellar performance. Perhaps one or two of us drifted off during the performance, but for majority, we all soaked in BC’s baritone soul massage to the fullest. As the evening turned dark, he became lighter, then it got dark again. And soon the majestic oak shading the band lent it’s looming ceiling to work with the technicolor lighting effects create a colorful ambient cradle for Mr. Callahan and co. as they soothed our sudsy souls with crooning limericks of modern day mythos. The good Dr. Callahan ended his treatment with a walk into the dark woods behind his band’s set up and we all followed suit. Back in the bus, our souls and psyches nourished, settled in for a meditative ride back, until Bo begun to spin some classic Beastie Boys tracks and we picked right up with the bus surfing, beer chugging hijinx. Sabotage, Intergalactic, and so forth pumped through our ears as more Hans’, Pearl Snap, and Fire Eagle topped us off as we slid through the 290 Y and made our way back to the NX south parking lot. Exiting the bus for the last time was a sad affair. It felt like the last night of camp. Lots of hugging, some crying, and for once, no loathing. Well, maybe some the next morning, but no immediate loathing. Huge huge thanks to the fine folks at ATXcursions, NXNW, and our friend Tony for helping create one of our best B&L adventures yet. We cannot recommend the above enough. So next time Bill Callahan plays a small-meadow-in-the-thicket show in the Hill Country, do yourself a favor and attend.

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BARS & RESTAURANTS 1. Flying Saucer 815 West 47th Street 2. Crown and Anchor Pub 2911 San Jacinto Boulevard 3. Doc’s Motorworks 38th 1106 West 38th Street 4. Waller Creek Pub House 603 Sabine Street 5. Haymaker 2310 Manor Road 6. School House Pub 2207 Manor Road 7. Little Woodrow’s 520 West 6th Street 8. Kung Fu Saloon 510 Rio Grande Street 9. Alamo Drafthouse, Ritz 320 East 6th Street 10. The Ginger Man 301 Lavaca Street 11. Frank 407 Colorado Street 12. Hopfields 3110 Guadalupe Street 13. Contigo 2027 Anchor Lane

14. House Pizzeria 5111 Airport Boulevard 15. Easy Tiger Bake Shop and Beer Garden 709 East 6th Street 16. The Brew Exchange 706 West 6th Street 17. Banger’s Sausage House & Beer Garden 79 Rainey Street 18. Jackalope 404 East 6th Street 19. Star Bar 600 West 6th Street 20. Gourmands 2316 Webberville Road 21. Austin Ale House 301 West 6th Street 22. Nasty’s 606 Maiden Lane 23. Spider House 2908 Fruth Street 24. Thunderbird Coffee, Manor 2200 Manor Road 25. Violet Crown Social Club 1111 East 6th Street 26. The Grackle 1700 East 6th Street

G = growler fills

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 54

37 30 38

27. The White Horse 500 Comal Street 28. Cherrywood Coffeehouse 1400 38 1/2 Street 29. Swift’s Attic 315 Congress Avenue 30. Hi Hat Public House 2121 East 6th Street 31. Craft Pride 61 Rainey Street 32. Salt & Time 1912 East 7th Street 33. in.gredients 2610 Manor Road 34. Hole in the Wall/East Side King 2538 Guadalupe Street 35. Wright Bros. Brew & Brew G 500 San Marcos Street

BREW PUBS 36. Draught House Pub & Brewery G 4112 Medical Parkway

BREWERIES 37. Hops & Grain Brewing 507 Calles Street

38. Live Oak Brewing Co. 3301-B East 5th Street 39. Blue Owl Brewing Co. 2400 East Cesar Chavez 40. Zilker Brewing Co. 1701 East Sixth Street

STORES 41. Central Market G 4001 North Lamar Boulevard 42. Hyde Park Market 4429 Duval Street 43. Whole Foods Market G 525 North Lamar Boulevard 44. Antonelli’s Cheese Shop 4220 Duval Street 45. Twin Liquors, Hancock 1000 East 41st Street 46. Rosedale Market 1309 West 45th Street 47. Quickie Pickie G 1208 East 11th Street 48. East 1st Grocery 1811 East Cesar Chavez Street 49. H-E-B, Mueller G 1801 East 51st Street

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Blue Owl Brewing INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . 2400 East Cesar Chavez Austin, TX 78702 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . By Appointment GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.blueowlbrewing.com

Jeff Young, former brewer of Black Star Co-op, opened Blue Owl Brewing this fall. With a focus on keeping their beers approachable and affordable, Young and co. aim to make their canned beers the first “after-work” sour beer for the everyman.

BEER SAMPLING

Little Boss, Van Dayum!

WE RECOMMEND

Little Boss . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sour Session Wheat Spirit Animal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sour Pale Ale Professor Black . . . . . . . . . . .Sour Cherry Stout Van Dayum! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sour Amber Ale

Draught House INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4112 Medical Pkwy Austin, TX 78756 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . Mon–Thu 3pm–2am, Fri–Sun 1pm–2am GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes (many) BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes (growlers) BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.draughthouse.com

The Draught House brewhouse is back online with a new seven-barrel custom made, direct fired, single infusion brewhouse. Brewer and manager Josh Wilson said the new beer program will be random with the return of some old favorites plus some wood and barrelaged beers to come.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING

Malt Ball, Red Planet (also Double Red Planet), Bombay IPA

Red Planet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Red Ale Bombay IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Jubal Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Winter Warmer

WE RECOMMEND

WƌŽƵĚůLJ ĚŝƐƚƌŝďƵƚŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ĨŝŶĞƐƚ ĐƌĂĨƚ ďƌĂŶĚƐ ĨƌŽŵ dĞdžĂƐ ĂŶĚ ĂƌŽƵŶĚ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌůĚ

