Austin Beer Guide - Winter 2017

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Opal Divine’s has been serving craft beer in Austin since before craft beer was cool. Come see us Wednesdays for $3 TEXAS PINTS from open to close!

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Contents

FROM THE EDITORS

As I sat down to pen this I thought, “what could we say that we didn’t already say last year?” See, this issue always comes out as we’re reflecting on the past 12 months, and not always just on the beer.

Well, looking back through the archives, we didn’t talk too much about a dreadful 2016 or fears for what may lie ahead. Maybe we were hopeful. Or maybe just drunk.

Well, now we’re here to wrap up 2017. Oof. What do we say? Well, maybe we don’t say anything at all.

Don’t harp on it. At least not here. You’ll get plenty of that in your Twitter and Facebook feeds. Because we’ve got beer. So let’s celebrate it. The best of it, in fact (p. 17). This year’s Best Of winners sees a few familiar faces that continue to help shine national light on the Austin beer scene while also welcoming some fresh blood that are quickly making names for themselves.

A few of those winners fall into what we call the “hyper-local” brewery/brew pub, a concept (and the future of Austin breweries) we explore in this issue’s feature “Won’t You Be(er) My Neighbor” (p. 28). With all there is to worry about today, having to go far for a beer isn’t one of them as more and more neighborhood-focused, limited distribution, top tier pubs are popping up around town as largescale, mass distribution brewery openings slow. This issue’s Over a Pint spotlight on Southern Heights (p. 12) even falls into the former category.

We also look back on some of the year’s high points, like the sweat-drenched Lager Jam (p. 8) and Texas’ Historic GABF haul (p. 40), catch some waves on a tubular Beer and Loathing (p. 42), get a peek at what’s fermenting behind the lens in a non-brewer Brewer’s Brain from Facebook profile pic artist Tyler Malone (p. 10), and hear what it’s like closing up shop at Zilker (p. 92).

So find a barstool at your local, grab a beer (or two), start perusing, and forget about everything else for a few. We’ll see you around in 2018, one way or another. –JS Chris Troutman Aaron Chamberlain Josh Spradling Shawn Phillips

NEWS & BREWMORS .......................................02 FIESTA: LAGER JAM .......................................08 BREWER'S BRAIN .......................................10

OVER A PINT .......................................12

BEST OF 2017 .......................................17 ...BE(ER) MY NEIGHBOR .......................................28 GABF .......................................40

BEER & LOATHING .......................................42 TAPROOM SCHEDULE .......................................48 CENTRAL AUSTIN .......................................51

SOUTH AUSTIN .......................................59 NORTH AUSTIN .......................................67 GREATER AUSTIN .......................................75 OTHER CEN TX .......................................90 BREWERIES CIDER AND MEAD .......................................90

LAST CALL .......................................92 PROOFREADERS ....... Sofia Chamberlain, Sarah Spradling

Cover design: Josh Cockrell

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NEWS & BREWMORS

This is the News BREW & BREW & BREW PUB

NOW POURING

You may have heard the crew at Brew & Brew are opening the west side Better Half, a coffee, cocktails, beer, wine, cider and Texas diner-inspired kitchen, but what you probably didn’t know is they are also planning Hold Out Brewery, an adjacent brew pub. Located off west 5th street between Lamar and Mopac, the brew house will be manned by Real Ale head brewer veteran Brent “Schmitty” Sapstead. They’ll be focusing on “Austin” style lagers, very hop-forward pale ales that drink like IPAs, and “agriculture influenced” (but not farmhouse) creations while slinging flat top burgers. Check out more in this issue’s “Won’t You Be(er) my Neighbor” feature (p. 28).

Southern Heights is open, just not yet on Thursdays, which is a shame because they are bringing that #tbt feel to the nondescript light industrial warehouse brewery (and maybe by now they are open on Thursdays, so you know, check it out online). Starting off with clean American hopforward styles in a well-thought-out in-the-brewery tap room on the farther east side, these guys have been in semisecret planning for four plus years.

Learn more in Over a Pint (p. 12).

. . . TURN PAGE, MORE NEWS!—>

Brewmors

(brew·mor [broo-mer] 1. a beer related story or statement in general circulation without confirmation or certainty as to facts. 2. brewing gossip; hearsay. 3. Original #fakenews) ●

Family Business Beer Co. to make non-alcoholic “near-beer” for “Super Nuts,” which make up to 90% of their fan base, yet are all under 21 years old.

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Mid-tier breweries clamor for collaboration smoked beers with newly reopened Franklin Barbecue. Says Franklin, “those firefighters saved my business, maybe I can pay it forward and rescue someone else.”

Travis County Health Inspector enforces soon to open brewery, Skull Mechanix to post disclaimer they are in fact not a licensed medical facility nor are permitted to actually perform any brain or neuro procedures.

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. ●

Austin Beerworks collaborates with the Trump White House to brew 3% rice lager dubbed Rocket Man, a beer that lifts off but never gets you drunk.

New brewery Suds Monkey in talks with Viacom, Saban Entertainment, and Cartoon Network to spin off a new animated series based on their rebellious but lovable mascot, Suds. Ruggedman Brewery reportedly seeking similar deal for their own Ruggedman character.

Due to popularity of recent Hops & Grain IPA releases, founder Josh Hare announces he plans to change the name of beloved E 6th brewery to “Hops & Hops,” a more accurate reflection of their direction moving forward.

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Barber Shop is no longer brewing in Dripping Springs, but that’s because its sister brew pub Acopon, located just two doors down, opened this summer. Stop in for some fine traditional English ales, including a weekly rotating cask.

photo by alison narro

Giving tourists (or your drunk ass) another option for slamming pints before checking into their Airbnb/catching their flight, NLand Brewing Co. is now open at the surf park of the same name just east of the airport. No need to bring your trunks—you can grab a beer and snack without procuring a surf pass.

Oh, you can also learn more about them in Beer and Loathing (p. 42).

line. Look for cans FLYING off store shelves soon or FLY into their taproom whenever you are up north.

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If you know anyone who went to UT in the 90s, we don’t need to tell you that Celis Brewing is now open in the north brewery district.

Pouring that White, Pale Bock, Grand Cru, and Pierre’s favorite hazy IPA Citrus Grandis, they are ready to transport you back to Liberty Lunch/Dell boom/Slacker/toll road-free/sub $100k mortgage Austin you have only heard of.

Just an apple’s throw up the road on Metric, Fairweather Cider opened their doors on Thanksgiving weekend. Pop in on a weekend, located just next door to 4th Tap, to try their dry ciders, including one fermented with peppers. Look for distribution on tap now and in cans in the future.

You know who has a lot of breweries per capita?

San Marcos. You can take the Southwest out of Texas State but you can’t take the party ‘tude out of the school. Add Ruggedman Brewing to the list of breweries just south of Austin. With a lineup of two blondes, amber, stout, and IPA, and mantra to “drink the damn beer!,” just go and do whatever they say.

Pizza’d out at Jester King? The folks at Tipping T, an inn and glamping retreat located just outside Jester King, have opened an

While we may be more excited for other openings, we couldn’t be more happy for ORF! Brewing because, dammit, he did it! Distribution is limited so the best way to experience his off-the-wall brews is at the tap room. Go for the beer, make sure to leave with a shirt.

Flying Man Brewing Co. is now open in the former space of Rogness Brewing Co. They recently took possession of their new canning

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Acopon Photo: Acopon Facebook, Tipping T Photo: Tipping T Website

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Now open at The Domain! 11420 Rock Rose, 78758 • (512) 610 - 7600 • Walk in or call ahead

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Now open at The Domain! 11420 Rock Rose, 78758 • (512) 610 - 7600 • Walk in or call ahead Now open at The Domain! 11420 Rock Rose, 78758 • (512) 610 - 7600 • Walk in or call ahead 11/20/17 10:34 AM

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NEWS CONTINUED . . . eatery with locally sourced small plates, grilled cheeses, kids menu, and sweets. Go for the grub, stay for the shaded playground.

Sticking with the Hill Country, the aptly named Driftwood Tasting Room opened in November serving all Texas beer, wine, mead, and cider.

They’ll split their 16 taps between 3 rotating breweries so think of it as a constant tap takeover.

STILL PLANNING (AND MAYBE CLOSE) As of press time Highland’s Brewtorium weren’t brewing or open, but they were close.

Watch their regular social media updates for the latest status of when you can park in one of their 98 parking spaces and check out the beer, space, and food for yourself.

Vista Brewing, located on 21 acres in Driftwood and also future home of farm-totable restaurant, has hired its brewer. Josh Watterson comes to Texas from Brasserie St. James in Reno, NV, a past GABF Midsize Brew Pub of the Year. Gas up your tank and get ready for this “destination brewery” to be open sometime next year.

Another west of Austin brewery, Family Business Beer Co., is eying their 2018 opening with beers from former (512) head brewer Nate Seale. And if your kids are tiring of Saturday afternoon “play time” at Central Market, get ready to mix it up as they have a playscape to rival any this side of the Mississippi.

You may have read about Oddwood Ales for a while now in the hallowed pages of this guide, but it won’t be too much longer until you can enjoy their full lineup of beers as they get ever closer to opening their own location. They are anticipating a January opening, so we feel safe to say they will be open sometime in 2018, hopefully sooner rather than later for all you saison lovers out there.

Skull Mechanix, the latest addition to the booming St Elmo beer scene is looking good (per their Instagram). The taproom is close and brew house in place, but they’re not quite brewing. Stay tuned.

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Pinthouse Pizza broke ground in late November on their third location, this one in Round Rock at Old Settlers and I35. It will be similar to the other locations, but with a more dedicated bar set up and potential to scale production to allow for greater distribution and pub support in the future.

The Brewer’s Table is now “geotag official” (and under construction).

UNCLE WISE Uncle Billy’s has been busy since our last guide. Back in the summer they switched their license from a brew pub to production brewery and started contract brewing their core beers at the new Celis facility with plans to increase distribution across the state. The Barton Springs location will continue its own small batches as well as house-made spirits from new head brewer Stephen Wagner. Former head brewer Trevor Nearburg has left to start Beerburg Brewing Co. on land just across from Jester King.

CLOSING TIME Two-time GABF medal winner Pedernales Brewing Co. has shuttered out in Fredericksburg. Closer to home, two beloved bars have served their last beers. Pour one out for Dog and Duck (for the second time) and Nasty's.

Gone the way of Evel Knievel, South Austin Brewing has bitten the dust. Maybe temporarily, probably permanently. If you hear anything concrete, let us know.

TEXAS STRONG Texas breweries took home a record 21 medals at this year’s Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in September, along with some best brewery and brew pub honors.

Texas had the third largest haul by state, with nine come from the Austin area. See p. 40 for a full rundown of winners.

NXNCANNING North by Northwest is planning to start canning in 2018. They already have eight cans designed, including: Northern Light, Red Zeppelin, and the Zombie Dragon. For more on this read Davis Tucker’s interview as part of the feature beginning on p. 28.

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Austin Lager Jam

BY NOW LAGER JAM IS JUST A BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN MEMORY. THE SWEAT AND THE HANGOVERS are long gone. Luckily we have a handful of shots to remember the good times. Thanks to all of you who voted it as the best event for 2017 in our readers' poll. We think it was the best, but it would be too tacky to hand ourselves an award for our own event, even for us. Maybe we should have made a category for "Best Event Serving Only Lagers Outdoors in August of 2017."

Photos by TYLER MALONE

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moc.tfarchcihw.www www.whichcraft.com

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32oz of heaven.

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BREWER’S BRAIN

From the Mind of Tyler Malone Most of us carry a lifetime ago, something that’s still the shape of a world we inhabited when others explained away all the mystery.

With age, experience, pleasure, we grew to fill its shape in our own ways. And now there’s beer. For a few, experiment wasn’t an accident, but some of, most of us remember when beer was accompanied with puritanical bias as unnerving as seeing your least sexy grandparent wrapping around the dancing pole at your favorite club. The question: What good does having a beer do? That question is easiest to answer with a sweating beer in a firm hand, but it’s equally easy to say having a beer is the discrimination against a bad time.

Life is sad and strange, also extraordinary.

Why pretend otherwise? We’re lucky. We’re

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lucky to drink and we’re fortunate to be drunk with others, no matter if it’s in deep, meaningful conversation about tortillas or honest conversation about despondency.

But not even that lasts long. Beer turns a mundane moment, a once empty glass, a once cold bar seat, into a beautiful story, so much more the drinker. What beer, though?

What’s better than a pilsner? Beer. What IPA, then? Just have a beer. How hazy should it be? It should be beer. What’s better than an American stout wearing a donut crown spotted with bright sugar shards in all the shades that all that blossoms during Easter could spare? Beer. What’s better than beer, all beer from all centuries from all over the world? What’s more permanent than all the heartache and accidental laughter drinking beer has caused?

Photo: Tyler Malone

BEER IS CHAOS. BEER IS ORDER.

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People.

Before beer blogs polluted the planet, this sentence has been rehearsed: We brew the beer we want to brew. That’s never been true. From the time a jar in ancient Asia’s contents morphed into soured booze, the joy of drink has been shared. No one makes the beer they want to drink because beer is what brought them to that moment and others brought them to beer. Beer is made for other people. To share, to see where it takes a sentence, a step, a heartbeat. Should it be good? The beer, maybe not. Living, certainly.

“Good living is the only substitute. And yet I’m going to die. So I’m singing… One man’s song is a bit longer, another man’s is a bit shorter.

But the difference is never more than a few words.” Let’s sing and share whatever words we want, then, with whatever beer we wish.

(Also, that quotation was from Franz Kafka, who was probably never the life of the party but he’d still always bug people.)

What good does drinking beer do? Beer isn’t a good servant and bad master, it’s an ally against boredom, it ensures interactions with humanity are fortunate, lucky because when drinking we’re holding a link to our wildest, longest past so close to the present, saving it for the future and future beers. The beer closest to you is certain, but what’s certainly uncertain is

every damn day ahead. There’s comfort in that, though. Throughout each one of those days, you’ll want a beer. No matter the situation, in celebration or bereavement, there will be beer. It waits.

That truth is no comfort for everyone, it’s for the drinkers, those who are shared in these pages, and for those people holding this magazine at any bar or brewery, a beer just inches away. There’s something for all of us, something more unique than any perfect can design, more exceptional than a one-of-akind yeast strain, holier than an ensorcelled barrel. It’s beer, a religion of noticing beautiful uninhibited moments from people and finding yourself among the beginning of stories or at the end of a perfect wild evening.

Still, drink independently—independent of misery and cant. Drinking is art, the pursuit to know what’s past yourself in our world. What good does drinking beer do? What an immoral goddamn question. The only way to do any good is by doing less harm. You probably won’t save the world but you will save moments.

Having a beer is claiming life itself. Drunk sex, drunk writing, drunk conversation, drunk courage, drunk creativity, do it all for others and yourself. Do it for change. Do it to end silence, loneliness. Do it for the love of life.

Do it for change. We all can change and those who believe otherwise aren’t worth drinking with, but drink for them. Drinking beer, it’s the answer that transcends language, life’s struggles, the day’s horrors, witless and grotesque questions of why enjoying a beer nurtures joy.

Being right doesn’t matter, only conversations over beer. People are the answer why beer is worth our time.

Magic, Heaven, tomorrow, good music, the best ideas for all of life’s obstacles, it all might not exist. We do, though, and so does beer.

Tyler Malone is the premier beer celebrity photographer of our time. His work can be found on Facebook pages for nearly all beer nerds and industry folk in the Republic of Texas and beyond.

He is also a poet, philosopher, and early 90s Christian music enthusiast.

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OVER A PINT

Southern Heights Brewing Co.

ON THURSDAY EVENING IN EARLY NOVEMBER WE KNOCKED BACK A RESPECTABLE FEW BEERS WITH THE FINE GENTS BEHIND AUSTIN’S FRESHEST BREWERY, SOUTHERN HEIGHTS. NESTLED IN THEIR AIRY, WELL DESIGNED TAP ROOM OFF 183, WE SLUGGED BACK PINT AFTER PINT OF FRESH BEER OVER OUR CHAT WITH FOUNDERS AND FRIENDS AUSTIN RUSSELL AND CHRIS RICH. WE STARTED WITH THE SESSIONABLE “WHERE’S MY FLANNEL?” PUB ALE, AND MOVED INTO THEIR ROBUST CATALOGUE OF HOPPY VENTURES. CRACK A PINT AND READ/DRINK ALONG.

Austin Beer Guide: OK, Austin and Chris, we’re drinking a Where’s My Flannel. Tell me about this beer.

Austin Russell: Honestly it’s just a beer in the best way ever.

Chris Rich: Or it’s just an ordinary bitter, that’s not ordinary or bitter. So we don’t put that on the menu because nobody would ever order it, cause we’re not English.

Austin: Mild, ordinary bitter. Probably are the worst words ever to describe a beer.

