South Austin Brewing

All 1s? Damn, that bad?

 

I wish homebrewers wanting to turn pro would get some true brewery experience before opening up shop.
Competition is too tight to be learning as they go like 10-15 years ago; consumers are a bit more savvy
on beer quality.

 

Apparently not THAT savvy, since I bought a bottle of each before ever tasting it. Lesson learned!

 

More savvy than me. I had my wife pick up 3 bottles when in Austin recently. One for myself, 2 for extras in trades. I just broke the news that we wasted $39. I have still yet to try it but if it sucks like everyone says then they're all going down the drain. I don't want to give anyone shitty extras. ISO: King Henry FT: SA Golden Ale X 2. Anyone?

 

The golden ale was not good. I still have the saison in the fridge, although I'm honestly afraid to open it now.....

 

Ugh...

 

I take offense to this statement. I have damn near 3,000 reviews and don't think I homer beers and have never met the people involved with South Austin Brewing. As stated in my reviews, I had both beers on tap - while almost all of the complaints in this thread come from bottles. In no ways am I saying my palate is awesome - and I realize everyone's is different - but the problems mentioned in this thread (creamed corn, flat, etc...) were not present on tap when I had the beers in February. Both of my reviews were below the rDev, with the Saison (4.0) further below than the Golden Ale (3.48).

From judging the reviews (which is an insanely small sample size at 3 reviews each, with many of the people on this thread complaining about the beers and not bothering to review them) and looking at the info on this thread, I think it is simply a matter of a young brewery being very inconsistent from batch to batch. I am not making excuses, since the prices they seem to be charging are way too high in my opinion, I am just calling it as I see it. Seems to be a case of a brewery which should have waited until they had mastered consistency before opening their doors and charging world-class prices for their bottles. Luckily, at least when I had them, their kegged beer cost the same as all the other local draught beers.

 

The saison is not a bad beer. Not at all. As for whether it's really a saison or not, that's more of the question there.

 

Bringing this back up. Just popped the Golden Ale, and damn near had my head taken off. As soon as I took the cage off, the cork exploded and hit my ceiling and the beer has gushing everywhere. That was the loudest pop I have ever heard from a bottle of beer. My neighbor came over to see what had happened and if I was alright Now that I have finally poured it, seems pretty standard. Nothing all that good and nothing bad.

 

And the same thing with the Saison, another gusher. Neither are very memorable, and they kind of remind me of Abelbert's. I am not usually one that complains about price, but for what I got I am not buying any more.

 

At least Adelbert's is more reasonably priced, and the beers of theirs that I've tried (Scratchin' Hippo and Naked Nun) were pretty solid. Though the Hippo cork damn near punched a hole in my ceiling.

 

FYI: Worst Brewery in Austin. These guys need to completely rethink their recipes and re-evaluate their brewing practices.

Their beer is a syrupy, flat mess in a bottle. In kegs it lingers at average.

 

Eh, I wasn't impressed but would not go that far. From what I have had Circle is pretty awful, and would take the worst brewery in Austin title for me. Different strokes...

 

Like you say, different strokes. Circle takes the title of most unimaginative for me, but not worst. I can drink their beers (I thought Wryteous was their best so far) and they don't have such a ridiculous price tag on them, but unless South Austin changes direction significantly (drinkable beers and lower prices) I won't be reaching for one of theirs. When Celis starts producing later this year there'll be three specialist Belgian style breweries in town. It'll be interesting to see if Austin can accommodate all of them.

 

SAB is too pricey and nothing I've tried has been memorable. They need to have a fantastic tour with sours and wilds if they want to garner the support...it's one of the things that has given JK much good will with a style of brewing that isn't a sought after as others (of course, their beers are much better as well).

 

Adelbert's has acknowledged that batch 005 of Rambler is overcarbed. They're exchanging bottles for batch 006 or Naked Nun : https://twitter.com/adelbertsbeer/status/214405859143454721

I've rarely had a cork go off like Rambler, and never had a gusher like that, so it's good they're taking care of the issue. The bad thing is, I still see batch 005 on shelves.

Hippo is one they said they've seen be overcarbed as well, but I don't know if they're automatically replacing bottles.

 

I also think Circle is my least favorite brewery in Austin. Havent tried the wheat rye ipa yet but every other beer ive had by them tastes boring and uninspired. Also, popped my Rogness Imperial IPA and it was completely flat. I still drank it cause it ran me $10 bucks and it was actually pretty flavorful but not 1 bubble was too be found.

 

Adelbert's is getting it right. I am not a huge belgian fan, so I have only tried Hippo. They haven't done anything too crazy, but I respect their approach. Once the dust settles I am pretty sure they will be around and I hope the sours they produce are awesome too!

 

I'm a fan of adelberts. I haven't had a whole bunch of their stuff but I enjoy naked nun and triple b. They're supposed to have a quad that's aged on brandy soaked cubes coming soon. I'm really looking forward to that one.

 

Let them know. I know a few of those guys, and that's not the product they want going to their customers.