ĂƵƐƚŝŶƐĨ͘ĐŽŵ

ϱϭϮ͘ϯϳϳ͘ϵϱϰϴ

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Hops & Grain Brewing INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .507 Calles Street Austin, TX 78702 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . Mon–Sun 8am–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.hopsandgrain.com

Bringing his Colorado beer knowledge and inspiration to Austin, Josh Hare opened one of Austin’s east side breweries. They offer year-round and rotating beers canned for easy use during your outdoor drinking endeavors and a handful rotating series: Dispensary, Volumes of Oak, and Volumes of Funk.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

A Pale Mosaic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Greenhouse IPA . . . . . . . . . .Rotating IPA Series PorterCulture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Baltic Porter The One They Call Zoe . . . . . . . . . . . Pale Lager

A Pale Mosaic, The One They Call Zoe

Live Oak Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3301 East 5th Street Austin, TX 78702 FUTURE LOCATION . . . . . . . .1615 Crozier Lane Austin, Texas 78617 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . Varied, check website GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . No, samples only BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.liveoakbrewing.com

Built by hand by Chip McElroy in a small building on the east side of town, Live Oak has been an Austin staple since 1997. They use an old-world style of brewing mostly practiced throughout Germany and the Czech Republic and utilize techniques such as open fermentation and secondary lagering. They are currently building a new brewery near the airport. The new location should be open for business in early 2016.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Big Bark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Lager HefeWeizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hefeweizen Liberation Ale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Pilz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Czech Pilsner

HefeWeizen, Pilz

Zilker Brewing Co. INFO LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1701 East Sixth Street Austin, TX 78702 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . Wed–Thu 4–10pm, Fri 2pm–12am, Sat 12pm–12am, Sun 2–8pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.zilkerbeer.com

BEER SAMPLING Coffee Milk Stout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Coffee Stout Extra Special Bitter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ESB Marco IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Session IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA

BREWERY SNAPSHOT Zilker Brewing was born of two brothers and their home brewing buddy out of a love of crisp, dynamic, drinkable beers. The three craft their brand using quality malt, fresh hops, and a Belgian Trappist yeast to create surprisingly interesting, yet easy drinking beers. Pop into their urban brewery on East 6th for the latest and freshest, and look for Zilker on draft and in cans now.

WE RECOMMEND Coffee Milk Stout, Marco IPA

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BARS & RESTAURANTS 1. Zax Restaurant & Bar 312 Barton Springs Road 2. Hopdoddy Burger Bar, SOCO 1400 South Congress Avenue 3. Barley Swine 2024 South Lamar Boulevard 4. Black Sheep Lodge 2108 South Lamar Boulevard 5. Red’s Porch 3508 South Lamar Boulevard 6. Opal Divine’s, Penn Field 3601 South Congress Avenue 7. Draft Pick 1620 East Riverside, #1618 8. Snack Bar 1224 South Congress Avenue

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9. The Buzz Mill 1505 Town Creek Boulevard 10. Gibson Street Bar 1109 South Lamar Blvd

BREW PUBS 11. Uncle Billy’s G 1530 Barton Springs Road 12. Kamala Brewing/Whip In G 1950 South IH-35 13. Austin Beer Garden Brewing G 1305 West Oltorf Street

BREWERIES 14. (512) Brewing Co. 407 Radam Lane, F200 15. Independence Brewing Co. 3913 Todd Lane

16. South Austin Brewing Co. 415 East Saint Elmo Road, Suite 1D

STORES 17. Thom’s Market 1418 Barton Springs Road 18. Central Market G 4477 South Lamar Boulevard 19. Spec’s, Brodie Lane 4978 West Highway 290 20. Live Oak Market 4410 Manchaca Road 21. South Lamar Wine and Spirits 2418 South Lamar Boulevard 22. Growler Room South G 2400 East Oltorf Street, Suite 6A 23. Which Craft 2418 South Lamar Boulevard G = growler fills

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

(512) Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407 Radam Lane Austin, TX 78745 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . .Saturdays with RSVP GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . No, samples only BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.512brewing.com

Kevin Brand moved back to Austin from California in early 2008 to start the brewery and began brewing beer that summer. Brand’s initial lineup was the Wit, Pale, and IPA, but quickly added the Pecan Porter to the year round line up after the enormous reception it received as the first winter seasonal. Currently (512)’s beers are only available on draft but they have had some special releases in bottles.

BEER SAMPLING (512) IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA (512) Pale Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale (512) Pecan Porter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Porter (512) Wit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wit or white beer

WE RECOMMEND Pecan Porter, IPA, Pale Ale

Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . 1305 West Oltorf Street Austin, TX 78704 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . Varied, check website Closed Mondays GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.theabgb.com

Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. (ABGB) swung wide their doors in late 2013 and have been steadily supplying their south Lamar hood and beyond with tasty brewed beverages and pies like old pros. And that’s because this establishment is run by some old stalwarts of Austin brewing lore. Amos Lowe and Brian “Swifty” Peters, co-brewers and founders, work tirelessly to keep the suds a flowing.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Big Mama Red. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Hoppy Red Ale Day Trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pale Ale Hell Yes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Helles Lager Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . German Pilsner

Hell Yes, Big Mama Red, Industry

WBADPP NOT your everyday eye exam

UP NEXT: (512) SEVEN debuting at our 7th Anniversary Party Oct. 24th! SMaSH #2 – Simcoe / Bruin / Dubbel / Cascabel Cream Stout

512brewing.com

AVAILABLE THIS NOVEMBER

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Independence Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3913 Todd Lane Austin, TX 78744 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thu 5–9pm, Fri 4–9pm, Sat 12–6pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . .www.independencebrewing.com

Husband and wife Rob and Amy Cartwright started Independence Brewing Co. in south Austin in 2004, but were active members of the ATX brewing community long before. Since opening, Independence has created a local niche for themselves by packaging the Oklahoma Suks bottles (NOW IN CANS!) every fall for the UT vs. OU game. They have recently expanded to a 60-barrel JV Northwest brewhouse and expanded their regular lineup to include several new beers packaged in cans.