It’s really good.

Austin: It was the second batch we did. If we screwed something up and it came out at 4.6 or 5.2, it was still going to be solid. If you go to Draught House and Josh has an ESB or a mild that’s what you’re going to get. The best way ever man, it’s just a beer.

Tell me about the other beers you guys have on the chalkboard.

Austin: Those are definitely hoppy. And it’s not because we are totally in love with hoppy beers and it’s the only thing that we’re

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W A E M e b r t d o c T S S

I’ A C o t t

going to be doing. But we’re still dialing in the system and still kind of getting our feet under us as far as that goes and just decided to make a bunch of IPAs all at once. Just get that out and start going.

Chris: The first one we did was the Extra Crispy. That was the first pale ale. And then that one just kind of worked out. Not overly hoppy, not overly malty, really light and easy to do. And it actually just turned out kind of extra crispy, and that’s where the name came from.

It’s good, I like it.

Chris: So it’s got a really good hop aroma but not a lot of hop bitters. So it rides that balance line. Not that you want every beer to be balanced but that one, whenever you’re trying to figure out your system, it’s good to try to balance it.

It’s nice that it’s not, it’s like right on the cusp of almost getting into that just like hop tonic land. But I feel like it’s still a solid beer, but it’s not like a pucker up super bitter.

Chris: A lot of people in the neighborhood, being like an industrial park, come in here

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S a t l c I n in d C t ju t p g W s le w k o m g

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and, maybe not being into craft beer, that’s the question, “what’s the lightest beer you have?” I just give them the Flannel and then that one. That one technically is the lightest beer, Crispy is. If they don’t like hops, they go with Flannel. If they do like hops but don’t like bitterness, they go with the Crispy.

Well it came out really well for the first one.

Austin: As for the other beers, the IPAs, the Evergreen Terrace and Dave's Not Here, Man, those are the exact same build and the exact same hop schedule. Just a different base frame and just different hops. And really that was more kind of just us trying to see what does this do in the process with different type of hops and different types of malts. That was kind of where those came from. The names are just, Evergreen Terrace is a piney IPA. And I’m a huge Simpsons fan so that’s the name of the Simpsons' street.

I’ll take the crab juice.

Austin: Then the Dave’s not Here... also a Cheech and Chong fan. And that was just one of my favorite bits that they ever did. So this one’s going to be leaning more towards that danky sort of lower juicy.

So that’s three hoppy beers and then just a real stellar, easy pub ale. Do you guys think, I mean is this like a set-in-stone lineup? Or is this going to be moving? What can people expect from Southern Heights?

I mean cause we’re in mid-November now, people are going to be reading this in December. Are they going to be even be drinking these same beers?

Chris: So hopefully by the time you read this we’ll have some more beers on tap. We just brewed another IPA on Monday. And then yesterday we brewed a porter. So we’re pretty excited about the porter. Realize it’s going to be cold eventually. We have several.

We want to be, we have a brew pub license, so we want to be a brew pub on a production level. So we always want to come out with new beers often. Anybody that brews knows that if you’re brewing the same beer over and over and over eventually it’s just monotonous. And my guess is that you’re going to get bored.

Do you think that, I mean I know you guys don’t have a crystal ball, but do you feel like for the most part people are going to be coming to the taproom to drink beer or is it going to be distributed to taps outside?

Austin: Yes to all of that. Firstly we would

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love for everybody to come to the taproom.

We built this to be a really really fun place to hang out. And something that we could share our passion for craft beer with everybody on a personal level. And that’s why you have us here. Obviously we have to work here but we would be here just making sure everybody’s having a great time. And really getting that one-to-one feedback. I feel like if you put your product out there in the world you’re not getting that one-toone feedback. You’re not controlling your product, you’re not controlling the quality.

And until we kind of get our legs under us as far as like beer and a mass production level, we’re not going to take that second step.

So tell me about you two. How did you guys birth Southern Heights?

Chris: Well before there was Tinder, we had actually worked together. That’s actually how we met was at Dell. We met fighting over a single sale as temp reps at Dell and then became friends after that. We’ve worked alongside each other for a long time until 2011. When did you quit the first time?

Austin: I quit a few times.

Chris: That’s how this all started. We took a work trip for Dell to Fort Collins for a week.

And we fell in love with kind of everybody’s culture up there. We’re not completely in love with having cubicle jobs. We’d never really felt normal in a cubicle job.

Austin: Cubicle wasteland.

Chris: We decided then in 2009 to work really hard to be able to be in an Over a Pint interview.

Like here you are, you made it!

Austin: I mean you go to Fort Collins and everyone’s happy. Everyone’s so happy there. You go to a brewery, you go to Odell and the woman that was giving our tour was pregnant, like eight and a half months.

And when she pointed at her husband who was driving a forklift and then her cousin was, I think, cellaring something.

So everyone was smiling, everyone was so happy. It could have been a Friday and the weather was perfect and everyone’s ready to get off work. But everyone that was there was so happy. How do you not want to do what they do? I mean we saw an outside world, saw a future that we definitely wanted and we knew it wasn’t going to be drinking every single day hanging out at the bar. But obviously hopefully on a Friday after a really long week we drink a few beers with people that show up to your place. I feel like it’s totally worth it, the massive pay cut.

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Techni Center Drive, 2017. How’d you guys get from there to here?

Chris: We started homebrewing to actually learn about the brewing process and dial that in because we wanted to make rad beers. And then in the process of doing that one of us decided that they were done with the cubicle life and going to travel the world for 18 months. It wasn’t me.

Austin: Yeah so I flew to Fiji one day, one way. And then just kind of traveled for a year, give or take. We definitely talked about being a brewery and then you talk about it and you talk about it. And you brew and then you go home and you go to your job and you talk about opening a brewery. And you go home and wake up and go to your job. I don’t know, we obviously wanted to open the brewery but I think I turned 25 at the time and I don’t know, I just wanted to travel. So did a Fiji one-way and spent eight months kind of backpacking around the world. But I was able to meet tons of people in the brewing industry over that year.

Chris: During his hiatus I didn’t stop brewing.

Just kept going. Kept chunking away at it, chunking away. And actually kind of honed the craft. Ended up winning a homebrew competition for Flix. And that was one of their fastest sellout beers ever. It was just a double Abbey. High alcohol goes really fast in the suburbs apparently. And it ended up being really great. Then Austin sent an email out to every brewery that was current at the time and the ones that are coming online. And said the subject line was, “I want to clean your kegs and wash your toilets for free.” One brewer responded, Infamous. And then he went out and worked with them for a little while. It was kind of, did a lot of things at Infamous. And then realized that he needed to get a job again and came back to Dell. And then we just got really hyper focused. Cause he was like crap, I’m stuck at this thing until we do it right. So we got really hyper focused and that was 2013.

And that’s when like everything was guns out, we’re going. So after that he quit Dell again.

Cause we were writing the business plan and it made a lot of sense to make him the head brewer. He’s quitting Dell again, he’ll go to brew school. At this point I’m having my second kid. I didn’t actually have them, my wife did. And it made a lot of sense for him to go and explore kind of what that means to work at a brewery, be at a brewery and be a brewer.

And then went to Siebel, did a stint there. And then just volunteered a lot at breweries all over the place. Sorry you can tell your own story if you want.

Austin: And then I moved to Austin and fortunately was able to get a job at Zilker Brewing. They hired me knowing that I was going to do this. I said I was going to quit in a

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year. Going to open a brewery. They laughed, hired me. And then two years later I was finally able to put in my few weeks notice and was able to open Southern Heights. I learned so much. I don’t know where I’d be without that honestly, without Zilker Brewing.

Chris: We kind of, we’re in like, when we finally decided we’re good, we had all of our funds in order, we’re ready to lease a building, we hit like the whole Austin is really hard to buy or rent in thing. And we were just chasing buildings and chasing buildings. And we came out here, we actually wanted to see a building across the street that came up that was 5,000 feet across the street. And the guy was like no no no no I have another one I’m going to show you. And we just looked at each other like this is not happening again. No power, no water, no drains to speak of. And we were kind of like yeah, I think this actually might work. And then started about a year ago building this thing out. Most nights not leaving until way late. Probably finished or not really finished, we’re still in construction. But we’re able to open the doors.

It’s a good version. Cool, so people I guess reading this now in mid-December through March, what’s in the future, like the short term future for Southern Heights. What can people expect?

Austin: We just want to be the new brewery in town. Want to provide a taproom people want to hang out in and a few beers that people like and enjoy. And just it’s pretty simple. I mean just drink beer and hang out with your friends and family and enjoy life.

Don’t want to think too much about it.

Yeah, it sounds good to me.

Chris: If we could just evangelize that constantly we would. That’s what we said before, we just want to be in the taproom having a fantastic time with everybody else.

And hopefully that’ll help us sustain the ability to be able to do that. We’re not here to take over the beer world. We’re not here to make a ton of money, then sell out and leave. If somebody does that, that’s fantastic.

But that’s never our plan. It’s never our goal. So I think, if we could just figure out a way to find sustainable happiness through doing this, I think we’ve hit it. Do what you’re passionate about. And if we can do that that’d be fantastic.

Cool. Well thanks guys. This was great. Good beers, good space. You guys are alright.

Austin: Thanks, cheers.

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PENDING AN FBI INVESTIGATION, THESE ARE YOUR BEST OF 2017 READERS’ AND Editors’ winners. Lots of familiar faces gracing the ol’ ABGB stage this year, along with some fresh new ones, a few upsets, and with any popularity contest, some broken hearts.

Hey, at least there’s plenty of beer to drown your sorrows, right?

This year’s readers’ poll was straight up fucking nuts. We keep tabs on the results throughout the month long voting period and there were quite a few dramatic swings, and when it came down to the final hours on the 30th, we witnessed in real time multiple contests coming down to even only a four or five vote difference. It was better than sports. It was like beer data sports. Seriously, guys, you should all host a city-wide Best Of beer poll some day just for the thrill of it. Exhilarating, let me tell you.

Once again, thanks to all you, our dear readers, who took the few minutes out of your busy schedules to really make a difference. You don’t know it, but your favorite breweries, bars, personalities, etc., live and die by the results of this janky slacker poll. Careers have been made and busted by the outcome of our totally scientific poll. You hold the power to influence an entire brewery’s coming year’s brewing schedule in your clicky little fingers. Why do you think we see so many IPAs these days? Nevermind they’ve been on a national rising trend the past 10 years, it’s 'cause fucking Electric Jellyfish won last year. And you did that. Pause, take a sip of your beer, and think about that. It’s like you’re the boss of Austin beer.

So read on to see what picks this year will influence beer across the world in 2018, and also enjoy the annual ceremony of criticizing our picks as amature, “boys club,” out of touch, and “do they even like beer?”

But just remember this, if you don’t agree with our picks we reserve the right to recuse ourselves.

Illustration by Tony Johnson

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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST BREWERY >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

ST ELMO BREWING CO.

St Elmo is the best thing about every brewery/brew pub you love. Except trees. They’re severely lacking in the tree department. Trees aside, Bryan Winslow and Tim Bullock have birthed the perfect brewery for Austin. Featuring a solid “core” lineup, with legendary featherweight Carl large and in charge, while also running a world-class rotating camp turning out weekly champs, St Elmo is the brewery we have to earn. Anchoring the “Yard” development, they have reclaimed the “murder warehouse brewery” genre and turned it into a scene both sorority sisters and die hard beer hunters can claim as their own “local.” The palate blasters at SourSop stave away the alcohol poisoning while we go back for stein after stein of Carl in an effort to finally make our dad proud of us.

Thanks St Elmo.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST BREW PUB >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

THE AUSTIN BEER GARDEN BREWING CO.

We hate following trends, but for the past two years the fuckle chucks at GABF have been on to something. Pizzas, sandwiches, salads, small plates, pilsners, ales, sours, shade covered tables, killer bands, a parking lot... ABGB has it all. I mean, they’ve got a goddamn train running next to their beer garden and you’re still dying to go. It’s the total package, baby. Going to The ABGB is like seeing your favorite band only to learn your second favorite band is the surprise opener. Like the Kinks opening for Bowie. Take a breath. Now add a third year-round (THIRD-YEAR-FUCKING-ROUND) lager into the lineup and a Crowler machine to keep the party going, and your hair just grew to your shoulders, your jeans fit just right, and you finally nailed that guitar solo with your eyes closed. Now crush a Crowler on your forehead and PARTY ON, ABGB.

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<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST NEW BREWERY/BREW PUB >>>>>>>>>

SOUTHERN HEIGHTS BREWING CO.

When we say “new,” we mean “NEW.” Yeah, they weren’t on the Readers’ poll, BUT they opened just a few days after it opened, and we’re the editors and this is an editors’ pick. But honestly, Chris Rich and Austin Russell came out of the gate walking hard, and in today’s market you have to debut with clean, bold, on point, quality beers, and a well designed, amiable taproom ready to sling beers and satiate thirsts. They opened with a solid starting lineup of beers consisting of multiple IPAs, a much needed A-team pale ale, and a get-the-job-done-and-get-home-safe ESB. For a rookie first at bat, they took a respectable swing and, as yet-to-be-determined, could hit it out of the park. For now they've already notched a credible double sending a runner home (yeah, we watched some baseball this year).

Thanks to some quality time churning out tasty beers at Zilker, they’ve got some chops in the brewhouse and show promise to continue creating exceptional craft offerings for their under-served neighborhood/Austin. Instagram-ready and pouring fresh and clean beers for the 78723 like a manna from heaven, SH is the punch in the face Austin beer needs. Homebrewers at heart, these seasoned pros are pouring you the beers you didn’t know you wanted until you stumbled upon them. They are the future and they are now.

READERS’ CHOICE BEST OF 2017 BEST BREWERY JESTER KING BREWERY BEST BREW PUB AUSTIN BEER GARDEN BREWING CO. BEST NEW BREWERY/BREW PUB LAZARUS BREWING CO. BEST LIMITED/ SPECIAL/SEASONAL BEER JESTER KING ATRIAL RUBICITE

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BEST EVERYDAY BEER REAL ALE HANS' PILS

BEST BREWERY TAPROOM JESTER KING BREWERY

BEST NEW BEER ORF OOCHEENAMA

BEST BEER BAR THE GROWLER BAR

BEST OVERALL BEER PINTHOUSE PIZZA SOUTH LAMAR ELECTRIC JELLYFISH

BEST EVENT TEXAS CRAFT BREWERS FESTIVAL

BEST PERSONALITY/ ADVOCATE TIMOTHY VELA BEST BEER + FOOD SPOT PINTHOUSE PIZZA

BEST BOTTLE SHOP WHICHCRAFT BEER STORE BEST SINGLE BEER PACKAGING/LABEL AUSTIN BEERWORKS EINHORN

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< <<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST LIMITED/SPECIAL/SEASONAL BEER >>>>>

AUSTIN BEERWORKS SUPER AWESOME

When Austin Beerworks’ head brewer and co-founder Will Golden first dubbed his thirst quenching light lager “Super Awesome,” he took some heat regarding the bold claim with the name. But he knew what we’d all come to learn soon enough: shit’s SUPER AWESOME. Saving our summer’s for the past few years, we finally caught this heat extinguisher in cans this year complete with fresh designs sure to grab your six-yearold’s attention by the legendary Helms Workshop crew. Super Awesome Lager hit all the fucking spots, punched every fucking button, ticked boxes we didn’t even fucking know we had, and was especially Super Awesome. Light, crisp, super, awesome, lager. Duh. A personal love letter from the ABW boys to Austin, a flying the bird on both sides to the sun, a grown up Gatorade, a thirst quencher for water, an alcoholic water balloon to the mouth... Super Awesome Lager is exactly that. And now it’s a GABF Gold Medal winner to boot.

<<<<<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST EVERYDAY BEER >>>>>>>>>>>>>

ABGB ROCKET 100

We don’t always drink beer everyday, but if we did it’d be ABGB Rocket 100. The most awarded beer in their fermented arsenal, Rocket 100 is a pre-prohibition lager light enough for daily consumption, but also interesting enough to pique even the most hardened drinker’s taste buds on a daily basis. The Year of our Lord 2017 witnessed the all-knowing brewers at the ABGB wisely loading Rocket 100 permanently into the third lager slot on the menu, making it available every goddamn day. That, and the addition of a Crowler machine, gave Rocket 100 32oz of wings and means you can stock up on this daily crusher for seven days a week satiation. It’s not rocket science, it’s Rocket 100 science.

