Austin Trip Inquiry

If you know the exact days you will be here and want Franklins you may want to consider going the preorder route:
https://preorder.franklinbbq.com/

You have to get five pounds but it will feed you a couple of days at least.

 

German Pilsners? Check out ABGB, their Pilsners (German, Czech, and Pre-Prohibition Pils) are outstanding. Live Oal Pilz is in the Czech style, but also great.

 

Im not a local, but having just returned from a Texas trip I can recommend Black's BBQ and ABGB with immense enthusiasm. Brisket and sides were fantastic at Black's compared to the other place I tried (Lockhart in Dallas). And the Industry Pils at ABGB was perhaps the best pilsner I ever had.

 

So.....ABGB sounds right up my alley, but closed on Mondays. I did not do a Google Maps search to confirm, but their address states them to be on the West side of town I believe....so not sure if I will be able to make that work on Saturday or Sunday. I guess I will just have to keep an eye out for it to be on tap? Not sure what taplists are like around town or at the music venues.

 

The ABGB is in south Austin, only about 10 minutes from downtown by car. I don't think I've seen their stuff on tap anywhere else. If they do distribute kegs, it must not be much.

If pilsners are your thing, definitely go there and/or Live Oak. You will find Live Oak on tap at a lot of places.

 

Will keep my eye out for Live Oak stuff while there. I actually didn't realize they were Austin, or at least so convenient to Austin. Added bonus for me, they are open on Mondays. I'll put them on the list ahead of Austin Beerworks. I do prefer German Pilsners but I can certainly enjoy a Czech Pilsner too. Their lineup looks pretty good to me upon initial review. Would love to try their Helles too, which I see is a limited release. How are their smoked beers?

And 10 minutes from downtown seems easy enough, but how is traffic?

 

Live Oak's beers are amazing, and they're in an awesome setting by the airport. The smoked beers are good, but I'm not sure how many will be around in April. They seem to have them more in the fall and winter. Their Grodziskie is ridiculously good and year-round. Traffic's generally not bad getting out there except during rush hour.

 

Live Oak’s smoked beers are better than average for an American Brewery, not a Bamberg level experience, but enjoyable. Check their web site for the beers that are on. Schwartzbier and the Doppelbock are very good.

 

Its mostly stop lights on S. Lamar that are the cause of the traffic depending on where exactly you are coming from (sorry if you posted it but I didn't see it). Two other things to note if you do go to ABGB. 1/2 block south of where you turn off of S. Lamar on to Oltorf is WhichCraft, best bottle shop in town (in my opinion). And if you go another 5-10 mins south, you'll hit the S. Lamar Pinthouse, which is well worth a stop.

 

Also, don't sleep on Real Ale's Hans' Pils, a good German-style pilsner. I would think there's a good chance it would be available in cans at the Red River clubs, possibly even on draft.

 

I have lived here for quite a long time, but I'm a central Illinois transplant, where pork everything is pretty popular. I love pork ribs, but I'm not just saying the beef rib is better than pork ribs (made in Texas, at least), I'm saying it's better than any bbq. By a pretty good margin. (Maybe I need to get to Memphis to compare)

@denver10
As for the beer recommendations, everybody already said ABGB once the OP said pilsners. They keep winning awards for them.

My favorite smoked beer that Live Oak does is the Lichtenhainer. I really love that beer. They have it on right now, but not sure if that will be the case in April. Besides their czech pilsner, their German pilsner, "Gold", might be next in the seasonal rotation. They also canned it last year, I believe, so it you might be right in time for that one.

 

If scheduling allows I will do dinner and beer @ ABGB on Saturday night. The OM/Dallas Acid show doesn't start until 7:30 and I don't even know if I will need to see the opener/openers depending on who else gets added, so I don't see why scheduling wouldn't allow.

Here is hoping Gold is around.

I keep going back to Austin Beerwork's website and reviewing their taplist. It always looks good. Pilsners, Saisons, Stouts, IPA's all on at once.....reads like a solid spot that totally aligns with my tastes. Is the beer really not that good?

 

Austin Beerworks is one of my favorites. Pilsners and schwarzbiers are my favorite beer styles and I normally really like both Pearl Snap and Black Thunder. I haven't had any of their sours though.

But AGBG is the spot to go for pilsners, and Live Oak is also phenomenal. The Pilz and Hefe are world class. I loved their Helles, and their rauchbiers have probably been my favorites in America.

I really like ABW, but Live Oak comes first in my opinion and ABGB is the place to go to try pilsners. Especially if you want good food as well.

 

ABW does have a great looking taplist at the moment. I'd just check it closer to when you're going to be here. I've only been to their taproom in not-winter and sometimes the options are much more limited. I'm not sure you're going to see any stouts in April, for example. To be clear though, I do really love 3 or 4 of their beers. My comparison to PHP earlier was more of a "if you can only go to one place" kind of deal and I'm projecting my own style preferences there. They're an above average brewery.

Pinthouse Pizza makes some great beers, but the majority of them will be something hoppy. They do tend to have a good list of guest taps though, including some local options.

 

Ok, so I am pretty much sold on AGBG at this point.

 

I got some bad news for you about Black Thunder...

 

Ahh. It's being retired... I'm not really surprised. Oh well, they don't distribute to North Texas where I live and when I get down to Austin I normally have other beers I want to buy, like Live Oak or Altstadt, or any number of other beers.

 

On my way out of Austin. Had one at Celis for old times, it was an excellent Wit. Had an Electric Jellyfish at PHP S. Lamar, pretty good. Had one Schwartz Rauch at Live Oak, wished I could have had more. We stayed close to ABGB, and that would be my local if I lived in Austin.

 

Work trip coming up: where is the best tap/bottle list for onsite consumption in the Domain area? Thanks.