BEER SAMPLING Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout. . . . . Oatmeal Stout Power & Light Pale Ale. . . . American Pale Ale Stash IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA

WE RECOMMEND Power & Light, Stash IPA

Kamala Brewing at the Whip In INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1950 South IH-35 Austin, TX 78704 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10am–12am GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.kamalabrewing.com

Born a simple family owned convenience store on the frontage of I-35, Whip In was not content to live its days out that way. After becoming one of the top bottle shops in Austin, they slowly crept tap by delicious tap to becoming one of the largest draft and Texas-brewed beer selections in town. And now, they are home to Kamala Brewing.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Bitterama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spiced ESB Lakshmi Hefe . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spiced Wheat Ale Parvati Pale Ale . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale Shiva Milk Stout . . . . . . Barrel-Aged Milk Stout

Bitterama, Parvati Pale Ale

South Austin Brewery INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . .415 East Saint Elmo Road Austin, TX 78745 DRINKING HOURS. . Fri 5:30–10pm, Sat 2–9pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . .www.southaustinbrewery.com

Parked in the same neighborhood as Independence and (512) breweries, South Austin Brewery started producing Belgian-style ales in 2012. Changes have been afoot in south Austin. The brewery has recently redesigned their taproom and expanded their beer lineup beyond the original two classic Belgians to include everyday drinking beers now packaged in 16oz tallboys. Groovy.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

6 String Saison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Saison Evel Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blonde Ale Kol’Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kölsch-Style Ale TPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale

TPA

Uncle Billy’s Brewery INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . 1530 Barton Springs Road Austin, TX 78704 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . .Sun–Thu 11am–12am, Fri & Sat 11am–1am GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.unclebillysaustin.com

Texas is BBQ heaven. Austin is Texas Craft Beer heaven. Put them together and you get Uncle Billy’s Brewery and Smokehouse. Uncle Billy’s is the ideal spot after a day of festivaling at Zilker Park or cooling off at the springs. Brewers keep on the Austin staple Green Room IPA while mixing in a constant rotation of beers with an emphasis on hoppy ales and sessionable lagers.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Barton Springs Pale Ale. . . American Pale Ale Freakadella Amber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Ale Green Room IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Lazy Day Lager. . . . . . . . . . . . . American Lager

Barton Springs Pale Ale, Green Room IPA

COME Half Cajun Half TexMex Half Southern 3 ,!-!2

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BARS & RESTAURANTS 1. Mister Tramps 8565 Research Boulevard 2. Alamo Drafthouse, Village 2700 West Anderson Lane 3. Pour House Pub 6701 Burnet Road 4. Billy’s on Burnet 2105 Hancock Drive 5. Hopdoddy Burger Bar, Anderson 2438 West Anderson Lane 6. Drink.Well. 207 East 53rd Street 7. Workhorse Bar 100 North Loop Boulevard East 8. C. Hunt’s Ice House 9611 Mcneil Road

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BREW PUBS 9. Pinthouse Pizza G 4729 Burnet Road 10. North By Northwest (NXNW) G 10010 N Capital of TX Highway 11. Black Star Co-op G 7020 Easy Wind Drive

BREWERIES 12. Circle Brewing Co. 2340 West Braker Lane 13. Austin Beerworks 3009 Industrial Terrace 14. Adelbert’s Brewery 2314 Rutland Drive, Ste 100 15. 4th Tap Brewing Co-op 10615 Metric Boulevard

STORES 16. Whole Foods Market, Gateway 9607 Research Boulevard 17. Specs, Arbor Walk 10515 N Mopac Expwy 18. Sunrise Mini Mart 1809 West Anderson Lane 19. Specs, Airport Boulevard 5775 Airport Boulevard 20. Austin Homebrew Supply 9129 Metric Boulevard 21. King Liquor 5310 Burnet Road 22. Growler Room G 6800 Burnet Road, Suite 2 23. Whole Foods Market, Domain G 11920 Domain Drive G = growler fills

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

4th Tap Brewing Co-op INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . .10615 Metric Boulevard Austin, TX 78758 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TBT GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.4thtap.coop

At press time 4th Tap Brewing Co-op is on the verge of opening the first 100% workerowned cooperative brewery in Texas. No, it is not the same as Black Star. Black Star is member-owned, 4th Tap is worker-owned. If the difference is lost on you, no worries, you can still enjoy their beers. Similar to Black Star, they are starting with a handful of unique beers, like the Tamarind Wheat Ale.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Long Walk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grapefruit IPA Renewal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tamarind Wheat Ale Sun Eater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sorghum Ale

Long Walk, Renewal

Adelbert’s Brewery INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . .2314 Rutland Drive #100 Austin, TX 78758 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . Wed–Fri 5–10pm, Sat 1–4pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.adelbertsbeer.com

In 2010, Scott Hovey was ripe for a midlife career change and when he looked for inspiration, he found it in the eclectic and exciting life of his deceased older brother, Adelbert. Adelbert’s is a tribute to George Adelbert Hovey (1953–2000). Scott was introduced to the complexities and flavor possibilities in bottle conditioned aged Belgian beers at the 2010 Craft Brewers Conference. He returned and set out to start Austin’s first all Belgian-style bottle and keg conditioned brewery, aptly named after his older brother.