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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST NEW BEER >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

PINTHOUSE PIZZA THIS IS JUICE

Being born an IPA at Pint House is like being a redheaded, freckled, exceptional singing orphan at an orphanage filled to the frothy brim with redheaded blah blah blah, but being just one redhead above the rest. It’s like everything you like about juice, but not juice, ‘cause you’re a goddamn adult and drink beer cause you got a job and shit and real shit to deal with. But it still ticks those infantile boxes your parents instituted back when kids poked you in the eye and told you that you weren’t invited to their birthday parties anymore. Well, now you can have your own fucking birthday party at Pinthouse and drink all the This Is Juice you want and not share it with any of those fucking second grade cool girl jerks. ‘Cus fuck them, and you like good beer now and they drink pumpkin spice lattes or stupid ass butter bullet coffee cause they got all fat and dumb. Ahem. If those jort wearing geniuses at PH started packaging this in little boxes with straws attached they’d be sitting on a gold mine.

Really, This is Juice could sit in for any PHP IPA, cause honestly they run the best IPA game in the city state country world and it’s just the latest hot flavor those dice throwing bearded hotties brewed up last week.

So chug it down, buy a Crowler for home, a Crowler for trading, and say, “thank you very much, may I have another?”

<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST OVERALL BEER >>>>>>>>>>>>>>

LIVE OAK GOLD

Because “Platinum” is a terrible name for a beer, Live Oak bestowed our favorite beer ever this year the moniker, “Gold.”

So good, fuck Pilz. But we still love you Pilz. But, Gold. Released for a short but glorious few weeks in late spring, this straw hued effervescent beauty graced our glasses and taste buds like no other beer before, except the five Gold’s before that last one. The only way Live Oak could improve on “Gold” is if they would rebrand it simply as “Beer.” Or make it year-round (#Gold365). The few months the benevolent brewers at Live Oak deemed us worthy of their most perfect lager, there were not enough sober hours in the day to enjoy it as much as we’d have liked. It wrecked, ruined, and skewed us to all other beers.

Spring 2018 can’t come soon enough.

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<<<<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice PERSONALITY/ADVOCATE >>>>>>>>>>>>

THE CROWLER MACHINE

Is that a Crowler in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? You betcha we went there! Traditionally reserved for a human advocate, this year we could not ignore the powerful impact the Crowler machine had on our beer scene. With mere whirling pieces of metal and aluminum combined at break-neck speeds, this mechanical craft innovation allows breweries with “to-go” privileges (don’t get us started on that…), the ability to give you “just one more,” and the responsibility to get home okay/legally. Plus, the mass adoption by brew pubs that don’t regularly distribute has endowed their beer with legs, delivering it beyond their four walls and patios to glasses across town, nay the world, and putting these hyper local brewers (see p. 28) on the literal map. Also, camping. There was a time we’d have to remember to throw 64oz of glass in the trunk or purchase our umpteenth growler onsite before the Crowler’s gimmicky idea was birthed by the same folks that fucking preface everything with “Fuh CAN.” Thanks?

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< <<<<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST BEER + FOOD SPOT >>>>>>>>>>>>

BATCH CRAFT BEER & KOLACHES

I don’t know if we said it first or the Austin Chronicle beer beat journo Eric Puga did, but we’re printing it either way; Batch is the ultimate Carb Load in Austin. With kolaches (known colloquially as ‘laches from here on out) with enough girth to make you blush, a pro-level curated dozen tap selection, and a cooler with an embarrassment of craft riches at your carb bloated fingertips, this is the official “Cheat Day” location of Austin. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or late night, they’ve got you covered with yeasty heaven hugging proteins and dairy based fats while serving no judgement “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere” beverages to wash them down. Nothing feels more right in your life than sitting at a picnic table beneath the oaks in their beer garden whilst pairing a PB&J ‘lache with a robust stout, or a spicy sausage, cheese and jalapeno ‘lache with a mega juicy IPA. Get there early on the weekends, don’t take the church’s parking spaces, and don’t think about the steps from the previous week you’re negating with every bite and sip.

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AUSTIN BEERWORKS

The new Austin Beerworks’ taproom is like graduating from your dad’s old beater Datsun hatchback to that Mazda Protege you bought with your surplus student loans your junior year of undergrad (if we are being specific). Sure, you were endeared to the old rust bucket party wagon, with it’s stainless and scorching hot liquid surrounding your imbibed compadres, but now you’ve moved on to seats sans What-A-Burger milkshake stains and airbags and are ready to finally go on dates where you’re not ashamed to valet park it. Professionally designed by the folks at Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, the shiny new taproom is replete with bright colors, hard industrial materials and warm wood creating an atmosphere that is happy hour ready, while also reminding the imbiber their glass of suds was born just behind the large hockey windows to the brewery. With ample opportunities to purchase the freshest four core, they also offer first dibs on the seasonals in addition to a healthy rotating selection of specialty one offs and taproom only beers sure to keep both brewer and drinker crispy. So next time you get your ABW jolly’s off, give Johnny, Brian, Sarah, and the rest of the pouring pros behind the bar a high five and generous tip.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST BEER BAR >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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The fruits of local craft-hardened industry, CJ West and Trey Ramirez, Spokesman is the south Austin cycling-themed beer/coffee joint we never knew we needed. With walls decked floorto-ceiling with unique hand-drawn work from the Blue Dozen Collective’s Briks, Spokesman emotes a vibe that transcends its humble warehouse bones. Spokesman boasts a well planned weekly calendar with events groomed for neighbors, industry, and craft enthusiasts a like. The heart of the space is their coffee roaster, churning out a few house origins for the super roasty rich toddy, and specialty bags to go. Holding down the south end of The Yard, Spokesman boasts 20 of the best curated taps in town. With a taste for the up and coming, hard to find, under-dog, and all around amazing beers, their tap wall extends beyond the traditional “anchor” brands, creating a sudsy DJ’d experience that get’s missed at a lot of multitaps these days. With no slackers on the wall, every tap is a hand picked punisher ready to make things just right.

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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST EVENT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

LIVE OAK OAKTOBERFEST

You can’t give enough credit to a special ass glass. We know. Live Oak knows, too. That, plus balloon sculptures. Live Oak’s new taproom and biergarten are amazing in their own rights, but dress them up for an event, particularly one drawing on their beer style’s heritage, and they’re the cat’s pajamas. Oaktoberfest, the beer, is an Autumn staple for Austinites, so it only makes sense to throw a party for it. Sure, there are several “Oktoberfests” (or variations) around town, but if you’re going to do just one, and do it right, it’s gotta be Oaktoberfest. With this year’s upgraded ceramic stein, walk up outdoor beer window, traditional and otherwise musical entertainment, and of course, the local craft beer godfather Chip McElroy waiting to greet you as you walk up, it doesn’t get any better. Oh, and Smoketoberfest, the outdoorsy, more rough-around-the-edges sibling to Oaktoberfest, is always a welcome addition to a Saturday afternoon.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST BOTTLESHOP >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

EAST 1ST GROCERY

East 1st Grocery has been on our short list every year for best bottleshop. So what did they do this year that put them above the rest? Well, for one, they endured a robbery at fucking gun point! If ABG’s super deluxe and very real offices were robbed at gun point we would for sure be shut down the next day. But other than that what did they do... not much, just more of the consistently awesome job they always do. If you are looking for a beer you see folks out there tweeting about, you are sure to find it somewhere in East 1st. You might have to look around a bit for it, but it’s in there somewhere. The hunt is part of the fun.

A hidden jewel might be tucked between the Hot Cheetos and the herbal tea. And if you are looking for a cheap sixer for your softball game, they always have one or two of the good stuff on discount, plus a suitcase of Lone Star for your teammates.

<<<<<< Editors’ Choice BEST SINGLE BEER PACKAGING/LABEL >>>>>>

ZILKER ESB

Designed by artist Sophie Roach, the Zilker “East Side Beer” has become an iconic image in just one year, capturing the disrespectful, yet fun swagger of the East Side, in a drinkable malty semibitter beverage. Roach has mural credits across large tech industry walls and hallways across Austin and beyond, but is able to capture her attention to detail and storytelling on the small 12oz medium.

Eyeballs, arrows, and bright colors restricted within hard black lines, the art plays yin to the ESB’s subtle yang. While standing out at a party, or playing muse as you introspect the design around a backyard fire, the “East Side Beer” label adds to our already dynamic palate of art pairing with beer pairing with Austin.

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<<<<<<<< Best of the Rest >>>>>>>> LONGEST COAT TAILS Jester King

IT’S NOT JUST A HAZE Pinthouse Burnet/Lamar

SHARPEST PARKING Pinthouse Burnet

MIDLIFE CRISIS Celis

0 STUFF ON THE WALLS, 0 FUCKS GIVEN Draught House

CHARLIE DON’T SURF Josh Spradling

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER Orf! BEST BILLY On Burnet BEST CRAWL The Yard DUMPSTER FIRE Whip In UNDER THE RADAR NXNW Sour/Lager/IPA program SAN MARCOS, COLORADO, THE MOON Hops & Grain BEST BROS The Wright ones LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU, DAD St Elmo/Austin Beerworks

WORST TREND Destination Breweries NO, THE OTHER COORS NLand

HOPPIN’ THE SUBURBS Redhorn (Yes, you guys can use this. You’re welcome)

BEST BATHROOM ART Spokesman

NOT A BEERWERKER Trevor Nearburg

KEEP TAPROOMS WEIRD 4th Tap

MOST VOTES WITH LEAST EFFORT Austin Beerworks

SMOKE ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM Live Oak GOAT ABGB MADE IN THE CONDO SHADE Liberty Bar DO NOT RESUSCITATE South Austin Brewery BEST “BEST OF GRAPHIC” Pinthouse

RIP 2.0 Dog and Duck

BEST SATURDAY MORNING BEER Suds Monkey

CLOSES TOO EARLY ON THURSDAYS Zilker SLEEPER CELL Southern Heights THEY’RE YOUR PROBLEM NOW, IDAHO Guns & Oil

HURRY HURRY HURRY Tie - Brewtorium/Oddwood

BEST TABC The western one

TWELVE OZ BEERJACKET Live Oak Primus

BEST BEER SWEATS Tyler Malone

BEST BREWED TACOS Lazarus

PECAN FANTASY Chris Troutman BEST BAR TO VIDEO STREAM A FIGHT Yellow Jacket BEST VAGUE TWEETER @hopsandjosh BEST DISC GOLF HAIR Michael Graham

BEST HAIRCUT Acopon

BEST PIZZA SLAYER Battle Axe

GREEN ACRES SYNDROME Circle

HARDEST EDGE Contributor Aaron Chamberlain

CAN ONLY, NO FRILLS, BEST IPA Lost Gold CRAFT NEVER DIES Tie - Craft Pride/Craft Austin PUCKER UP Blue Owl FIRST SUCCESSFUL BREWERY FACE TRANSPLANT Flying Man CANS > BOMBERS Last Stand IDENTITY CRISIS Uncle Billy’s BEST PICNIC TABLES Black Star Coop BEST SPORTING EVENT Manway Open Fore KEEP MUELLER WET Tie- Which Craft/Alamo Drafthouse BEST FACTORY Oskar Blues BEST AFTER PARTY Brian’s limo

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Words by CHRIS TROUTMAN Photos by SHAWN PHILLIPS THERE’S A LOT OF TALK ABOUT “SATURATION” AND EVEN “OVERSATURATION” REGARDING the Austin beer market. According to the Brewers Association, Texas has 1.1 breweries per capita (per 100,000 21+ adults ). Compare that to 8.1 per in Oregon 8.4 per in Colorado, and if you want to make the density vs sprawl argument, we’re only half of California’s 2.2 per. So we’ve got a long way to go to saturation, but where do we go?

Taking a stroll down the beer aisle and it’s almost inconceivable to imagine them packing another brand’s sixer in the coolers, with mountains of cans already stacked like little craft pyramids sitting warm. Or visit your friendly neighborhood multi-tap pub, already crammed from wall-to-wall with tap handles coming from an overcrowded cold room, and put yourself in the shoes of a new brewer attempting to secure some of that cold room/tap wall real estate. It’s a fucking craft-eat-craft world out there.

Long gone are the days when a new brewery could open up and guarantee the front three taps at Draught House, a front and center display at HEB, and a solid month of buzz with a runway long enough to endure flat or over carbed kegs, movie popcorn cans, or worse. Our market and consumers have matured to the point where we expect excellent beer out of the gate and if it’s not up to the local standards, it’s shown the craft door, local or not. Thanks to the influx of top notch national brands crashing our shores and more and more local breweries opening with proven veterans manning their virgin brewhouses, we live in a time where decent beer is not enough. Much like our city’s real estate market, so goes the beer figurative “real estate”. If you’re not driving an electric vehicle with Cali plates and making cash offers 15% above asking price, you’re out of fucking luck.

So if we’re not oversaturated, but are running out of “room,” where do we go from here?

Perhaps it’s time our benevolent craft overlords move from the figurative to the literal, and instead of building business around four core cans and a sprawling distribution model, they opt to serve the majority of their tasty liquid in the actual neighborhood in which it was born, keeping it hyper-local. Imagine a day when your favorite beer, perhaps some of the best beer, is all located within walking or biking distance of your own magnificent abode. My drinking friend, you’re imagining the future. A future for you, for me, for our generous brewer friends, and for beer in Austin.

A SIP OF THE FUTURE They’re not exactly a brewery, they’re not exactly a brew pub. They’re something old, but they’re something new, too. They’re the future drawing on the past. They’re nothing special beyond their own rights, but everyone agrees they’re doing something right and believes we’ll see more like them. They’re St Elmo and they’re the love child of Bryan Winslow and Tim Bullock. Holding down the northern border of the newly established Yard in south Austin, St Elmo are operating a six-day a week taproom and churning out a fresh new beer a week, in addition to their three core year-round offerings, from their 15-barrel workhorse brewhouse. They’ve got a smartly designed taproom deceptively disguising the warehouse shell they call home, with a large yard complete with shade, stage, biergarten tables, and the always delicious Soursop food truck, the cherry on top.

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With roots at Austin Beerworks, Bullock and Winslow were brought up with an emphasis on quality and consistency, but decided they wanted a model with a shorter path from grain to grin.

That is to say, they wanted to see people enjoying the sudsy labors as fresh as possible.

“Linking up at Austin Beerworks we had kind of this mentality of production, production, get the product out there. In planning this we both talked about the different spaces where we actually enjoy drinking. So it’s not just making it is fun, but drinking it and how and where you drink it makes a big difference in terms of how you perceive it. We weren’t looking to reinvent the wheel, but we wanted to have a place that was really focused on consuming the beer as fresh as possible in as cool of a setting as possible, as comfortable as could be.” said Bullock.

St Elmo, the neighborhood, was always on Winslow’s radar as a market ripe for a brewery taproom model. “We definitely saw an open market down here in south Austin. There’s other really good stuff for sure but not nearly as packed as east and north Austin,” Winslow said. “And so yeah we wanted to make a brew pub or a brewery for the neighborhood. A place for people, a third space down here where there really wasn’t a whole lot to do.”

And this is the crux to their success. They are relying on the maturing Austin beer market to sustain a hyper-local brewery focused on only serving their surrounding neighborhood. It’s not about oversaturation, it’s about saturation.

“I will say this, people point, and I’ve been very guilty of this in the past, point to numbers, say ‘saturation.’ Look at Portland, there’s 60 breweries. Look at Austin, there’s only 20. We can get 40 more,” said Winslow.

Bullock added, “It’s also very cultural in my opinion. There are how many taco places around Austin? Shit load, right? You couldn’t put the same number of taco places in Cleveland and make it work. They don’t eat tacos there very much. There’s probably a few people that’ll do it but the culture isn’t the same. And so same with bagel places. Think of how many bagel places there are in Austin. And there’s so many that have gone out of business. You go to New York City and you can have one on every three blocks and they would fucking crush it. But you do have to think about what is the saturation for the culture.”

“People think to drink within two miles. I live almost exactly one mile from the ABGB and almost exactly one mile from Pinthouse Lamar, which is awesome,” said Winslow. “Austin’s so neighborhood focused. That’s why we built the brewery right here cause we want to be the neighborhood brewery.”

That said, Bullock and Winslow had opted to have a small distribution footprint for marketing purposes. “So unless we go knocking on their door or start doing like ads on the radio or television it’s hard to reach some people without having like that presence outside.

Which is one of the main reasons why, well one of the bigger reasons why we distribute,” Said BRYAN WINSLOW AND TIML BULLOCK OF ST ELMOL

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HOLD OUT BREWINGL Winslow. “And Carl I think is the best one for that. So that’s the main reason we distribute is just so that people can find out about us. And they get to see a little bit of what we’re doing.”

For the moment, St Elmo are keeping the majority of their beer in St Elmo, and trust their neighborhood will stay thirsty enough to support them.

“I think there’s a ton of room for more people to make breweries for the neighborhood,” said Winslow “There’s a lot of neighborhoods.”

Bullock agreed, “There’s a lot of space for that. For people to think of breweries more like restaurants and less like factories.”

