Travelers from around the world will soon be heading to Central Texas for the total solar eclipse. But locals don’t need to spend a fortune on Hill Country hotels or even festival tickets to enjoy the fun on April 8. Some of the best area taprooms are throwing daytime festivities that feature bespoke drinks created on-site specially for the occasion. From all-inclusive shindigs to free family-friendly street parties, here are our top picks for libation-centric events during the solar eclipse.   Acopon Brewing Downtown Drippings Springs is hosting a free sunBlOCK party, closing off th ..read more

In 2020, when his wife was pregnant with their second child, Bryan Winslow was facing a major problem. The St. Elmo Brewing company owner and co-founder wanted to keep his South Austin tasting room inclusive, especially for his wife, but the brewery only offered sodas as nonalcoholic options. He looked into creating an NA beer, but quickly abandoned the notion. “The only way to make them even close to tasting good requires a tremendous amount of really expensive equipment,” Winslow says. But after encountering hop water through Lagunitas’s Hoppy Refresher, one of the first on the market, he ha ..read more

On Sept. 18, Austin-born Circle Brewing took to Instagram with some bad news for local beer fans. After 15 years of crafting suds, the brewery suddenly shuttered its longtime location on Burnet Road and would be closing their recently opened taproom in Elgin within a week. The shocking move arrived on the heels of several other notable brewery closures in the capital city: Thirsty Planet Brewing shut down unexpectedly this past August, Adelbert’s Brewery called it quits in April 2022, and 4th Tap Brewing Co-Op ceased operations in July of last year. The trend raises questions about the difficu ..read more

If you’ve visited watering holes such as North Loop’s chic Tigress Pub or Cedar Park’s English-style Dig Pub recently, you might’ve noticed distinctive new tap handles with a silhouette of two ladies toasting tulip and chalice glasses. While there’s nothing new about images of women being used to sell beer, this particular logo turns the oft-used sexualized stereotype on its head, flaunting females drinking the spoils of their own work. But while the empowering design behind Lass Haüs Ales is certainly attention-grabbing, it’s the beers attached to the new Austin brewery that are making waves ..read more

Marvis Dixon and Shannon Harris are two of Austin’s best-known Black beer industry professionals. The former is a 2023 Texas Craft Brewers Association’s Ambassador of Craft Award recipient who uses his platform as lead beertender at Fast Friends Brewing to help promoting social justice initiatives. While the latter is a DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) advocate and the founder and brewer at Urban Jungle Brewing, one of Texas’ only Black-owned breweries. For both, diversifying the capital city’s craft beer community is a passion, and one they have channeled into their latest collaboration pro ..read more

As any dyed-in-the-IBU beer nerd will tell you: The only four ingredients that belong in your pint are hops, malt, water, and yeast. But maybe… they’re wrong? Searching for a completely unique taste of Texas terroir, brewer Trevor Nearburg and his staff have started combing the state for native plants to complement, or, in some cases, supplant beer’s most sacred ingredients. Here, just some of the foraged finds they’re using to upend the category.   Mesquite Beans Beerburg combines San Saba–grown pecans with the toffee-like flavor of these pods to create a seasonal brown ale that tastes o ..read more

Quality ingredients that hinge on the fickle nature of any agricultural harvest; talented brewers who offer a wealth of perspectives; even that label that was oh-so-thoughtfully designed to get you to reach for it in the first place. There are dozens of factors that go into making a great beer. In these heady times, that’s become even more apparent as the Austin brewing community has come together to support, innovate, and further one of the best craft scenes in the country. Hey, we’ll toast to that! The post The Best in Austin Beer appeared first on Austin Monthly Magazine ..read more

On Oct. 2, 2006, a fire engulfed a 40,000-square-foot warehouse in Yakima, Washington, destroying 10,000 bales of hops. Paired with catastrophic weather across Europe the following year, a scarcity of those aromatic little cones ensued, upending the beer industry for years. Wallowing in the ripple effects of that persistent shortage was brewmaster Joe Mohrfeld, who’d helped launch Pinthouse Pizza on Burnet Road in 2012. A recent transplant from Fort Collins, Colorado, Mohrfeld was anxious to get his hands back on some of the more coveted varieties, including Simcoe and Citra—hops he’d worked w ..read more

Hold Out Brewing Co. A more appropriate name can’t be imagined for this much-delayed project located behind sister concept Better Half Coffee & Cocktails. This May—more than two years after its announcement—the brewery finally opened the doors of its Quonset hut to show off the unique Nordic-influenced pale ales of former Real Ale brewer Brent Sapstead.   Nomadic Beerworks To capture the inviting atmosphere of the pubs they frequented backpacking through Europe, brothers Dan and Bryce Tyranski curate their tap wall with ales ranging from the accessible (easy-drinking blondes) to the e ..read more

What’s old is new, as brewers are starting to look further into the past to both foster their latest innovations and honor a practice that’s thousands of years old (it dates back to 3,400 B.C.). Recreating ale styles once thought lost to history presents quite the technical challenge, though, with projects often demanding old-world brewing methods, extinct ingredients, and, if done correctly, scholarly levels of historical research. Now, beer fans are benefiting off that sweat equity with rare East German porters, a pils style popular before WWII, and an IPA built on the high seas.   Circ ..read more