BEER SAMPLING Philosophizer . . . . . . . . . . Belgian-Style Saison Tripel B. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Belgian-Style Tripel Ale Scratchin’ Hippo . .Belgian-Style Biere de Garde

WE RECOMMEND Scratchin’ Hippo, Philosophizer

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Austin Beerworks INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . 3009 Industrial Terrace Austin, TX 78758 DRINKING HOURS . . . Thu 5–9pm, Fri 5–11pm, Sat & Sun 1–7pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.austinbeerworks.com

Austin Beerworks is a collection of four friends spanning from the East coast to Austin, united and “hell-bent on excellence” in beer making. The beerworkers, Michael, Will, Adam, and Mike, have raised an impressive production brewery and cannery in the northwest sector of town since April 2011. With their regular lineup of four beers—including 2014 GABF silver medal winner Fire Eagle IPA—the four friends have come storming out of the gates and onto the Austin beer scene.

BEER SAMPLING Black Thunder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Schwarzbier Heavy Machinery . . . . . . . . .Rotating IPA Series Peacemaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . @anytimeale Pearl Snap German Pils. . . . . German Pilsner

WE RECOMMEND Heavy Machinery, Peacemaker, Pearl Snap

Black Star Co-op INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . .7020 Easy Wind Drive Austin, TX 78752 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . Mon 4pm–12am, Tue–Thu 11am–12am Fri & Sat 11am–1am, Sun 11am–12am GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . Yes, limited draft URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.blackstar.coop

Black Star Co-op is the first known cooperatively-run/owned brew pub in the world with members from across the globe. Monthly beer socials, starting in 2006, provided an outlet for recruiting new members and grew to host up to 500 members at each gathering. Black Star Co-op encapsulates everything Austin with an emphasis on local producers and community action, all through enjoyment of local beer.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING High Esteem . . . . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale Vulcan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Recalcitrant Dockhand . . . . . . . . Robust Porter

WE RECOMMEND Vulcan, Recalcitrant Dockhand

HOUSE BREWED BEER

TEXAS INSPIRED PUB FARE

LOCALLY SOURCED INGREDIENTS

COMMUNITY OWNED

WORKER SELF-MANAGED

LIVING WAGES AND BENEFITS FOR ALL

Black Star Co-op is the world’s first cooperatively-owned and worker self-managed brewpub.

Better together. Black Star Co-op.

7020 Easy Wind Dr.

blackstar.coop

Austin, TX

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Circle Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . 2340 West Braker Lane, Suite B Austin, TX 78758 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fri 5–8pm Sat & Sun 1–5pm, Occasional open houses GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.circlebrewing.com

Circle Brewing appeared on the internet beer rumor mill in the second half of 2008. Fast forward two years, Ben Sabel and Jud Mulherin were brewing their first batches of beer for Austin. Circle brews their beer following the Reinheitsgebot, the German purity law from 1516. Their basic philosophy to make beer “with only the best ingredients and NONE of the other stuff.” You can now find some of their year-round beer in bottles in a large circumference around Austin.

BEER SAMPLING Blur Texas Hefe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hefeweizen Envy Amber Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Ale Hop Overboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Session IPA Nightlight Irish Stout . . . . . . . . . Dry Irish Stout

WE RECOMMEND Nightlight Irish Stout, Hop Overboard

Inn and Occasions Gather and Make Memories www.TippingT.com

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

North by Northwest INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION #1. . . . . . 10010 Capital of TX Hwy N LOCATION #2. . . . . . . . . 5701 W Slaughter Lane DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . Varied, check website GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.nxnwbrew.com

North by Northwest is Austin’s oldest and most upscale brew pub and offers a complete menu, with the restaurant itself driving many people to the establishment. Identifiable by the grain silo out front, the feel is very “Northwest lodge,” rounded out by stone, wood and a fireplace. They have recently branched out and opened NXNW2 in south Austin with a similar food menu, atmosphere and beer portfolio but with additional bar and outdoor seating.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING Bavarian Hefeweizen . . . . . . . . . . . Hefeweizen Black Hop Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Black IPA Duckabush Amber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Ale Porch Time Pilsner . . . . German-style Pilsner Sunbreak IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA

WE RECOMMEND Porch Time Pilsner, Sunbreak IPA

Pinthouse Pizza INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION #1. . . . . . . . . . . . . .4729 Burnet Road LOCATION #2. . .4236 South Lamar Boulevard* DRINKING HOURS . . . . .Sun–Wed 11am–11pm, Thu–Sat 11am–12am GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.pinthousepizza.com

Pinthouse Pizza opened to much anticipation in the fall of 2012, on the cusp of Austin Beer Week. Following California’s Pizza Port model, the brew pub slings beers from the bar, and pizzas from the counter in the beer hall-esque atmosphere. Head brewer Joe Mohrfeld brews a solid line up of staple beers, along with a series of special releases and experimental IPA series. Go for the pizza, stay for the beer. Keep an eye out this year for their second location on South Lamar.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING Best Coast IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Blind Jake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American Porter Calma Muerta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Session Ale Iron Genny. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pale Ale Man O’ War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA

WE RECOMMEND Best Coast IPA, Blind Jake, Man O’ War *At press time second location had not opened. But they were damn close.