A NEW, LIKE OLD, AUSTIN JOINT The brothers Matt and Grady Wright with partner Matt Bolick buzzed the trail for Austin’s current infatuation with coffee/beer/ repeat joints with their E 5th downtown respite The Brew & Brew. Now they’re taking their one-two punch model on down the road with a new restaurant and brewery project aptly named Better Half and Hold Out Brewing.

Situated between 4th and 5th just west of Walsh (think between Lamar and Mopac), Better Half will be more of a respectable restaurant concept with an elevated Texas diner menu, cocktails, and all the frills helmed by executive chef Rich Riembolt of Jeffrey’s and Josephine House fame. Hold Out Brewing will hide down the ways a little in an old Quonset hut, slinging out hoppy pales you drink two at once, lagers nodding to our city’s

long sitting lag-fathers, and culinary beerfood creations brewed by the steady hand of head brewer Brent “Schmitty” Sapstead, of Real Ale legend. All under the watchful eye of industry vet, GM Mark Stowe, who previously kept the Jester King taproom and Violet Crown Cinemas food and beverage program moving smoothly.

“The idea is that we can capture kind of the best of both worlds in the fact that Better Half will be coffee, cocktails, beer, wine, cider, and a full kitchen inspired by a Texas diner.

But definitely elevated,” said Grady Wright, the younger of the two brothers. “We’ve assembled a team that I think has really made it achievable and the personalities have made it exactly the culture that we’re looking for. Which is just low key good times with outstanding products.”

In addition to the full-scale restaurant Better Half, they plan on running a small kitchen out of the Hold Out, serving more beer-soak-ready options, but still with an attention to excellence. “It’s flat top burgers made from scratch,” said Grady.

As far as the beer program goes, Grady said, “We’re trying to condense to essentially a really tasty approachable, I would call them Austin style lagers. That’s what people are making. And then very hop-forward pale ales that drink like IPAs. And then lastly introducing some of that agriculture influence in a way that’s non farmhouse. And kind of opening that part of the market up. Because there’s people doing it nationwide really successfully and they’re highlighting the same

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features that the farmhouse producers are doing but you’re not jamming yourself into a crowded market. I don’t want to compete with Jester King. Same way that I don’t want to compete with ABGB or Live Oak. Everyone has their niche and we’re trying to find our sweet spot in the market.”

As for the choice of location, bother Matt Wright added, “We chose old west Austin because the building was there. And it was a neighborhood that has a lot of appeal, it’s got a lot of history. It’s got good demographics if you’re trying to run a business. It’s got a lot of young families. You have the families and your professional and folk who’ve been in Austin for a long time. And then on top of all that it does give you the chance to be like a center for the community,” he said. “The same way that Jester King is super obsessed with the place and the time for their product I think we’re kind of in a similar way I think we being attracted to projects where you can capture the place and a time for a neighborhood.”

Grady explained how the sense of place is embodied in the name saying, “On a really basic level modernization of that slacker vibe.

We want to bring that appeal of Austin to this property and then lock it in so you can’t build a high rise there. That’s the whole reason the name is ‘Hold Out’ is we’re just trying to grab some property in what everybody knows to be Austin, which is downtown.”

Hold Out Brewing is built from the same mold as St Elmo in that they aim to create a fresh beer destination designed to soak their neighborhood without many ambitions to move beer beyond their zip code.

“Yeah, our goal is to sell 100% of the beer produced on premise. Be it growlers to go, or we might do some mobile canning eventually.

That would be kind of the high end of where we’re searching. But mostly we want to do draft on premise production,” said Matt. “Our goal is to be a sustainable scale. So I talked to Josh Hare (of Hops & Grain) when I was still noodling on the idea before we signed the lease. I approached him candidly and said hey I’m thinking about maybe launching into a brew pub. What’s your opinion on this?

And he said as long as they’re not going on a shelf in town it’s a smart move. So he sees, and I think a lot of us see, the trend towards this maturation of our beer market. You can’t have 100 Real Ales, 100 Hops & Grain, or 100 Beerworks. But you can easily have in Austin 50 to 100 neighborhood breweries depending on their scope and where they’re focused. ”

“We didn’t want to play the real estate game on shelves. That is the opposite of what Brew & Brew is doing,” said Matt. “That’s not why we enjoy working at Brew & Brew. It’s really about your neighborhood, the people you see everyday. In this case you can connect to more of the local producers. You can just have a personal connection with a lot more of the steps of your beer from when you’re making it all the way out to when you hand it over the counter. And you really can only do that in a brew pub.”

NEIGHBORHOOD GARAGE TO NEIGHBORHOOD BREW PUB Chris Rauschuber and wife Whitney Roberts are in the last phases of opening the highly anticipated north/central Brewtorium brew pub. By the time you’re reading this they might even be open, they’re that close.

The couple live in north Austin, and after a thorough yet unsuccessful vetting of available commercial properties in their neighborhood radius, made the hard choice to expand their search, but still keeping the focus on opening a neighborhood-centric-fresh-beer-torium, or Brewtorium for short.

“We felt like even what, four years ago when we started talking about this and writing our business plan, we kind of could see the writing on the wall,” said Roberts. “There wasn’t a lot of room left for massive breweries, like Real Ale and Austin Beerworks. And so all along we started writing our business plan to customize our plan to be a neighborhood brew pub. We set out to find the neighborhood where we could do that, a piece of property that worked for that model. That’s why we were happy that we found this property in a neighborhood that was kind of turning over with the death of Highland Mall and very little retail in the area. It placed us in a really good position to become that neighborhood meeting, gathering, drinking family social place for the neighborhood.”

“Chris and I love hanging out and drinking in our garage with people, the whole homebrew community. So we felt like we couldn’t accomplish that as easily with a packaging brewery where you’re not there experiencing the beer with people in front of you being behind the bar and discussing the process and the recipes with your consumers,” she said.

“It also comes back to quality. Being able to talk to the people that are drinking your

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beer in your taproom. If anything isn’t what you want it to be, you'd like to find out right away rather than your beer being poured two tiers away and not knowing if people are not satisfied with your product and being able to hear about it,” said Rauschuber.

Both hope Brewtorium will become a social hub for the evolving Highland neighborhood. “We want to be a gathering place for people to hang out,” he said. “To bring their kids, hang out in the beer garden with their dogs and to just socialize, that’s important for us.”

“The Highland area and neighborhoods around here have been really supportive of what we’re trying to do. And we welcome the feedback. We want to hear what people like, what they don’t like. Our first priority is keeping our neighbors happy,” said Rauschuber.

Roberts added, “Finding a landlord too that’s friendly to your concept— that had been more of a challenge than we were expecting in our search. And it wasn’t just, ‘ok you’re going to have a brew pub, we get that.’ It was we’re worried about parking, we were worried about security. All these little things would come up that made every place we looked a challenge.

So it was that balance between the right neighborhood, the right property, and the right landlord. And this came up. At first this space scared the hell out of us. The amount

of space, ‘cause it’s friggin huge. We will be the largest brew pub in the city when we open.

That’s a little daunting. Yeah, it wasn’t our goal. We never set out to be like we’re going to be the biggest in the whole city.”

Brewing on a 15-barrel brewhouse, Brewtorium hope to be able to keep plenty of beer on tap while also being nimble enough to change things up and keep them interesting for their new thirsty neighbors.

“As a smaller brewery we can try different beers, different styles, different recipes. And then see if people like it. If it’s going well then we’ll keep making it. If not we won’t. If there are tweaks we need to make we’ll adjust recipes and see where that goes. But that’s one of the things that I love about being a brew pub, being a smaller scale, is that we can figure out what works, what the neighborhood likes and go from there.”

Rauschuber and Roberts are approaching their model from a strategic business plan that would allow them to execute a measure of controlled growth. “You sort of build an audience for your beer. You have a place for people to come and learn about your beers and start being an advocate for your brand,” she said. “So if you ever do want to go out and start distribution, whether it’s on a mass scale or strategically to certain accounts, you already have a fan base. So that was kind of part of it. And also like we’ve CHRIS RAUSCHUBER AND WHITNEY ROBERTS OF BREWTORIUM

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talked about competition is just staggering right now for tap handles. And my pet peeve is unrefrigerated retail space. There’s still room on the hot shelf for your beer, but you can’t control the quality when your beer is not refrigerated and not maintained at a consistent temperature from your keg and your taproom all the way to the retail account.

There’s still room for neighborhood brew pubs whereas out there in the marketplace that’s becoming more saturated.”

“It’s a little more stable. Well it’s sort of a risk assessment as well. The margins are better of course for on site sales. And you can grow from that point. Of course there’s limitations on your volume as a brew pub, but you can start from a more stable position,” added Rauschuber.

THREE HOUSES ARE BETTER THAN ONE The neighborhood-beats-distribution model has been so successful for some folks that they’re going back for thirds. The Alpha Acidheads behind the two powerhouse Pinthouse Pizza brew pubs are currently working on erecting their third location, this one in Round Rock. After the blow out success of the first Burnet location, they opened their second on south Lamar, and with that solidified their reputation as one of the best IPA programs in Texas/the world. With each pub claiming it’s own beer program comprising of regular starting lineups and rotating taps (to a competitive degree between the two), hop cravers across Austin are salivating with anticipation over what the third house will introduce to the current hop frenzy seizing our appetites. ”In our model the idea is we want to be a neighborhood spot wherever we are. So when we built the original location on Burnet the idea here is we wanted to be a spot that people from the neighborhood are going to come in, eat, drink, bring their families, and be, kind of that flavor for this little spot of the world. And then same idea with Lamar.

We were looking for a place, what we kept finding when we talked to people is they never came up here because we’re north of the river. So it was natural for us to look south of the river. And so it felt like when we went down there the pubs had a little bit of a different feel,” he said. “We feel like it kind of caters to a little bit different demographic, kind of how they’re situated. The beers are different in the sense that Electric Jellyfish is Electric Jellyfish down there and Training

Bines is Training Bines up here. But like you know it’s a Pinthouse beer. We’re not trying to make totally new styles of beer.”

Late November 2017, the Pinthouse crew broke ground on their third pub in Round Rock. “When we go to Round Rock I think the idea is to incorporate a lot of the things that we feel like are needed up there,” said Mohrfeld. “ So it’s going to be again very family friendly. But we’re going to have more of a true bar setup for like a happy hour crowd and for people who are coming in. And then the one thing we did do is we did kind of, yes we’re building another pub but we are kind of building a hybrid pub production facility in the sense that it’s scalable to 10,000 barrels.”

Mohrfeld said they're planning to create the Round Rock pub as a bit of a hybrid between the traditional PHP model but with the possibility to support production of the popular styles for the other two pubs. This will give them the opportunity to distribute Electric Jellyfish and others IPAs while taking some stress off the pubs and allowing them to focus on the neighborhood beers, but as far as the Round Rock’s beer program fingerprint, they’re still figuring it out.

“So we’re discussing what makes sense for each pub’s identity. What makes sense for the brewers. I want them to always feel like they get to innovate and come up with their fun stuff,” said Mohrfeld. “I think we’ll never have a program that everything is available at every pub. But we’ve already, I mean as most people have seen we’ve already brewed some beers that we just know and like, like Old Beluga we brew at both locations now cause we like it. So I think you’re going to see some of our mainstay staples start to cross over more.”

This past year witnessed Pinthouse pumping up their distribution game in efforts to get the word out about some of their more popular styles from each pub.

“Electric Jellyfish just totally blew up. It created this amazing organic demand. And we had the capacity at the time. We had more fermentation space than the pubs needed.

And so it was a really great opportunity for us to get some brand awareness for Electric Jellyfish. Like get more people exposed to Pinthouse beer. We were three and a half, four years old. So many people they’d never heard of us. Didn’t know what we did and so we started selling our Electric Jellyfish in market.

People started realizing what we do. That started driving, I think, more pubs sales for

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us,” said Mohrfeld.

With this push into the market, they’ve had to walk the line between distribution production and onsite sales while not leaving their pubs dry of their more popular beers.

Currently about 80% of sales are in the pubs with the remainder distributed in the market.

“Crowlers have been great for us. We move a lot of Crowlers a week, a lot of volume.

And where we do really well is with our, whenever we do a release of an IPA, new IPA or double IPA we limit them typically two per person. Because even now limiting them two per person, we’ll often sell out of a small batch in 12 to 24 hours,” he said.

“It’s something we’ve also kind of had an internal discussion about is, because we had customers that are regulars and stuff that are like well I don’t even get to drink this beer cause they’re selling it out in Crowlers. We thought very consciously of that. That’s where the limits came from originally was we felt like well we don’t want to starve our regulars.

But then at the same time it is such a good outlet for the beer. And it has provided a lot of great exposure for our beers.”

“I think looking at the trends I’ve seen from around the country and kind of applying them to what I know about the Austin market right now it seems like you’re just going to be hard pressed to do any kind of even mid-size packaging brewery. Just in a region, it’s just

getting tough. Like shelf space is tough, tap handles are tough to come by. It’s hard to get that volume. And I think what you’re going to see is more people, I really think you’re going to see more people like the St Elmo. Probably see more brew pubs,” said Mohrfeld. “I think the most viable business model right now is kind of the small taproom model. And doing things like Crowler releases or finding a way to make sure people can know who you are. Cause you don’t have that large scale presence. But then drawing them in to drink your beer. And I liken it to what you’re really seeing with the craft beer scene in San Diego and Portland right now. They’re providing them great liquid and great service and giving them a reason to keep coming back.

And also giving them a reason to go drink the next one.”

ROCKIN’ THE SUBURBS Redhorn have been a northern outpost for excellent beer slowly percolating over the past two and a half years up in sleepy Cedar Park. Plugging away at experimental stouts and IPAs, slowly garnering attention and eventually acclaim via a strategic and cunning “distribution as marketing” plan and eventually luring the “suburbs suck” hardcore Austinites up north Parmer to partake in their brews that are well worth crossing the TravCo/WilCo border. Born

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intentionally suburban, although they are getting well deserved Austin attention, they’ve always been firmly planted in their Cedar Park community, committed to brewing and serving the best fresh beer they could for their neighborhood. With the addition of a Crowler machine this past year, it’s become easier for their beer to “travel” beyond the border and draw imbibers from outside their zip code.

“I’m a resident of Round Rock. And if we were doing this we were jumping off the cliff completely from an entrepreneurial standpoint with our careers going all in. And at the end of the day we wanted to make sure we can get to it conveniently,” said Cofounder and owner Chad Misner. “So it was intentionally done in our backyard. There are some barriers to entry in other parts of town.

A lot of people knock Williamson County, think it’s too conservative. But for us it was very business friendly.”

“I was actually raised in West Lake so I know what the suburb life is all about,” said head brewer Zack Gardner. “Every suburb is kind of like its own little ant farm where you’ve got everything you need and you don’t really need to go into the city. And so much of what we’ve seen in this area particular is a lot of people that now live in Cedar Park around Leander, parts in Georgetown, that’s where it’s easy to get to us. They used to live in Austin or have wanted to live in Austin but cost prohibitive, taxes, property fee or just property values has been skyrocketing. So they move

out here. So we wanted to bring something that you might find in Austin and might be an attraction in Austin and bring it a little bit closer to home.”

Part of being in the suburbs is fine tuning the product for the market. “So we knew that we wanted to do IPAs,” said Gardner, “But you still get a lot of crossover drinkers. A lot of people still aren’t familiar, just starting to get into craft beer. And so we knew that we’d have to have some approachable styles to kind of hook people and bring them in. Really we wanted those crossover styles to be super well made and things that we want to drink on our own like a hef, a really nice blonde sometimes hits the spot.”

Assistant brewer Eric Taylor added, “I don’t feel like when decisions are being made about what we brew we’re ever like chasing the market. As much as like looking at each other and going like ‘we love this beer, that’s a milkshake’. Or ‘we love this beer that’s this type of double IPA’. And we also feel like the consumers will like it,” he said. “One thing that I do feel like we do really well is do us.”

Over the past few years Redhorn have used distribution as a marketing, and like Pinthouse, have seen the evangelistic nature of the Crowler draw butts to seats.

“I do think there’s something special about like when we have a big release that doesn’t see a lot of distribution, that people are coming here for that experience,” said Taylor.

“And if we’re limiting Crowlers or something

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like that it stretches it out. So they can come here for the experience for like a set number of weeks. And then there’s something special about people coming for special releases.”

“I think a lot of it is also to try and insert it and get people in areas where they may not be either willing or have the opportunity to take the hour drive all the way up here to Cedar Park. So like a lot of our real specialty stuff, we’ll send some over to Pflugerville. The guys over at Growler Bar have been great to us,” said Gardner. “But also we like to send a lot down to the different Whole Foods, the Central Market Growler fill stations, Craft Pride, Brew & Brew, as well.”

Misner said the Redhorn team are approaching a two phased growth plan to first bulk up the capacity in the brewhouse with more tanks, add a lab for some improved QC, and then lastly start the hunt for Redhorn two.