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12 13 BARS & RESTAURANTS 1. Alamo Drafthouse, Slaughter Lane 5701 West Slaughter Lane 2. The Dig Pub G 401 Cypress Creek Road, Cedar Park 3. Opal Divine’s, Marina 12709 Mopac & Parmer Lane 4. BB Rover’s Cafe & Pub 12636 Research Boulevard 5. Westside Alehouse 1500 N IH-35, Round Rock 6. A lamo Drafthouse, Lakeline / Glass Half Full Taproom 14028 U.S. 183 7. Hanover’s Draught Haus 108 East Main Street, Pflugerville 8. The Brass Tap 204 East Main Street, Round Rock

16 26 27

13. Middleton Brewing G 101 Oakwood Loop, San Marcos 14. Pecan Street Brewing G 106 East Pecan Drive, Johnson City 15. Smoke’n Hops G 3799 U.S. 290, Dripping Springs 16. Faust Brewing Co. 240 S. Seguin Ave., New Braunfels 17. Red Horn Coffee House and Brewing Co. G 13010 West Parmer Lane, Ste 800, Cedar Park

RUOY TEG

REEBXEMXET# NO

BREW PUBS 9. Flix Brewhouse / HomeField Grill G 2000 S IH-35, Round Rock 10. Double Horn Brewing Co. G 208 Avenue H, Marble Falls 11. The Barber Shop G 207 Mercer Street, Dripping Springs 12. Wimberley Brewing Co. G 9595 Ranch Road 12, Wimberley

BREWERIES 18. Solid Rock Brewing 2214 Bee Creek Road, Spicewood 19. Jester King Brewery 13005 Fitzhugh Road 20. Thirsty Planet Brewing Co. 11160 Circle Drive 21. Infamous Brewing Co. 4602 Weletka Drive 22. Twisted X Brewing Co. 23455 West RR 150, Dripping Springs 23. Rogness Brewing Co. 2400 Patterson Industrial Drive, Pflugerville 24. Real Ale Brewing Co. 231 San Saba Ct, Blanco

25. Save The World Brewing Co. 1510 Resource Pkwy. Marble Falls 26. New Braunfels Brewing Co. 180 West Mill St, New Braunfels 27. Guadalupe Brewing Co. 1580 Wald Road, New Braunfels 28. Oasis, TX Brewing Co. 6550 Comanche Trail 29. Bindlestick Brewing Co. 1309 Leander Dr, Unit 504, Leander 30. Bluebonnet Beer Co. 1700 Bryant Dr #107, Round Rock 31. Bull Creek Brewing Co. 7100 FM3405, Liberty Hill 32. Strange Land Brewery 5904 Bee Cave Road 33. Ironsight Brewers 3200 Woodall Drive, Cedar Park G = growler fills 34. Rentsch Brewery 2500 NE Inner Loop, Georgetown

STORES 35. Hamrick’s Market 401 Cypress Creek Road, Cedar Park 36. Pecan Liquor 1912 West Pecan Street, #205, Pflugerville

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Bindlestick Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . .1309 Leander Drive, #504 Leander, TX 78641 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . Fri and Sat 6–8pm Reserve via Facebook GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.bindlestickbeer.com

What the hell is a bindlestick? It’s those things hobos carried around with which to hold all of their earthly possessions. It is used as a symbol to represent a bygone era in America, primarily pre-prohibition. And that is what Bindlestick Brewing is shooting for, ales and lagers in the pre-prohibition vein. But with a bit of a modern Texas twist. At time of press they’d not started distributing, but by the time you are reading this they probably will be.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Candy Mountain IPA . . . . . . . . . . American IPA Chimney Stack. . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale Monkey Wagon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Ale

Candy Mountain IPA, Chimney Stack

Bluebonnet Beer Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . 1700 Bryant Drive, #107 Round Rock, TX 78664 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . Fri & Sat 5–8pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . www.bluebonnetbeerco.com

Bluebonnet Beer Co., owned by David and Clare Hulama, started brewing in Round Rock in late 2014. This was after they quit their jobs at Dell. When you have homebrew cred like David and Clare do, it is a pretty safe bet to Office Space it and peace out. Like Twisted X, they built their brewery in a small industrial park. Just before the new year, they opened up their taproom on Fridays and Saturdays—serving up their four year-round beers and one or two seasonal/ special beers.

BEER SAMPLING American Amber Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Ale American IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Cream Ale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cream Ale Texas Pecan Brown Ale . . . . . . . . . . .Brown Ale

WE RECOMMEND American IPA, Texas Pecan Brown Ale

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Bull Creek Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7100 FM 3405 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Most Saturdays 11am–4pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.bullcreekbrewing.com

Bull Creek has been brewing small batches since 2011 and distributing in small amounts. In 2014 they began a major brewery expansion and plan to distribute to a larger area in 2015. The are located in Liberty Hill, outside Georgetown and are currently only doing private tours and tastings via RSVP from their website and Facebook.

BEER SAMPLING

Iron Balls

WE RECOMMEND

Iron Balls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Imperial Stout Longhorn Blonde. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blonde Ale Tommy Raj . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American IPA

Guadalupe Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1580 Wald Road New Braunfels, TX 78132 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Coming soon, check website GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.guadalupebrew.com

After trips to Europe and the Northwest, Keith Kilker and his wife Anna were inspired to start their own brewery. The first step was studying at Siebel’s Brewing Technology program and a stint at a Colorado brew pub. They opened their brewery in 2011 with their honey ale as their flagship beer, made with locally sourced honey. More beers followed and distribution began to Austin and the rest of Central Texas.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Americano Wheat Ale. . . American Wheat Ale Rye Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . America Rye IPA Scotch Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scotch Ale Texas Honey Ale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Honey Ale

Rye Ale, Scotch Ale

Infamous Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4602 Weletka Drive Austin, TX 78734 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . Wed & Thu 5–9pm, Fri 4–9pm, Sat 1–9pm, Sun 1–5pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.infamousbrewing.com

Josh Horowitz, and brewer Matt Bitsche left various career backgrounds to start Infamous Brewing Co. in Austin and got the wheels rolling for Infamous in June of 2012. In less than a they year got their brewhouse up and running. Infamous came on the scene in spring 2013 with their take on a cream ale and an IPA, with other seasonal and special releases coming soon after. They began canning their year-round beers in late 2013. In 2015 they partnered with Grapevine Craft Brewery (in Grapevine) to use excess capacity under Alternating Proprietorship.

BEER SAMPLING Bugsy’s Fire Brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Ale Hijack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cream Ale IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Sweep the Leg . . . . . . . . . . Peanut Butter Stout

WE RECOMMEND IPA, Sweep the Leg

Ironsight Brewers INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3200 Woodall Drive Cedar Park, TX 78641 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fri 5–9pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.ironsightbrewers.com

Remember that little brewery in Cedar Park where Twisted X started? Well, Ironsight Brewers have taken up residence there. Robert Chaney was a serious homebrewer and decided to dive into the abandoned space with brotherin-law turned business partner, Grady Reynolds. They opened in September with plans to keg and can their beers. Initial offerings will be primarily available in the north Austin area. As the business grows keep an eye out for their tap handles and six packs throughout Austin.

BEER SAMPLING Amber Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Ale Cream Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cream Ale Pale Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale White IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . White IPA

WE RECOMMEND Pale Ale, White IPA

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Jester King Brewery INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13187 Fitzhugh Road Austin, TX 78736 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Fri 4–10pm, Sat 12–10pm, Sun 12–6pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . www.jesterkingbrewery.com

Ambitious from the start, the brothers made their commercial debut with a session beer, wearing the moniker Commercial Suicide. It was anything but. They have since transitioned this beer, along with their original lineup, to farmhouse versions, followed by a very popular series of sour barrel-aged creations, and most recently ventured into sour beer and fermented (and re-fermented) fruit blends starting with the raspberry Atrial Rubicite, the strawberry Omniscience & Proselytism, La Vie en Rose, Provenance, Detritivore, and the oyster mushroom and sea salt Snorkel. The tasting room at the brewery is most often the best place to find and grab their latest beers.

BEER SAMPLING Atrial Rubicite . . . . . . . . .Raspberry Sour Beer Black Metal . . . . . . . Farmhouse Imperial Stout Le Petite Prince . . . . . . Farmhouse Table Beer Noble King. . . . . . . . . . . . Hoppy Farmhouse Ale Wytchmaker . . . . . . . . . . . . Farmhouse Rye IPA

WE RECOMMEND #greenbottles, Atrial Rubicite

Last Stand Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. .12345 Pauls Valley Road, Building I Austin, TX 78737 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . .Sat & Sun 1–6pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.laststandbrewing.com

Kerry and Mandi Richardson, with partner Mignonne Gros, quit their day jobs to chase their homebrew dreams. The end of that rainbow led them to a pleasant lot in Driftwood, near Argus, Revolution Spirits, and Jester King, where they brew their clean, balanced, well made take on American style craft beers. Go for the beers, but stay for the outdoor beer garden.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

BPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Belgian Pale Ale Coffee Porter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Coffee Porter IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American IPA Pale Ale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale

Coffee Porter, BPA

Middleton Brewing INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

CURRENT LOCATION. . . . . . 101 Oakwood Loop San Marcos, TX 78666 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . .Thu & Fri 2–10pm, Sat 12–10pm, Sun 12–7pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . www.middletonbrewingtx.com

The Middletons hail from the sunny state of California. They brought with them, like many other West Coast brewers, a love for the HOP. In addition to hoppy monsters, they specialize in subtle Belgian-style ales. They have recently moved into their new facility in San Marcos.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND Bobcat Red, Easy Rider Pale

Black Lab Porter . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robust Porter Bobcat Red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Imperial Red Ale Easy Rider Pale Ale. . . . . . . American Pale Ale Limestone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Belgian-Style IPA Topaz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Belgian-Style Tripel

New Braunfels Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 West Mill Street New Braunfels, TX 78130 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . Varied, check website GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.nbbrewing.com

Founded in 2011, New Braunfels Brewing Co. recently underwent changes with a new head brewer and equipment. They focus primarily on wheat beer, but throw in a sour or two when their fancy strikes. Ingrained in the local community, their facility and taproom is located in the historic downtown and open for regular “hoppy hours” as well as whenever they feel like throwing the doors open. So stop by if you’re a gambling man.

BEER SAMPLING Erdeweiss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dunkelweizen Luftweiss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hefeweizen Shivas Tears. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Weizenbock Waserweiss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Berliner Weisse

WE RECOMMEND Luftweiss, Waserweiss

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Oasis, TX Brewing Co. INFO LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6550 Comanche Trail Austin, TX 78732 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thu 5–10pm, Fri 2pm–12am, Sat 12pm–12am, Sun 12–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . .www.oasistexasbrewingcompany.com

BEER SAMPLING

BREWERY SNAPSHOT Oasis, TX Brewing Co. is located out in the enclave of Oasis, TX, just west of Austin overlooking Lake Travis. Brewer Spencer Telekemier brews up tasty session beers including a well-made pale ale and keller pilsner. Watch for their special Lake Monster releases throughout the year and treat your eyes and taste buds to a favor and hit up the scenic tasting room on the weekends.

WE RECOMMEND Meta Modern, Slow Ride Pale Ale

London Homesick Ale. . . . . . English-Style Ale Luchesa Lager. . . . . . German-Style Kellerbier Meta Modern. . . . . . . . . . American Session IPA Slow Ride Pale Ale. . . . . . . . American Pale Ale

Real Ale Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 San Saba Court Blanco, TX 78606 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . .Thu–Sat 11am–5pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.realalebrewing.com

One of the oldest breweries in central Texas, Real Ale has been in operation since 1996. The brewery originally operated out of a basement of an antique shop in Blanco (50 minutes outside Austin). In 1998, current owner Brad Farbstein took over. Real Ale moved just outside the downtown area in 2006 to a new facility, where they are currently located. In March they opened their new tasting room and added Thursday and Saturday hours.