“Once that’s rocking and rolling we’re spending some time hitting the pavement looking for location two. And you can probably draw a 25 mile north and south radius, maybe not quite 25 miles east and west, and that’s all shit that we’re throwing darts at right now for location two,” he said. “We’re at that entry level planning phase. We know that there’s going to be a location two. Are we going to stick with the suburb model? Potentially.

But we’re not opposed. We’d be foolish to not look at all of our options at this point in the planning phase. So I would say within six months probably by the time we roll into our third year anniversary in March we’ll probably have signed a document to start planning location two.”

Gardner added, “Our second location will be very similar to this. But it won’t be the same. We’re going to produce different types of beers out of there. We’ll produce a lot of the same beers and we’ll hopefully be swapping a lot of beers back and forth between the locations. But really we want each location to really be part of the community. Something that contributes to the community in a positive way.”

OLD DOGS LEARN NEW TRICKS North by Northwest began brewing beer and serving up high end dishes near the intersection of Mopac and 183 in 1999 and have been an Austin brew pub stalwart since. Opened by Texas brewing pioneers Davis Tucker and Don Thompson, NXNW held its own throughout the oughts and as it witnessed our city’s growth and expansion,

made growth plans of its own. Always being a few years ahead of the curve, Tucker and Thompson opted to open a second pub in south Austin, as opposed to moving into a larger production and distribution model. They have adopted the “distribution as marketing” model, and even recently installed a Crowler machine to help evangelize their current killer lager, sour, and IPA experimental and rotational beers that compliment their long standing original lineup.

“I’ve been saying this for years, that’s where it’s going to go. That’s where it’s been going. And five years ago I started saying 20 years from now you’re going to walk down the street to your local pub to get your beer.

That’s what you’re going to do. Now it’s been five years later and I still believe that,” said Tucker. “I totally believe that you’re going to continue to see it go more local, more local, more local all the time. I’ve been saying that forever because that’s not only the nature of the world, it certainly has for a long time been the nature of Austin. And so each little area becomes a microcosm of the microcosm. And I think you’re just going to continue to see that happening.”

Being in the industry and watching the Austin beer market for as long as Tucker has, he views the new trend in perspective of the overall market, and how it’s a marker that we are getting close to a saturation point as far as tap wall and retail shelf space goes.

“Yeah, and how many more spaces are there? There aren’t, and so what’s going to have to happen over time is things will start to weed out,” Tucker said. “ I can tell you a first hand story from our distributor that they’re seeing a slowdown. And that they’re seeing a slowdown in out of state beers, which is great. I mean I’m sorry Mr. out of state beer, but that’s that local thing. I mean that’s going to be the opportunity for those of us who are local to pick up ground.”

He continued, “I think it would be much harder for some brand new brewery to get that approval in the grocery stores. And that goes full circle back around to what I’ve said again for years, is you better build your place counting on surviving off of your taproom and your local drinkers that are literally in a mile radius. In fact, I probably used to say five miles. These days I would say a mile radius. Because if you’ve spent so much money that you can’t cover your cost with that kind of drinkership, I think you’re going to be in trouble.”

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DAVIS TUCKER OF NXNW Tucker even speculates a weeding out of local folks who struggle to produce good beer consistently could be on the horizon.

“You have to worry about the local guys who aren’t making good beer,” he said. “Maybe as soon as it stops being cool to be a small brewer. As soon as that stops and people stop diving into the market, because as soon as one bad brewer is out another one is going to take his place.”

He’s even seen the trends steer away from the traditional brew pub model to more of a taproom centric model. “I’ve seen a distinct change in the Austin market with all the brewers opening up and doing taprooms and not doing food and bringing in the food trucks.

It’s unfortunate that, I’ve been such a huge advocate for all this stuff, that it’s actually been difficult on my business because I’ve done things and worked for things that have created my own competition. So because it appears to me anyway that the current trend is that more people would rather go to a brewery and just hang out and drink beer and maybe get something to eat from a food truck rather than coming to a brew pub,” Tucker said. “And that’s our challenge for North By to be ok, well how do we meet that market? And try and engage where the trends are going and what we’re doing and what we want to do to continue to compete.”

NXNW are moving into hybrid territory by expanding their “distribution as marketing” strategy into full on retail with packaged

cans to sell on shelves. “We’re going to get into canning in January, hopefully January, knock on wood, maybe February. But that’s an adjunct to what we do now. We have the luxury of being able to have all these, you could almost say experimental brands or beers that we get to decide or let the consumer decide, oh this is going to be the next one that comes out in cans. So we’re sort of expanding our reach to the consumer, and hopefully it grows the image of the restaurants too. It’s sort of a natural advertising event for what we’re doing,” he said. “So it’s going to be Northern Light, the helles; Red Zeppelin, the Irish red; and the Zombie Dragon to start. And then we’ll start doing some other things. We’ve already got eight cans designed. I suppose more than anything it just felt like the next natural step for us. And so sure I do hope it’ll be an ambassador for the taproom. But at the same time because we are in the craft beer business I feel like it’s incumbent on us to compete in that arena as well.”

That said, Tucker’s heart is still in his brew pub. “I think if you said ‘ok, if you had it to do over again what would you do?’ I would do more of the taproom model, still have food but do more focus on the taproom. Rather than the restaurant side of it. And so I think rather than just building up to go out into distribution, I like that I’m creating a community in my restaurant, in my brew pub. I like when I walk through the place and I hear people laughing and having a good time. That’s honestly as

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much as anything my most enjoyment that I get out of the business. And you don’t get that at the grocery. Rarely do I hear people laughing and having a great time on the aisle of the HEB grocery store.”

IF YOU BREW IT, THEY WILL COME Like Pinthouse proved you could make 100 IPAs and the market would bear it, ABGB proved you could build a legacy on just three lagers, and they’ve been validated, twice now, on the national stage being awarded Best Large Brew Pub in America in 2016 and 2017 at the Great American Beer Fest.

And yet, unless you find yourself sitting at their bar, beer hall, or shaded biergarten off Oltorf near Lamar in south Austin, you’ll rarely be able to taste these world class lagers for yourself. Following the traditional brew pub model with a pizza slinging kitchen adjacent to the brewery, the ABGB are a rare bird in that they’ve earned massive acclaim, but are still content to continue to brew just enough lagers (and pales, IPAs, sours, etc.) for themselves, and have a little left over for the neighbors lucky enough to abide in the presence of such greatness.

“Yeah, the taproom model is probably the only thing that I think is going to be a viable thing for anybody who’s going into the hybrid production taproom model,” said co-founder and veteran brewer Brian “Swifty” Peters. “I tell everybody that the retail is going to keep your lights on. If you can do it well it’ll do more than keep your lights on. I’d tell them to do a brew pub but they’re all scared to do food. My number one recommendation was always do brew pub, otherwise do a taproom and make sure you have good traffic through your taproom. Figure out a way where hopefully your location doesn’t make it challenging to get some traffic.”

“Yeah, I think anybody who has a good location could open up a taproom and do kind of what St Elmo is doing and do I think what Skull Mechanix is going to do,” said Peters. “I mean they’re not in, I believe, a great ideal location, but they’re making it work. So if you create a cool environment in your taproom and you have good beer you will sell beer.”

Peters co-founded Live Oak and came from the distribution model, but has been in the retail-on-site world for several years.

“Yeah, I did all that distribution with Live Oak and I think it’s way better to do the retail if you can pull it off,” said Peters. “And I’ve been

at brew pub level ever since I left Live Oak. It’s just so much better. And plus it’s really fun to know your customers and to actually sit around and kind of have the ‘Cheers’ moment. You have your regulars and all that. All that does make it like a family and a community and all that. And Bitter End was that way. And ABGB is that way.”

Even being a nationally awarded brewery, the ABGB are still hustling to gain brand awareness across Austin and are recently venturing into distribution for marketing purposes.

“Even though I feel like people know who we are in general, there’s just so many people in Austin who don’t know who we are. So for us to be at the Brewer’s Festival, there’s probably hundreds of people who came to our booth that had never heard of us. And it’s just one of those things I’m still getting used to,” Peters said. “We won’t distribute beer to restaurants anytime soon.

I’m thinking about, or like Amos [Lowe] was saying we could package but it would be mobile canning and you lose tons of margin.

It’s just it costs so much. And I was thinking draft only cause I’m a Live Oak guy. And that’s to me more viable and it’s definitely a better margin.”

“And there’s a couple reasons why I think we can do it,” he said. “We’re not doing it because we’re trying to do it for money or for the profit. We’re doing it for the marketing.

We’re doing it to build our brand. And I think we still could build our brand quite a bit.”

In early 2017 ABGB installed their own Crowler machine in efforts to send out 32oz lager missionaries, but also to help those who’ve already seen the light develop a new “at home” relationship with their beers.

“Yeah, the Crowler definitely was that the growler is dead. Long live the growler.

It wasn’t working that well. The Crowler is definitely the new format that people prefer.

And we’re selling like four times what we did in glass in cans. It gives people the ability to start building this pattern of going to their place that they like to drink beer the most and then taking home a three pack and actually having it at home. And cutting out the grocery store completely,” Peters said.

“If I can get people to understand that they don’t have to, they can go to their local place that they love to drink beer and then get it for their home life. You’re set for the week.

That would be my dream.”

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And what a dream that is. “And it goes back, I mean it’s almost like these stories that you heard great grandpa talk about going down to the brewery and getting beer.

My dad would talk about how his mom would go down and get a bucket of beer from the local brewery. And I am thinking that we are kind of returning to that with a local brewery within walking distance or close enough where it’s not inconvenient and that would be my dream.”

Peters along with co-founder and cobrewer Amos Lowe have made a brand on brewing lagers, and this year made Rocket 100, their winningest beer, a third year round lager. “I’ve said that from the beginning. Brew what you selfishly want to brew. Brew what you love. And then fuck all the rest, man. It’s like, let everybody else brew the stouts or whatever. Pinthouse is known for their IPA,” he said. “And that’s driving their business and that’s really awesome. I think it wasn’t what they probably necessarily opened thinking that that was going to happen. And when we

Untitled-3 1

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opened I didn’t think we would become Brew Pub of the Year because of what we do with the lagers. But that’s the direction that we took. And that’s the direction they took. So it’s good. If the message, my message is figure out what you’re most passionate about and do that. If you get recognized for it that’s just gravy man.”

As far as the big picture goes, Peter’s believes there’s room for more smaller neighborhood fresh beer outposts to open still. “Another dozen. There’s a lot of space.

There’s a lot of neighborhoods. I mean including like Cedar Park Pflugerville and all that. There’s just so many neighborhoods and so many places. Some of them are kind of bedroom,” he said. “I think that people are talking about oversaturated is I think that’s crazy. I think yeah if you’re oversaturated if you’re talking production. Not oversaturated if you’re talking taproom. So really a lot of this comes down to the fact that the law changed. Without that I don’t even know what kind of a conversation this would have been.”

11/19/13 5:30 PM

12/3/17 10:59 PM

GABF TEXAS GABF MEDAL WINNERS

GOLD La Muerta, Freetail Brewing Co., Aged Beer Buckle Bunny, Eureka Heights Brewing Co., American-Style Cream Ale Rocket 100, The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co., American-Style Pilsener or International-Style Pilsener Amandus, Lazarus Brewing Co., Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale Velvet Revolution, The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co., Bohemian-Style Pilsener Bearded Seal, Pinthouse Pizza North, Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout Super Awesome Lager, Austin Beerworks, Light Lager Saint Arnold Pumpkinator, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Pumpkin/Squash Beer or Pumpkin Spice Beer Real Heavy, Real Ale Brewing Co., Scotch Ale SILVER Shiner Bock, Spoetzl Brewery, American-Style Amber Lager It's Always Something, Peticolas Brewing Co., Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale Oktoberfest, Rahr & Sons Brewing Co., German-Style Maerzen Firemans #4, Real Ale Brewing Co., Golden or Blonde Ale Luchesa Lager, Oasis Texas Brewing Co., Kellerbier or Zwickelbier Lux Mundi, Save the World Brewing Co., Other Belgian-Style Ale BRONZE Blue Bridge, Galveston Island Brewing, American-Style Amber/Red Ale Holler ESB, Holler Brewing Co., Extra Special Bitter Saint Arnold Weedwacker, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., German-Style Wheat Ale Honey Please, Armadillo Ale Works, Honey Beer Saint Arnold Amber Ale, Saint Arnold Brewing Co., Ordinary or Special Bitter Barrel-Aged Marfa Light, Big Bend Brewing Co., Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout LARGE BREW PUB AND LARGE BREW PUB BREWER OF THE YEAR The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. MID-SIZE BREWING COMPANY AND MID-SIZE BREWING COMPANY BREWER OF THE YEAR Saint Arnold Brewing Co.

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BEER & LOATHING

Words by JOSH SPRADLING Photos by AARON CHAMBERLAIN & JOSH SPRADLING

SOMETIMES YOU FIND THE BEER AND Loathing, sometimes the Beer and Loathing finds you. At first glance, it was easy to dismiss an email to come check out one of Austin’s newest breweries. As a side job, Beer Guide can take a back seat to reality and juggling it all means even free beer and first glances fall through the cracks. But, when we saw this media tour included FREE SURFING (retail value: $60/hr), we were all in.

After checking our calendars and looking at remaining PTO for the year, we (Aaron and I) turned in our notices for an afternoon of fun in the sun at the new NLand Brewing Company.

“But how is that worthy of the infamous Beer and Loathing we’ve all come to love?” you’re asking. Well, to kick off their opening, the fine folks at NLand partnered with St Elmo and Live Oak for a Love of Lager tour, free ride and all!

After awkward Ubers to the Yard, we met up at semi-new coffee/beer/bike bar Spokesman.

Posted up at the bar, we picked some fresh

(512) and Brazos Valley IPAs from the excellently curated tap wall. Owner/old pal/Lager Jam DJ/Best Of host CJ West was putting in time behind the bar and chatted us up about his upcoming Manway Open. He inquired why we were dressed like we were ready for a Hawaiian vacation. Elmo’s Bryan Winslow made a brief cameo while dropping off a keg and we told him we’d see him later at the conclusion of our tour.

He told us probably not (he was right), and we quickly headed on our way to catch our ride.

It would be cliche to say our chariot awaited, but in this case, it was true. We loaded onto one of those blue Chariot shuttles you may have seen around town ready to party.

While at Spokesman, we had thrown around names of potential media (professional and not) we may see on the bus, so we were eager to see how many we had called right. Aaron had been watching beach fight videos all day to prepare for any blogger beef that might break out. Much to our surprise, we were way off. Two smiling but tentative faces greeted us. Alex, our host, and Weston.

Apparently the other so called “media” had bailed, but the bus was paid for so we stretched out our legs and hit the road. Weston was from Austin Fit, and Aaron was sizing him up to see who could catch more waves between the two. Aaron also mentioned no less than five times that he was from Florida, “I grew up 45 minutes from Kelly Slater.”

As we rolled into NLand, I threw on some Dick Dale to get myself psyched up. Our new friends forcefully ignored us, but we understood… Beer Guide charm takes some time (and alcohol) to set in. A few other invitees

SPOKESMAN

TODD HENRY

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TCBF Photo: Lost in Austin (TOP), Tyler Malone (BOTTOM)

The Endless Bummer

ADVERTORIAL

s

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Texas' largest craft beer festival, the Texas Craft Brewers Festival returned this year after a stellar 2016 fest with even more Texas Craft Beer and Festing! The Not-to-miss VIP session once again proved to be a high quality experience for those who scored tickets before it sold out, but with over 60 breweries representing from across our expansive state, there was enough fun to go around for everyone that attended. And this year the excellent fest organizers added the new opening night event Partners in Craft, which focused on Texas collaboration beers, local artisans, live music, local food and views of sunset on Lady Bird Lake ("Town Lake" for you purists, "Colorado River" for those looking for it on a map). As always, the greatness of this event is the rare ability to actually get a glimpse of the state of beer from all corners of the Lone Star all in a beautiful park surrounded be several hundred like minded beer loving Texans. God bless the TCBF, and God bless Texas beer.

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Thanks, Yâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;all. See You in 2018!

n

TCBF Photo: Lost in Austin (TOP), Tyler Malone (BOTTOM)

e w

MFH Martin Frost & Hill Texas Liquor Lawyers

RY

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NLAND LIVE OAK

met us there, including the Statesman’s Fit City writer (and river paddling companion to Tony “@beerpedaler” Drewry) Pam LeBlanc.

As a newb to surfing I was excited to learn how to hang ten, but the instructors quickly sized me up and gave me one simple piece of advice, “when you wipe out, make sure to fall back and away from the board.” They had me figured out.

If you’ve never been surfing, you just need to know this—it’s a beating. I caught a couple (read two) waves, but watched as Aaron dueled, and I think outperformed, his new frenemy Weston.

An hour later and we were spent. I could tell you more, but this isn’t surfing and loathing.