BEER SAMPLING 4-Squared . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blonde Ale (Squared) Fireman’s #4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blonde Ale Full Moon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rye IPA Hans’ Pils. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . German Pilsner Rio Blanco Pale Ale . . . . . . . American Pale Ale

WE RECOMMEND Full Moon, Hans’ Pils

NEW 22 OZ. BOMBERS

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Rogness Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . 2400 Patterson Industrial Drive Pflugerville, TX 78660 DRINKING HOURS. . . . Thu 6–10pm, Fri 4–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.rognessbrewing.com

Rogness has been pumping out beers in Pflugerville ever since this project was kickstarted in 2012. And they do it without too much concern over style guidelines or popular “safe bet” beers. With the ethos of a homebrewer, Rogness aims to change it up—and keep it interesting—while delivering high quality brewed beers. Year-round and seasonal beers are on draft or in 22oz bottles around town, but if you swing by their tours you’ll get to try out the latest small batch concoctions they’re testing.

BEER SAMPLING Beardy Guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Biere de Garde Bella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Belgian-Style Golden Ale Boomslang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . India Pale Lager Titanoboa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Triple IPA Yogi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chai Spiced Amber

WE RECOMMEND Bella, Boomslang, Rattler

Rentsch Brewery INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2500 NE Inner Loop Georgetown, TX 78626 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . .Fri 4–8pm, Sat 12–8pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.rentschbeer.com

Homebrewing is a great hobby. It’s even a better hobby when you can enjoy it with your family members. Andrew (son) and David (father) Rentschler were just hobbyist until Andrew’s travels in Europe. Imagine the number of brewery ideas that come from getting drunk in Europe.This father and son brewing company was not just some drunken dream though. They are now the first brewery in Georgetown. Stop in for a beer and to compare passport stamps.

BEER SAMPLING Hefeweizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hefeweizen IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kölsch-Style Ale Weizenbock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Weizenbock

WE RECOMMEND Hefeweizen, IPA

Save The World Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . 1510 Resource Parkway Marble Falls, TX 78654 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . Fri 3–6pm, Sat 1–6pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . www.savetheworldbrewing.com

Save the World is nestled cozily out west in Marble Falls and brew up a unique portfolio of Belgian-inspired ales. The beer stands on its own, but the exceptional aspect to this brewery is that they are 100% philanthropic and giving away all the proceeds to international, national, and local charities. Former physicians, husband and wife owners Dave and Quynh Rathkamp hung up their stethoscopes in 2012 and donned brewers’ boots in early 2014.

BEER SAMPLING Agnus Dei. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Belgian-Style Witbier Froctum Bonum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saison Ale Humilus Filius . . . . . . . . Belgian-Style Pale Ale

WE RECOMMEND Agnus Dei, Froctum Bonum

Solid Rock Brewing INFO LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2214 Bee Creek Road Spicewood, TX 78669 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . Fri & Sat 4–8pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.solidrockbrewing.com

BEER SAMPLING

BREWERY SNAPSHOT Like so many breweries, Solid Rock is born out of a passion for homebrewing. Solid Rock was established in 2013 by three homebrewing friends: Curt Webber, Steve Jones, and Stephen McCarthy. They are shooting to create beers that are drinkable, refreshing, and even familiar. As they say in their mission statement, “We brew our beers to fit like your favorite pair of jeans.”

WE RECOMMEND Big Drought Stout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dry Stout Cho’Sen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Hybrid Ale Cornerstone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cream Ale Dauntless IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Roundhead Red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Irish Red Ale

Roundhead Red, Dauntless IPA

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Strange Land Brewery INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5904 Bee Cave Road Austin, TX 78746 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . .Fri & Sat 5–9pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . www.strangelandbrewery.com

Like most breweries, time lines for opening are always optimistic, but bureaucracy usually gets in the way. But Strange Land is finally open for business. And thank God, because the burger brewery jokes were growing a little thin. Located behind the Hat Creek in southwest Austin (Westlake), Strange Land is brewing up an eclectic mix of brews. Stop by on a Friday or Saturday to sample their year-round and specialty beers. It’s small, but quite nice.

BEER SAMPLING Alemannia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Altbier Entire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Porter Ploughshare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saison Sanctum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Belgian-Style Dubbel

WE RECOMMEND Entire, Ploughshare

Thirsty Planet Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11160 Circle Drive Austin, TX 78736 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . .Saturdays 11am–3pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.thirstyplanet.net

Following college graduation, Brian Smittle moved to Colorado where he volunteered at the Hubcap Brewery in Vail at night. He soon became a paid employee and full-time brewer. Through his work there, he met some college students who offered him an ownership piece of a brew pub in Oklahoma. They opened in 1993 and grew to include a brewery and four satellite stores. Later he decided to escape the restaurant side of things and open a full production brewery in Austin—Thirsty Planet Brewing Co.

BEER SAMPLING Buckethead IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Thirsty Goat Amber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Ale Yellow Armadillo Wheat . . . .American Wheat

WE RECOMMEND Buckethead IPA, Thirsty Goat

Because a lampshade doesn't hold hops.

www.thirstyplanet.net

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Twisted X Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . 23455 West Ranch Road 150 Dripping Springs, TX 78620 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . .Mon–Thu 1–8pm, Fri & Sat 11am–9pm, Sun 12–6pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.texmexbeer.com

Established in 2011 in Cedar Park, Twisted X is now situated in Dripping Springs. With a Tex-Mex theme they are bound to quench the thirsts of a large swath of Austin beer drinkers. Austinites love Tex-Mex. Austinites love beer. Tex-Mex beer? Forget about it, a match made in heaven. Could a pico-degallo beer be in the works? Let’s hope so. Mole Porter—that’s the ticket!

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND Fuego, Señor Viejo

Cow Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vienna (Dark) Lager Chupahopra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American IPA Fuego . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jalapeño Pilsner Señor Viejo . .Barrel-aged Imperial Schwarzbier

Barber Shop

Double Horn Brewing Co.

INFO

INFO

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207 Mercer Street Dripping Springs, TX 78620 GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.barbershopbar.com

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .208 Avenue H Marble Falls, TX 78654 GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . www.doublehornbrewing.com

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

The Barber Shop is another testament to the iron will of homebrewers. With an emphasis on the “bar” in Barber Shop, they left the historical building’s name the same, while sprucing up the inside with a lush wood bar, rustic amenities and a strategically occupied tap wall. Brewer John McIntosh intends to focus on English pub ales.

Double Horn, the first and only brew pub in Burnet County, is seated right off 281 in Marble Falls. Frustrated by the lack of quality beer, food, and atmosphere to enjoy it in, owner Dusty Knight opened Double Horn in 2011. Knight and head brewer Eric Casey have made it their mission to supply residents with quality house beers and local craft brews.

BREW PUBS (NON-DISTRIBUTING)

Faust Brewing Co.

Flix Brewhouse

INFO

INFO

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . 240 South Seguin Avenue New Braunfels, TX 78130 GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.faustbrewing.com

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2200 South IH-35 Round Rock, TX 78681 GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.flixbrewhouse.com

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

Housed in the historic Faust Hotel in New Braunfels, Faust Brewing is the perfect place to tell your designated driver to have a few with you. It’s better than your favorite stumble in, stumble out joint. No need to stumble anywhere, because you are already there. Drink Faust’s tasty house beers and go upstairs. Goodnight.

How many movie theatres have a brewhouse in their front window? Just one. You might even catch brewmaster Justin Rizza brewing up something tasty as you rush in for the latest Hunger Games flick. Drink from their six year-round and four seasonal house taps or one their 30+ guest taps.

Pecan Street Brewing INFO LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 East Pecan Drive Johnson City, TX 78636 BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . .www.pecanstreetbrewing.com

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT Pecan Street resides in a space formerly occupied by the town hardware store, in Johnson City’s historic town square. Owners Tim and Patty Elliott, with their head brewer and son Sean, aim to make the brew pub the town gathering center that the hardware store once was. Their house beers and guest taps are complimented by head chef John Yachimski’s eclectic brick oven pizza, salad, and burger menu.

BREW PUBS (NON-DISTRIBUTING)

Smoke’n Hops INFO LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3799 U.S. 290 Dripping Springs, TX 78620 GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.smokehops.com

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT Smoke’n Hops is Dripping Spring’s newest brew pub, bringing more BBQ and fresh beer to our Hill Country playground. They boast pit style BBQ, fresh craft beer, and a welcoming outdoor atmosphere complete with picnic tables and a playscape for the kids (extra points!). They currently have a pale ale and porter brewed on their one-barrel pilot system which they hope to upgrade to a seven-barrel system soon.

Red Horn +WЄ MM 0W][M and Brewing Co. INFO LOCATION. .13010 West Parmer Lane, Suite 800 Cedar Park, TX 78613 GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.redhornbrew.com

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT Opened in early 2015, Red Horn concentrates on fresh brewed beer and fresh roasted coffee. They are a full on brew pub now, brewing house made beer. Stop in for a pick me up or a knock me down. Anything you are looking for, they go it. A small menu of food is also available.

Wimberley Brewing Co. INFO LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9595 Ranch Road 12 Wimberley, TX 78676 GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . .www.wimberleybrewingcompany.com

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT The real name for this place is Brewster’s Pizza and Wimberley Brewing Company. As you walk into Wimberley you will notice there are a lot of kids running around. Actually, they’re not running around, they’re working. This is a true family business, run by the Collies. Try the spinach pizza.

LAST CALL

Eli Stockwell of Pinthouse Pizza FAVORITE SHIFT BEER I think I have too many go-to’s to call it a go-to, but typically my favorite mainstay is Iron Genny. One pint of Man o’ War has the ability to put me over the edge even before a beer at Draught House, so a slightly less potent pale ale is a better “first” beverage to ease into that BAC. WEIRDEST/CRAZIEST LAST CALL EXPERIENCE

BIGGEST WALKED TAB Oddly enough, the industry friends who drink discounted beers seem to rack up and abandon pretty steep tabs. Not naming any names, but some might even own Pinthouse Pizza. It’s Kyle. Definitely Kyle. LAST CALL CEREMONIES I once tried to do last call over the microphone and broke into an awkward laugh followed by a strangely intense sounding “I can’t do this.” So now I keep it simple and tell the few stragglers they’ve got fifteen minutes before I yank their

beers. We [need to] start sweeping about thirty minutes before the lights come on, so usually people understand. LAST CALL BEER RECOMMENDATIONS Depending on the state of the customer—er, guest—I’m recommending Calma Muerta (easy, buddy) or Fully Adrift (make it count!). CLOSING TIME SONG We somehow got into the routine of playing Riff Raff’s Party McHardy, though now Danzig or death metal are more effective and less-liked by our patrons. HARDEST CUSTOMER TO GET OUT The ones who like death metal. Also, I’ve got to make a shout out to the Dream Team: Leo, Dave, and Mr. Valverde. Y'all are famous now.

Photo: Tyler Malone

The crazy is so toned down at Pinthouse, since we close earlier and have a fairly norm-core kind of crowd. Beer people tend to be pretty reasonable, usually agreeing that yes, they shouldn’t have another beer. Maybe that’s the weirdest thing: how not weird last call tends to be for us. Is that boring? Are you still reading? Cool.

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