After a quick rinse, we were off to the brew pub. It had been over an hour since our last beer, so we eagerly ordered a pint while we waited for our guests. Not long after, we were

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joined by the crew and NLand Brewing Co. brewer Todd Henry of former Lovejoys and Independence fame. We’d been running into Todd at breweries the past year as he awaited opening, so we were excited for him to show off his wares. The initial lineup offered what you’d want after a surf session (or while watching one)—lager, blonde, peach wheat, pale, and an IPA. We poked around his shiney new toys and reminisced about the old Lovejoys “brewhouse,” us more fondly than him. We hated to run so quickly, but on par for Beer and Loathing, we were starting to run behind, so we downed our flight and pint and headed back towards town.

On our ride to Live Oak we tried to convince Weston and Alex we were a legit publication, but unable to produce one then, or anywhere throughout the night, they remained skeptical. We followed this with excuses for our poor Instagram following (@austinbeerguide).

Walking into Live Oak, we held our heads in shame as tap room manager Meg Ellis looked at us with confusion and pity, wondering what we were doing on a beer tour. If you follow any of us online, you know we spend an embarrassingly large amount of weekends enjoying lagers in the LO biergarten. I think we had been there that Sunday and had reason to be back that coming Saturday. But always the gracious host, they treated us like the professionals we pretend to be. With a Grodziskie in hand, Colin Ferguson took us back to give the others a peek behind the curtain. While pouring some keller Pilz (the reason you never turn down an LO tour), we asked where those newly boxed Primus cans were.

This is where the tables turned. Tourists became guides, visitors became hosts, and ABG showed our weight in beer. Weston’s ears perked. He didn’t know of Primus, but he knew if we were asking, there was a reason. We were transported to the cold room where stacks on stacks of previous Editors’ Choice for Best Beer were calling our name. We cracked open a box, popped the top, and like any good ABG story, let beer take the wheel (or maybe more appropriately, that Chariot watching the clock outside). The formalities of our evening were

12/3/17 11:15 PM

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out the window and our new friends found themselves on their way to a solid Beer and Loathing.

With the sun now set and even further behind schedule (sorry, Alex), we moved our way back into the tap room so Colin could guide us through Live Oak’s impressive array of smoked lagers. Our interest was genuine, but at this point attention short (sorry, Colin). We were checking Google maps to see how long it would take to get back to the Yard so we could leave at the latest possible minute and get the bus back on time. I don’t recall much about this ride except trying to get everyone to van surf. They didn’t.

We rolled into St Elmo fashionably late, but hostess with the mostess Libby Mayfield was not shaken as she had more flights at the ready. As we exchanged pleasantries, I slipped away to the bar.

Did you know St. Elmo does litre steins of Carl? Our compadres didn’t… yet. I ordered four, and while Tim Bullock politely questioned our decision making at this point in the evening, we agreed they were necessary “for effect” and a good ‘gram. It was no secret we had hijacked this media tour, but after the initial shock, Weston and Alex came to realize there was nowhere to go until they saw the bottom of that stein.

About 12oz in and lured by bluegrass on the stage, we moved outside to partake in Grassy Thursday. This is where things got as hazy as the IPA you’re probably drinking right now. There was talk of love and marriage, dating and sex, and we gave out or best dad advice to our obviously younger audience. We all pushed through to finish our steins, hugged, made sure we were all getting safe rides, and pretended we’d do it again. Weston and Alex, if you’re reading this, thanks and sorry. Also, now you know we really do print a zine!

A wiser person would have called this a night. But this was Beer and Loathing, and we had not eaten. And we weren’t yet loathing. An Uber arrived and the only logical next stop was ABGB. Did you know that ABGB’s kitchen closes at 10:00? Well you do now, so you’re welcome. Thankfully Roxanne was aware of our state and scrounged up a couple of leftover slices to accompany our Rocket 100s and tried to set us on a better path for the next day. It was too little, too late, but we appreciated the effort and savored every bite of who knows what crazy concoction of pie Jesus had whipped up in the back. Aaron was fading fast and regretting his decision, knowing he could have been home and in bed.

Just as he was about to walk out, an Elliott Smith song came on, and he sat back down. We listened in silence, making the best dents we could on our pils, and loathed with the king of misery as our soundtrack. Surfing six hours ago was a distant memory, but one our muscles would remind us of the next morning, tacking on a new level of ache to this punishing feature. When it was over we didn’t talk, just called our rides and went off into the night. Hang ten, and sleep well.

PS - We’d be remiss if we didn’t advise to surf before you drink!

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It’s our brewers’ favorite phrase. And with two more Gold Medals at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival,® we earned Brewpub Of The Year.

Again! Come enjoy these beers. And, you’ll say it, too: PILS! PILS! PILS!

Rocket 100 – Gold Medal, American-Style Pilsener, GABF 2015 & 2017; Industry Pils – Gold Medal, German-Style Pilsener, GABF 2016; Velvet Revolution – Gold Medal, Bohemian-Style Pilsener, GABF 2017

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TA P RO O M S C H E D U L E

B A O Jester King Jester King Brewery (p.79) Brewery (p.79) Last Stand Last Stand Brewing Co. (p.80) Brewing Co. (p.80) Live Oak Live Co. Oak(p.55) Brewing Brewing Co. (p.55) New Braunfels New Braunfels Brewing Co. (p.90) Brewing Co. (p.90) Oasis, TX Oasis,Co. TX(p.82) Brewing Brewing Co. (p.82) Oskar Blues Oskar Blues Brewery (p.72) Brewery (p.72) Rentsch Rentsch Brewery (p.84) Brewery (p.84) Real Ale Real Co. Ale(p.82) Brewing Brewing Co. (p.82) Ruggedman Ruggedman Brewing Co. (p.90) Brewing Co. (p.90) San Gabriel River San Gabriel(p.84) River Brewery Brewery (p.84) Save The Save The World (p.90) World (p.90) Southern Heights Southern Heights Brewing Co. (p.56) Brewing Co. (p.56) St Elmo St Elmo Brewing Co. (p.64) Brewing (p.64) StrangeCo. Land Strange Land Brewery (p.85) Brewery (p.85) Suds Monkey Suds Monkey Brewing Co. (p.86) Brewing Co.Oaks (p.86) Thousand Thousand Brewing Co.Oaks (p.87) Brewing (p.87) TreatyCo. Oak Treaty Oak Brewing (p.87) Brewing (p.87) Twisted X Twisted Brewing Co. X (p.88) Brewing Co. (p.88) Two Wheel Two Wheel Brewing Co. (p.90) Brewing Co. (p.90) Zilker Brewing Co. (p.56) Zilker Brewing Co. (p.56)

Brewing Co. (p.79)

Closed Closed Closed Closed

12–9pm 12–9pm

Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed

12–9pm 12–9pm

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12–10pm 12–10pm

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12–8pm 12–8pm 12–6pm 12–6pm 12–5pm 12–5pm 12–6pm 12–6pm

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12–10pm 12–10pm 12–10pm 12–10pm 12–10pm 12–10pm 3–9pm 12–9pm 4–9pm 3–9pm 12–9pm 4–9pm 12–6pm 11am–7pm 11am–7pm 12–6pm 11am–7pm 11am–7pm 12–10pm 2–8pm 2–10pm 12–10pm 2–8pm 2–10pm Closed 4–8pm 1–6pm Closed 4–8pm 1–6pm Closed 3–6pm 1–6pm Closed 3–6pm 1–6pm Closed 4–9pm 12–9pm Closed 4–9pm 12–9pm 4–11pm 12pm–12am 11am–12am 4–11pm 12pm–12am 11am–12am Closed 5–9pm 2–9pm Closed 5–9pm 2–9pm 3–8pm 3–8pm 12–8pm 3–8pm 3–8pm 12–8pm Closed 2–10pm 2–10pm Closed 2–10pm 2–10pm Closed 4–9pm 12–9pm Closed 4–9pm 12–9pm 11am–9pm 11am–9pm 11am–9pm 11am–9pm 11am–9pm 11am–9pm 4–9pm 4–10pm 11am–10pm 4–9pm 4–10pm 11am–10pm 4–10pm 12pm–12am 12pm–12am 4–10pm 12pm–12am 12pm–12am

12–8pm 12–8pm Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed Closed

4–10pm 4–10pm Closed Closed

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E

BY NOW WE HAVE ESTABLISHED THE FACT THAT BREWERY TAPROOMS ARE THE NEW BARS. EVEN MORE HAVE OPENED SINCE LAST ISSUE. AND OTHERS HAVE EXTENDED HOURS. PLAN ACCORDINGLY. 4th Tap Brewing Co-Op (p.68) (512) Brewing Co. (p.60) Adelbert’s Brewery (p.68) Altmeyer & Lewis Brewing Co. (p.90) Austin Beerworks (p.69) Barrow Brewing Co. (p.90) Bluebonnet Beer Co. (p.76) Blue Owl Brewing (p.52) Brewing Bull Creek Creek Bull Brewing (p.76) (p.76) Brewing

Celis Celis Brewery Brewery (p.70) (p.70) Circle Circle Brewing Co. Co. (p.70) (p.70) Brewing Flying Man Man Flying Brewing Co. Co. (p.78) (p.78) Brewing Friends & & Allies Allies Friends Brewing (p.53) (p.53) Brewing Guadalupe Guadalupe Brewing Co. Co. (p.90) (p.90) Brewing Hi Sign Sign Hi Brewing (p.55) (p.55) Brewing Hops & & Grain Grain Hops Brewing (p.54) (p.54) Brewing Idle Vine Vine Idle Brewing Co. Co. (p.78) (p.78) Brewing Independence Independence Brewing Co. Co. (p.62) (p.62) Brewing Infamous Infamous Brewing Co. Co. (p.79) (p.79) Brewing

Jester King

Closed

4–10pm

MONDAY

Closed

Closed

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4–10pm

TUESDAY

4–10pm

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Closed

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Closed Closed

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3–10pm

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FRIDAY

4–10pm Closed

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WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

Closed

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12–6pm 12–7pm 12–7pm Closed Closed

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5–10pm 330–10pm 330–10pm Closed Closed

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4–10pm 4–10pm 4pm–12am 4–10pm 4–10pm 4–10pm 4–10pm 4pm–12am 12pm–12am 12pm–12am 12–10pm 4–10pm 4–10pm 12–10pm Closed Closed Closed 4–9pm 2–9pm 2–8pm Closed Closed Closed Closed 4–9pm 2–9pm 2–8pm Closed Closed 12–10pm Closed 12–8pm 2–10pm 2–10pm 12–10pm Closed 12–10pm Closed 12–8pm 2–10pm 2–10pm 12–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 10am–10pm 12–8pm 3–8pm 3–8pm 3–10pm 3–8pm 12–10pm 3–10pm 12–8pm 3–8pm 3–8pm 3–10pm 3–8pm 12–10pm 3–10pm Closed Closed Closed Closed

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 52 MEDICAL PKWY.

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1. Flying Saucer 815 West 47th Street 2. Crown and Anchor Pub 2911 San Jacinto Boulevard 3. Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches 3220 Manor Road 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. The Liberty 1618 East 6th Street 9. Alamo Drafthouse, Mueller 1911 Aldrich Street 10. The Ginger Man 301 Lavaca Street 11. Frank 407 Colorado Street 12. Hopfields 3110 Guadalupe Street

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13. Contigo 2027 Anchor Lane 14. Hopdoddy Burger Bar, Triangle 4615 North Lamar Boulevard, #307 15. Hi Hat Public House 2121 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. Yellow Jacket Social Club 1704 East 5th Street 23. Spider House 2908 Fruth Street 24. Thunderbird Coffee, Manor 2200 Manor Road 25. Violet Crown Social Club 1111 East 6th Street

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26. The Grackle 1700 East 6th Street 27. The White Horse 500 Comal Street 28. B.D. Riley’s, Mueller 1905 Aldrich Street, Suite 130 29. Mort Subite 308 Congress Avenue 30. Easy Tiger Bake Shop and Beer Garden 709 East 6th Street 31. Craft Pride G 61 Rainey Street 32. Salt & Time 1912 East 7th Street 33. in.gredients 2610 Manor Road 34. Cuvee Coffee Bar G 2000 E 6th Street 35. Wright Bros. Brew & Brew G 500 San Marcos Street

37. Hops & Grain Brewing 507 Calles Street 38. Live Oak Brewing Co. 1615 Crozier Lane 39. Blue Owl Brewing Co. 2400 East Cesar Chavez Street 40. Zilker Brewing Co. 1701 East Sixth Street 41. Friends & Allies Brewing 979 Springdale Road 42. Lazarus Brewing Co. G 1902 E 6th Street 43. Hi Sign Brewing 1201 Bastrop Highway 44. Southern Heights Brewing Co. 6014 Techni Center Drive, Suite 2-101

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

45. Central Market G 4001 North Lamar Boulevard 46. Hyde Park Market 4429 Duval Street 47. Whole Foods Market G 525 North Lamar Boulevard

36. Draught House Pub & Brewery G 4112 Medical Parkway

CENTRAL

14

50

STORES

48. Antonelli’s Cheese Shop 4220 Duval Street 49. Twin Liquors, Hancock 1000 East 41st Street 50. Rosedale Market 1309 West 45th Street 51. Quickie Pickie G 1208 East 11th Street 52. East 1st Grocery 1811 East Cesar Chavez Street 53. H-E-B, Mueller G 1801 East 51st Street 54. Whichcraft, Mueller G 1900 Simond Avenue, Suite 200

OTHER 55. Austin Eastciders 4007 Commercial Center Drive, Suite 700

G = growler and/or Crowler fills

12/3/17 10:27 PM

+AL +BD

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Blue Owl Brewing INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . 2400 East Cesar Chavez Street Austin, TX 78702 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . .Wed & Thu 3–10pm, Fri & Sat 12–10pm, Sun 12–6pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.blueowlbrewing.com

Jeff Young, former brewer of Black Star Co-op, opened Blue Owl Brewing in the fall of 2015. With a focus on keeping their beers approachable and affordable, Young and co. aim to make their canned beers the first “afterwork” sour beer for the everyman.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND Little Boss, Van Dayum!

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Draught House INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . .4112 Medical Parkway 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 heads up a random program that includes the return of some old favorites, plus barrel-aged beers and the occasional lager.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING

Red Planet (also Double Red Planet), Hop School

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

Red Planet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Red Ale Hop School. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Jubal Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Winter Warmer

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WE RECOMMEND

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Friends & Allies Brewing INFO

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 979 Springdale Road Austin, TX 78702 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . .Mon–Thu 4–10pm, Fri 4pm–12am, Sat 12am–12am, Sat 12–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.friendsandallies.beer

BEER SAMPLING

BREWERY SNAPSHOT The crew, made up of Devon Ponds, Ben Sabin, and Nathan Crane, started out brewing their beer at 4th Tap Brewing Co-Op, but in early 2017 they moved into their new brewery and taproom on Springdale Road. In the space they will brew four core beers and a host of seasonals.

WE RECOMMEND Fresh Coast, Urban Chicken

Fresh Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Springdale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . White Ale Urban Chicken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Saison

THIS COULD BE YOUR SHELF ELF Limited release bottles on sale in the taproom.

Up

Next

ADMIRAL GRAVITAS (DEC) LORD ADMIRAL GRAVITAS (JAN) - DAPPER DEVIL (FEB)

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Hops & Grain Brewing

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INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

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LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .507 Calles Street Austin, TX 78702 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . Mon–Sun 10am–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 first 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. In 2016 they announced plans to open a second location in San Marcos.

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WE RECOMMEND

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A Pale Mosaic, The One They Call Zoe

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

Lazarus Brewing Co.

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INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

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LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1902 E. 6th Street Austin, TX 78702 DRINKING HOURS . . .Mon–Wed 730am–11pm, Thu & Fri 730am–12am, Sat 10am–12am, Sun 10am–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.lazarusbrewing.com

Lazarus Brewing came alive in late 2016, with an eye towards the holy trinity: beer, tacos, and coffee. A pastor by trade, Christian Cryder, opened up with a solid crew, including brewer Matt Couch (formerly of Victory Brewing) and GM Marcus TenHarmsel (formerly of Hopfields). The handsome, wellappointed brew pub hosts 16 taps of in-house beer, showing off an eclectic, worldly beer theory. But don’t forget about the food—the tacos and tortas here are fine fare.

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HOUSE BEER SAMPLING 20 Pound Brown. . . . . . . . . . . . .India Brown Ale 40 Days & 40 Nights. . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Amandus . . . . Belgian-Style Strong Golden Ale

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40 Days & 40 Nights, Amandus

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Hi Sign Brewing INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . .1201 Bastrop Highway Austin, TX 78742 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . .Wed & Thu 2–10pm, Fri & Sat 12–10pm, Sun 12–8pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.hisignbrewing.com

Growing tired of drinking beers at Live Oak with airplanes flying over you? Well, you are in luck. There is a new brewery in town to drink at with planes flying overhead: Hi Sign. After a previous life as a US Marine, Mark Phillippe turned his attention towards opening a brewery in Austin. Then with a brewer, Andrew Shelton from Revolver, he opened the doors of Hi Sign in early 2017. With four core beers, including a double New England-style IPA, and slew of others, you now have two places to get sauced before your flight out of town.

BEER SAMPLING The Astronaut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Double IPA Blond Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blond Ale The Fiddler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Irish-style Red Ale Pale Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale

WE RECOMMEND The Astronaut, The Fiddler

Live Oak Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1615 Crozier Lane Austin, TX 78617 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . .Sun–Thu 12–9pm, Fri & Sat 12–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes 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 recently moved to their new brewery near the airport and started canning their beer. It is a new Austin “must visit.”

BEER SAMPLING Big Bark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Vienna-Style Lager HefeWeizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hefeweizen Pilz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Czech-Style Pilsner Primus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Weizenbock

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WE RECOMMEND Primus, Pilz

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Southern Heights Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . 6014 Techni Center Drive Austin, TX 78721 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fri 4–9pm, Sat 12–9pm, Sun 12–7pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . www.southernheightsbrewing.com

Tucked in a small pocket of east Austin, near 183, Chris Rich and Austin Russell are brewing up something special. They spent the last few years making this dream come to fruition and in November of this year they opened their doors to Austin’s thirsty hordes.

They are focused on honing their takes on American craft beer styles, old and new, all to be enjoyed in their modern, airy taproom.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Evergreen Terrace . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Extra Crispy . . . . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale Where’s My Flannel . . . English-Style Mild Ale

Evergreen Terrace, Extra Crispy

INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

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

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.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Coffee Milk Stout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Coffee Stout East Side Beer (ESB). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ESB Marco IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Parks & Rec Pale Ale. . . . . . American Pale Ale

ESB, Marco IPA

Zilker Brewing Co.

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Drink Beer. Eat Plants. Be Happy.

40 Taps + Full Bar www.thebeerplant.com

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3110 Windsor Road Austin, TX 78703 (512) 524-1800

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1. Zax Restaurant & Bar 312 Barton Springs Road 2. Hopdoddy Burger Bar, SOCO 1400 South Congress Avenue 3. Odd Duck 1201 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. Stouthaus Coffee Pub 4715 South Lamar Boulevard 9. The Buzz Mill 1505 Town Creek Boulevard

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10. Gibson Street Bar 1109 South Lamar Boulevard 11. Jackalope, South Shore 1523 Tinnin Ford Road 12. Radio Coffee & Beer 4204 Manchaca Road

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS 13. Uncle Billy’s G 1530 Barton Springs Road 14. Pinthouse Pizza-South Lamar G 4236 South Lamar Boulevard 15. Austin Beer Garden Brewing G 1305 West Oltorf Street 16. (512) Brewing Co. 407 Radam Lane, F200 17. Independence Brewing Co. 3913 Todd Lane 18. Orf Brewing 4700 Burleson Road, Unit F

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19. St Elmo Brewing Co. G 440 East Saint Elmo Road, Suite G-2

STORES 20. Thom’s Market 1418 Barton Springs Road 21. Central Market G 4477 South Lamar Boulevard 22. Spec’s, Brodie Lane 4978 West Highway 290 23. Live Oak Market 4410 Manchaca Road 24. South Lamar Wine and Spirits 2418 South Lamar Boulevard 25. Which Craft, South Lamar 2418 South Lamar Boulevard 26. Whip In G 1950 South IH-35 27. SoCo Homebrew 4930 South Congress Ave, Suite 307 G = growler and/or Crowler fills

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

(512) Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407 Radam Lane Austin, TX 78745 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . . .Sat 12pm–4pm 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. They will break ground on a new facility in south Austin in 2018(?).

BEER SAMPLING (512) IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA (512) Pale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale (512) Pecan Porter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Porter (512) Wit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Witbier

WE RECOMMEND Pecan Porter, IPA

*$12 = six 8oz. samples and glass to keep

Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . 1305 West Oltorf Street Austin, TX 78704 DRINKING HOURS . . .Tue–Thu 1130am–11pm, Fri 1130am–12am, Sat 12pm–12am, Sun 12–10pm 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 Industry, Rocket 100

Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . German-Style Pilsner Rocket 100. . . . . . . . . . . Pre-Prohibition Pilsner Superliner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA

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Pecan Porter A Taste of Home

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Independence Brewing Co.

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INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

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LOCATION. . . 3913 Todd Lane, Austin, TX 78744 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . .Thu & Fri 4–10pm, Sat 1–10pm, Sun 2–8pm 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 every fall for the UT vs. OU game.

They have recently expanded to a 60-barrel JV Northwest brewhouse and expanded their regular lineup.

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BEER SAMPLING Red Bud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Berliner Weisse-Style Stash IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA White Rabbit . . . . . . . . . . .Belgian-Style Witbier

WE RECOMMEND

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INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . 5701 West Slaughter Lane DRINKING HOURS. . . . . Mon–Thu 11am–10pm, Fri & Sat 11am–11pm, Sun 10am–9pm 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 brew pub and offers a complete menu, with the restaurant itself driving many people to the establishment. This, their second location, opened in 2015, offering a similar food menu, atmosphere, and beer portfolio.

WE RECOMMEND

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Porch Time Pilsner, Sunbreak IPA

Black Hop Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Black IPA O(double)G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gose Porch Time Pilsner . . . . German-style Pilsner Sunbreak IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA

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Red Bud, White Rabbit

North by Northwest, Slaughter

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING

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Pinthouse Pizza, South Lamar INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . .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

With great fanfare Pinthouse Pizza’s second

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING Electric Jellyfish . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Sola Weizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hefeweizen White Tiger Gose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gose

location opened in 2015 on South Lamar Boulevard. Right out of the gate, Electric Jellyfish was an instant Austin classic. No beer has ever garnered more Instagram photos and Facebook posts in its first month of existence as this one. But they did not rest there. They continued pumping out distinct ales and lagers, while still sailing in the well-loved waters of its older sibling up north.

WE RECOMMEND Electric Jellyfish, Sola Weizen

Orf Brewing INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . 4700 Burleson Road, Unit F Austin, TX 78744 GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.orfbrewing.com

They said it couldn’t be done. They said it would never happen. Well now they need to shut up, because Chris Orf’s Orf Brewing is now open for business. We knew it would happen. We always believed. 11 years and 11 tshirts later, Orf Brewing is cooking up their unique hybrid styles in south Austin. Patience is a virtue kids!

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Salutation Ale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Golden Ale Hoprocker I.R.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Red Ale Honey Roast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Brown Ale Oocheenama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . White Ale

Hoprocker I.R.A., Honey Roast

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

St Elmo Brewing Co.

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INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . .440 East Saint Elmo Road Austin, TX 78745 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . Tue–Thu 4–11pm, Fri 12pm–12am, Sat 11am–12am, Sun 12–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.stelmobrewing.com

Bursting from the loins of ex-Austin Beerworkers, Bryan Winslow and Tim Bullock, St Elmo birthed in late 2016. The ATX scene was quite proud of the fresh, young brewery.

They opened with a delicious handful of brews.

Grab a beer and grab a seat inside their clean taproom or head out back to lounge in their airy beer garden. All this goes great with the tasty grub being cooked out back from Soursop. Get the La Koreanita burger and thank us later.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Angus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stout Carl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kölsch-Style Ale Chico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pale Ale Jan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . German IPA

Carl, Jan

Uncle Billy’s Brewery INFO 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.unclebillys.com

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

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BREW PUB SNAPSHOT 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.

WE RECOMMEND Green Room IPA, Lazy Day Lager

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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 9. Yard House 11800 Domain Boulevard #700 10. Brass Tap, Domain 10910 Domain Drive #120

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS 11. Pinthouse Pizza G 4729 Burnet Road 12. North By Northwest (NXNW) G 10010 N Capital of TX Highway 13. Black Star Co-op G 7020 Easy Wind Drive 14. Circle Brewing Co. 2340 West Braker Lane 15. Austin Beerworks 3009 Industrial Terrace 16. Adelbert’s Brewery 2314 Rutland Drive, Suite 100 17. 4th Tap Brewing Co-op 10615 Metric Boulevard 18. Oskar Blues Brewery 10420 Metric Boulevard 19. Celis Brewery 10001 Metric Boulevard G = growler and/or Crowler fills

STORES 20. Specs, Arbor Walk 10515 N Mopac Expressway 21. Sunrise Mini Mart 1809 West Anderson Lane 22. Specs, Airport Boulevard 5775 Airport Boulevard 23. Austin Homebrew Supply 9129 Metric Boulevard 24. King Liquor 5310 Burnet Road 25. Growler Room G 6800 Burnet Road, Suite 2 26. Whole Foods Market, Domain G 11920 Domain Drive

OTHER 27. Meridian Hive 8120 Exchange Drive, Suite 400 28. Fairweather Cider Co. 10609 Metric Boulevard, Suite 108A

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

4th Tap Brewing Co-op

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BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . .10615 Metric Boulevard Austin, TX 78758 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . Mon–Thu 4–10pm, Fri & Sat 12pm–12am, Sun 12–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.4thtap.coop

Opened in 2015, 4th Tap Brewing Co-op is the first 100% worker-owned 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 started with a handful of unique beers, like the Tamarind Wheat Ale.

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

WE RECOMMEND

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Long Walk, Renewal

Adelbert’s Brewery

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INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

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LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . .2314 Rutland Drive #100 Austin, TX 78758 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . Wed–Fri 5–10pm, Sat 1–10pm, Sun 1–7pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes 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 (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 Belgianstyle bottle and keg conditioned brewery, aptly named after his older brother.

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

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Naked Nun, Philosophizer

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Austin Beerworks INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . 3009 Industrial Terrace Austin, TX 78758 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . .Mon–Thu 4–10pm, Fri 11am–10pm, Sat 12–8pm, 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 2011.

With their regular lineup of four beers the four friends have come storming out of the gates and onto the Austin beer scene. Their new taproom is now open.

BEER SAMPLING Clockwork Orange. . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Fire Eagle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Heavy Machinery . . . . . . . . .Rotating IPA Series Pearl Snap German Pils. . . . . German Pilsner

WE RECOMMEND Fire Eagle, Heavy Machinery, Pearl Snap

Black Star Co-op INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . .7020 Easy Wind Drive Austin, TX 78752 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mon 4–11pm, Tue–Sun 11am–11pm 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

WE RECOMMEND

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

Vulcan, Recalcitrant Dockhand

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Celis Brewery INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . .10001 Metric Boulevard Austin, TX 78758 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . Tue–Thu 3–10pm, Fri–Sun 12–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.celisbeers.com

Everyone has that uncle who will never shut up about how good Celis White was back in the day whenever you bring over a six pack of your current fav beer. Maybe you are that uncle. Good news for him (you): Celis is back baby! Relive the old days sipping on their Grand Cru or revile in the modern era as you chug their West Coast IPA. Their new home is on Metric Boulevard, along with half the other breweries in town.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Grand Cru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Belgian-Style Tripel Pale Bock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bock West Coast IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Witbier

Pale Bock, White

INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . 2340 West Braker Lane, Suite B Austin, TX 78758 DRINKING HOURS. . . . Thu 5–9pm, Fri 5–10pm, Sat 12–10pm, Sun 12–6pm 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 their year-round beer in cans and others in bottles. Check out their fresh brand update which hit the streets in 2017.

Archetype Historical IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IPA Alibi Blonde. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blonde Ale Blur Texas Hefe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hefeweizen Envy Amber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Ale

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WE RECOMMEND Archetype, Blur

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North by Northwest, Stonelake INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. .10010 Capital of TX Highway North Austin, TX 78759 DRINKING HOURS . . . . Mon–Thu 11am–11pm, Fri 11am–12am, Sat 10am–12am, Sun 10am–11pm 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.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND Black Jack, Prost Pilsner

Bavarian Hefeweizen . . . . . . . . . . . Hefeweizen Black Jack . . . . . . . . . . . .Barrel-aged Black Ale Prost Pilsner. . . . . . . . . . German-style Pilsner

y s

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS

Pinthouse Pizza, Burnet INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4729 Burnet Road Austin, TX 78756 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. Director of brewing Joe Mohrfeld oversees 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. Their second location on South Lamar is now open and crackin’.

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING Best Coast IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Blind Jake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American Porter Calma Muerta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Session Ale

WE RECOMMEND Best Coast IPA, Blind Jake

Oskar Blues Brewery INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . .10420 Metric Boulevard Austin, TX 78758 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . .Sun & Mon 12–8pm, Tues–Sat 12–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . www.oskarblues.com/brewery/austin

We know what you are thinking, “I think they made a mistake. These ABG morons included a Colorado brewery in their magazine about Austin.” If you haven’t been living under a rock for the last year, you know Oskar Blues opened a brewery here in Austin (their third in the USA).

While you may feel it is not technically “local beer” as most of their recipes were originally born in CO, they are now brewing here and operating a taproom in north Austin (the Tasty Weasel). And for that reason, here it is, in the guide. In the words of Charlie Papazian, “relax, don’t worry, have a fresh Dale’s.”

BEER SAMPLING Dale’s Pale Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pale Ale Mama’s Little Yellow Pils. . . . . . . . . . . . Pilsner Old Chub. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scotch Ale Pinner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Session IPA

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WE RECOMMEND Old Chub, Pinner

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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. Leander Beer Market G 106 West Willis Street, Leander 6. Alamo Drafthouse, Lakeline / Glass Half Full Taproom 14028 U.S. 183 7. The Brass Tap 204 East Main Street, Round Rock

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS 8. Flying Man Brewing Co. 2400 Patterson Industrial Drive 9. NLand Brewing Co. 4836 East Highway 71, Del Valle 10. Double Horn Brewing Co. G 208 Avenue H, Marble Falls 11. Acopon Brewing Co. G 211 West Mercer Street, Dripping Springs

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42 39 23 12 13 16 26 27 37 12. Wimberley Brewing Co. G 9595 Ranch Road 12, Wimberley 13. Middleton Brewing G 101 Oakwood Loop, San Marcos 14. Pecan Street Brewing G 106 East Pecan Drive, Johnson City 15. San Gabriel River Brewery 500 Chaparral Drive, Liberty Hill 16. Faust Brewing Co. 240 S. Seguin Ave., New Braunfels 17. Red Horn Coffee House and Brewing Co. G 13010 West Parmer Lane, Suite 800,Cedar Park 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. Altmeyer & Lewis Brewing Co. 15898 TX-123, San Marcos

24. Real Ale Brewing Co. 231 San Saba Court, 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. Bluebonnet Beer Co. 1700 Bryant Drive #107, Round Rock 30. Bull Creek Brewing Co. 7100 FM3405, Liberty Hill 31. Strange Land Brewery 5904 Bee Cave Road 32. Rentsch Brewery 2500 NE Inner Loop, Georgetown 33. Whitestone Brewery 601 E Whitestone Boulevard, Cedar Park 34. Flix Brewhouse G 2000 S IH-35, Round Rock 35. Barrow Brewing Co. 108 Royal Street, Salado

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36. Idle Vine Brewing Co. G 16920 Joe Barbee Drive, Bldg. 1, Pflugerville 37. AquaBrew G 150 South LBJ Drive, San Marcos 38. Treaty Oak Brewing 16604 Fitzhugh Road, Dripping Springs 39. Two Wheel Brewing Co. 535 South Loop 4, Buda 40. Suds Monkey Brewing Co. G 1032 Canyon Bend Drive, Dripping Springs

STORES 41. Hamrick’s Market 401 Cypress Creek Road, Cedar Park

G = growler and/or Crowler fills

OTHER 42. Texas Keeper Cider 12521 Twin Creeks Road, Manchaca 43. Argus Cidery G 12345 Pauls Valley Road #2

12/3/17 10:27 PM

BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

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 the OG Twisted X, they built their brewery in a small industrial park. Their taproom is open 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

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Bull Creek Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7100 FM 3405 Liberty Hill, TX 78642 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sat 12–5pm 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 so they could eventually distribute to a larger area. They are located in Liberty Hill, outside Georgetown and are currently only doing taproom hours on Saturdays. Grab the kids and get out of town.

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

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WE RECOMMEND Iron Balls

12/3/17 10:27 PM

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THE CANVAS

FOR YOUR CRAFT

CANNING EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES | MOBILE CANNING SERVICES americancanning.com

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Flying Man Brewing Co.

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BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . 2400 Patterson Industrial Drive Pflugerville, TX 78660 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thu 430–9pm, Fri 330–10pm, Sat 12–10pm, Sun 12–7pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . www.flyingmanbrewing.com

Flying Man is the latest brewing operation to swing open its doors in Pflugerville. They missed a great opportunity to call themselves Pflying Man, but whatever. Guess they will have to get by on their beer alone. Try one from their everchanging lineup at Rogness’ old space, which has been transformed into something wholey different.

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Air Racer IPA, Coffin Corner Porter

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Air Racer IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Coffin Corner Porter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Porter Weedhopper Honey Wheat . . . . . . . Wheat Ale

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Idle Vine Brewing Co.

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LOCATION . .16920 Joe Barbee Drive, Building 1 Pflugerville, TX 78664 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . Mon–Wed 3–8pm, Thu & Fri 3–10pm, Sat 12–10pm, Sun 12–8pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.idlevinebrewery.com

Pflugerville’s got a new crew in town.

Idle Vine’s Todd Wink (Dig Pub) and Brian

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WE RECOMMEND

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BEER SAMPLING

Idle Mind, Trackdown

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Bristow threw open their doors in early 2017.

Before opening they hired Scott Ciampa to be their head brewer. Scott was recruited from Indiana’s Evil Czech Brewery. They plan to release their beer (four core and special releases) in bottles and cans.

Idle Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American IPA No Hitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cream Ale Trackdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American Porter

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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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.infamousbrewing.com

Josh Horowitz got the wheels running in Infamous Brewing Co. in Austin in June of 2012. In less than a year they 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.

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

Jester King Brewery INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13187 Fitzhugh Road Austin, TX 78736 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Fri 4–10pm, Sat 12–10pm, Sun 12–7pm 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, Jester King 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 Spon . . . . . . . . . .Spontaneously Fermented Ale

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WE RECOMMEND #greenbottles, Spon

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Last Stand Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. .12345 Pauls Valley Road, Building I Austin, TX 78737 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thu 4–7, Fri –Sun 12–9pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.laststandbrewing.com

Kerry and Mandi Richardson 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. They recently celebrated their second anniversary.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND Coffee Porter, SMaSH Citra IPA

BPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Belgian-Style Pale Ale Coffee Porter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Coffee Porter SMaSH Citra IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . American IPA Simcoe Pale Ale. . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale

NLand Brewing Co. INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4836 East Highway 71 Del Valle, TX 78617 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . Wed–Sun 12–9pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.nlandsurfpark.com

Surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku once said, “Out Of Water, I Am Nothing.” He obviously

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING American Pilsner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pilsner Fun Beer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Golden Ale NLand Pale Ale. . . . . . . . . . . American Pale Ale Off Leash IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA

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had never been to NLand, where once you are out of the water you can be drunk. Located on the grounds of NLand Surf Park, the brewery helmed by Todd Henry is churning out quaffable suds to pair with tired arms and sore legs gained from a day in the surf. All meant to be enjoyed after surfing, not before, of course, or without even surfing at all.

WE RECOMMEND American Pilsner, Off Leash IPA

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Oasis, TX Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6550 Comanche Trail Austin, TX 78732 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thu 4–10pm, Fri & 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

Oasis, TX Brewing Co. is located out in the enclave of Oasis, TX, just west of Austin overlooking Lake Travis. They brew up tasty session beers including a well-made pale ale and keller pilsner. Watch for new canned seasonal releases throughout the year. Treat your eyes and taste buds to a favor and hit up the scenic tasting room on the weekends.

BEER SAMPLING

Meta Modern, Slow Ride Pale Ale

WE RECOMMEND

INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 San Saba Court Blanco, TX 78606 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . Wed & Thu 12–6pm, Fri & Sat 11am–7pm, Sun 12–5pm 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 2015 they opened their new tasting room and extended their hours.

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Real Ale Brewing Co.

4-Squared . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blonde Ale (Squared) Axis IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Fireman’s #4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blonde Ale Full Moon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rye IPA Hans’ Pils. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . German Pilsner

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

BEER SAMPLING

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WE RECOMMEND Axis IPA, Hans’ Pils

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Red Horn Coffee

House and Brewing Co. INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. .13010 West Parmer Lane, Suite 800 Cedar Park, TX 78613 DRINKING HOURS . . . . Mon–Thu 7am–10pm, Fri & Sat 7am–11pm, Sun 8am–10pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.redhornbrew.com

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 do it. A small menu of food is also available.

WE RECOMMEND HapSlappy IPA, TrailRunner Golden Ale

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING Beach Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American Pale HapSlappy IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American IPA TrailRunner Golden Ale . . . . . . . . . . Golden Ale

Relax and Unwind SPRING 2018

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Rentsch Brewery

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INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

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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.rentschbrewery.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 hobbyists 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.

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BEER SAMPLING Blonde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blonde Ale Hefeweizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hefeweizen IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Weizenbock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Weizenbock

WE RECOMMEND

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Hefeweizen, IPA

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San Gabriel River Brewery

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BREWERY SNAPSHOT

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LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 Chaparral Drive Liberty Hill, TX 78642 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . Fri 4–8pm, Sat 1–6pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . .www.sangabrielriverbrewery.com

The brainchild of brothers Patrick and John Peck, San Gabriel River Brewery opened earlier this year. They made their first festival appearance this past September at the Texas Craft Brewers Festival. During taproom hours they usually have food trucks serving up some tasty grub. They even have a bottle club. For $35 a month you get four bottles, three your choice and one seasonal.

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WE RECOMMEND

Amber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Ale Honey Porter . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American Porter IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Texas Red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Red Ale

Honey Porter, IPA

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Solid Rock Brewing INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2214 Bee Creek Road Spicewood, TX 78669 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . No Current Hours (check website) GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.solidrockbrewing.com

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.”

BEER SAMPLING Big Drought Stout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dry Stout Cho’Sen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Hybrid Ale Cornerstone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cream Ale Roundhead Red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Irish Red Ale

WE RECOMMEND Roundhead Red, Dauntless IPA

Strange Land Brewery INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5904 Bee Cave Road Austin, TX 78746 DRINKING HOURS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fri 5–9pm, Sat 12–9pm, Sun 12–7pm 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 Austinite Pilz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Czech Pilsner Entire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Porter Ploughshare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saison

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WE RECOMMEND Entire, Ploughshare

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Suds Monkey Brewing Co.

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INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . .1032 Canyon Bend Drive, #B Dripping Springs, TX 78620 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . Thu & Fri 3–8pm, Sat 12–8pm, Sun 12–6pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.sudsmonkeybrew.net

Monkey themed beers! What else do you need to know? Suds Monkey started like so many before: homebrewing in Mom’s basement in Michigan. Work in the industry followed, then 15 years later Suds Monkey was born.

Like they always say, follow your dreams and monkey...er...money will follow. Visit their fun (not fancy) taproom in Dripping Springs to fully experience their monkey business.

BEER SAMPLING Cheeky Monkey . . . . . . . . American Wheat Ale Funky Monkey IPA. . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Monkey Tail Pale Ale. . . . . . American Pale Ale

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Funky Monkey IPA, Monkey Tail

Thirsty Planet Brewing Co.

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BREWERY SNAPSHOT

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LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11160 Circle Drive Austin, TX 78736 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . No Current Hours* 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.

Later he met some college students who offered him an ownership piece of a brew pub in Oklahoma. Eventually he decided to open a full production brewery in Austin—Thirsty Planet Brewing Co. *They will move into an expanded facility in south Austin this year.

Taproom hours to resume there.

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

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WE RECOMMEND Buckethead IPA, Thirsty Goat

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Thousand Oaks Brewing Co. INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . 3200 Woodall Drive, #C-1 Cedar Park, TX 78613 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . Fri & Sat 2–10pm, GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . www.thousandoaksbrewing.com

First there was Twisted X in this space on Woodall Drive. Then there was IronSight Brewers. IronSight closed in 2016 and Grady Reynolds (half of IronSight) teamed up with former Rogness brewer Dave Heath and decided to take another crack at it late this year as Thousand Oaks Brewing Co. For now their taproom is open on Fridays and Saturday.

Bring the kids.

BEER SAMPLING

WE RECOMMEND

Porter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American Porter Red IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American IPA Rye Blonde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Blonde Ale

Rye Blonde

Treaty Oak Brewing INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6604 Fitzhugh Road Dripping Springs, TX 78620 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fri 4–9pm, Sat 12–9pm, Sun 12–6pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . www.treatyoakdistilling.com

You’ve had their bourbon. You’ve had their gin.

You may even have had their sweet tea vodka.

Now you can drink their beer. Located on Fitzhugh Road, with those other breweries, Treaty Oak opened in late 2016. They are Central Texas’s first brewery/distillery. For once San Antonio is first (Ranger Creek).

Don’t worry, we still got breakfast tacos in our column.

BEER SAMPLING Bright Side. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blonde Ale Fitzhugh Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . British Mild Lil’ Hop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Session IPA

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WE RECOMMEND Fitzhugh Ale, Lil’ Hop

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BREWERIES & BREW PUBS (DISTRIBUTING)

Twisted X Brewing Co.

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INFO

BREWERY SNAPSHOT

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

Established in 2011 in Cedar Park, Twisted X is now situated in Dripping Springs. They have shed the Tex-Mex theme they first opened with. Now they are basically just Tex. Either way, you can enjoy a fresh pint at the brewery in Dripping Springs or grab a sixer of cans at your local grocery store before the big sports match.

BEER SAMPLING

Austin Lager, Chupahopra

WE RECOMMEND

Whitestone Brewery INFO

BREW PUB SNAPSHOT

LOCATION. . . . . 601 East Whitestone Boulevard Cedar Park, TX 78613 DRINKING HOURS . . . . . . . . Mon & Tue 3–9pm, Wed & Thu 2–10pm, Fri & Sat 12–12am, Sun 12–9pm GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD OFF-SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . www.whitestonebrewery.com

Whitestone opened the doors to their Cedar Park brew pub on New Year’s Day. Whitestone started like so many other brewing operations: a homebrewer’s dreams. Ryan Anglen was that homebrewer, with a background in software.

He is fulfilling the dream with the help of Kris Gray, Whitestone’s head brewer formerly of Stone Brewing. Stop in their handsome taproom for a taste or two of their six yearround brews. They are currently distributing to a handful of spots in the area and are looking to expand that reach. Also, they have Crowlers!

Könverter Kölsch . . . . . . . . . . Kölsch-Style Ale Lovely Day IPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .American IPA Porch Daddy Baltic Porter. . . . . . Baltic Porter Siesta Saison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saison

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Austin Lager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Premium Lager Chupahopra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . American IPA Cow Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Amber Lager Later Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Session IPA

HOUSE BEER SAMPLING

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WE RECOMMEND Könverter Kölsch, Lovely Day IPA

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Acopon Brewing Co.

Flix Brewhouse

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . .211 West Mercer Street Dripping Springs, TX 78620 GUEST TAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER SOLD ON-SITE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes BEER TO-GO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.acoponbrewing.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

For Acopon, like with the Barber Shop before it, brewer/owner John McIntosh intends to focus on English ales as well as America craft styles. Two doors down from Barber Shop, Acopon is keeping downtown Dripping Springs buzzing. And if you miss the Barber Shop, just bounce on over. They will have Acopon brews on the tap wall.

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 Star Wars flick. Drink from their six year-round and four seasonal house taps or one their 30+ guest taps.

INFO

INFO

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OTHER CENTRAL TX BREWERIES

Ruggedman Brewing Co.

EB T’NOD D RETTIB B LOCATION. . . 7600 South Old Bastrop Highway San Marcos, TX 78666 URL . . . . . . . . . . . .www.drinkthedamnbeer.com

Altmeyer & Lewis Brewing Co.

Save The World Brewing Co.

AquaBrew

Sean Patrick’s Pub

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15898 TX-123 San Marcos, TX 78666 URL . . . . . . . . .www.altmeyerlewisbrewing.com LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150 South LBJ Drive San Marcos, TX 78666 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.aqua-brew.com

Barrow Brewing Co.

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Royal Street Salado, TX 76571 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.barrowbrewing.com

Beta Brewhouse by Osmo’s Daughter LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . 1226 East Austin Street Elgin, TX 78621 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.osmosdaughter.com

Double Horn Brewing Co.

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .208 Avenue H Marble Falls, TX 78654 URL . . . . . . . . . . . www.doublehornbrewing.com

Faust Brewing Co.

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . 240 South Seguin Avenue New Braunfels, TX 78130 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.faustbrewing.com

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . 1510 Resource Parkway Marble Falls, TX 78654 URL . . . . . . . . . www.savetheworldbrewing.com LOCATION. . . . . . . . 202 East San Antonio Street San Marcos, TX 78666 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.seanpatrickstx.com

Texas Beer Co.

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 North Main Street Taylor, TX 76574 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.texasbeerco.com

Two Wheel Brewing Co.

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 South Loop 4 Buda, TX 78610 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.twowheelbrewing.com

lufituaeb eht yojnE Wimberley Brewing Co. am orRoad a 12 LOCATION.s . .p . .o . .h . . . .f . .o . .9595 Ranch

Wimberley, TX 78676 URL .E. T . .www.wimberleybrewingcompany.com SAT RETFA RET TIB EHT TUOHTIW

CENTRAL TX CIDER AND MEAD

Granger City Brewing Co.

Argus Cidery

Guadalupe Brewing Co.

Austin Eastciders

Middleton Brewing

Fairweather Cider Co.

Pecan Street Brewing

Meridian Hive Meadery

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . 109 West Davilla Street Granger, Texas 76530 URL . .fb.com/grangercitybrewingcompany.com LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1580 Wald Road New Braunfels, TX 78132 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.guadalupebrew.com LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Oakwood Loop San Marcos, TX 78666 URL . . . . . . . . . . www.middletonbrewingtx.com

LOCATION. . . . . . . .12345 Pauls Valley Road, #2 Austin, TX 78737 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.arguscidery.com LOCATION. . . . . 4007 Commercial Center Drive Austin, TX 78744 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.austineastciders.com LOCATION . . 10609 Metric Boulevard, Suite 108 Austin, TX, 78758 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.fairweathercider.com

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 East Pecan Drive LOCATION. . . . . 8120 Exchange Drive, Suite 400 Austin, TX 78754 Johnson City, TX 78636 NITSUA TUOHGUOURL RHT. .E. L. B. .A. L. .I.A.V.A. . . . .www.meridianhive.com URL . . . . . . . . . . .www.pecanstreetbrewing.com

SRELIATER ETIROVAF RUOY TA Texas DNA STN ARUATSER ,SRAB NI Keeper Cider Root Cellar Cafe & Brewery

Twin Creeks Road TI ROFLOCATION. KSA . . . . . . . . . . 12521Manchaca, TX 78652

LOCATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215 North LBJ Drive San Marcos, TX 78666 URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.rootcellarcafe.com

URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.texaskeeper.com

MOC.EVIHNAIDIREM

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DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T BE BITTER Enjoy the beautiful aroma of hops WITHOUT THE BITTER AFTER TASTE

AVAILABLE THROUGHOUT AUSTIN IN BARS, RESTAURANTS AND AT YOUR FAVORITE RETAILERS

ASK FOR IT MERIDIANHIVE.COM

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LAST CALL

Rachael Hackathorn of Zilker Brewing Co. FAVORITE SHIFT BEER

My favorite shift beer could be anything really. Just depends on what I am diggin that day. Lately it has been the Infinity Land IPA or Fiero Kolsch, but when I can’t decide the Coffee Milk Stout is always my go to.

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BIGGEST WALKED TAB Industry tabs. Industry prices are the ultimate hook up but don’t leave your tab open at the end of the night if you want to take care of the bartenders.

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WEIRDEST/CRAZIEST LAST CALL EXPERIENCE

LAST CALL CEREMONIES

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until one minute to close to squeeze one in. Enjoy your beer but know that we want to close up and drink a beer just like you.

CLOSING TIME SONG

Pour a beer and prepare to break hearts, although sometimes I get sick pleasure out of telling people it’s last call.

Not just one song, but the very well curated play list “Brewery Slow Jamz,” it’s Marco’s favorite. You can check it out on Spotify.

LAST CALL RECOMMENDATIONS

HARDEST CUSTOMER TO GET OUT

Order a beer and close your tab right after last call is announced. Don’t wait around

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Slightly buzzed friends who just want to stay and “help” close. The faster I can get my job done, the sooner we can go to The Grackle.

Photo: Tyler Malone

It was the night of our second year anniversary party. We decided to close early so the staff could party it up in the hot tub afterwards. We had just called last call when a man walked and threw down his credit card and said he needed 40 beers for the 40 guys that were about to show up. Not 5 minutes later 40+ giant English Rugby players rolled in. We poured more than 40 jugs (pitchers) over the next hour and half for those handsome men. Best group of people to come in after last call EVER!

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Also, cold-brewed coffees & kombucha on tap 609 W. 29th (at Guadalupe) | GrowlerUSAatx.com | (512) 800-9532 abgtemplate.indd 1

11/14/17 9:05 PM

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