Austin Area Beer Recommendations (2023)

Not too familiar with downtown beer bars, but the closest breweries I'd recommend are Hold Out (west of downtown) and Zilker (east of downtown). If you're looking for an alternative to Franklin's I'd suggest la Barbecue or Micklethwait, both of which are just a little further east. They both have good local craft options.

 

Okay, both locations, including Franklin’s are closed on Mondays. Any other recs for bbq on Monday?

 

Lived out that way for a couple years before I escaped. Most BBQ places are closed on Monday in ATX for some reason. Valentina's in Buda is pretty great I think but some think it's over rated. Loro is Franklins sister bbq place, Asian inspired, good beer list. A trip to Lockhart is great, main street has 5-6 places, kruetzs and blacks were my favorite. Salt Lick is just fine. Property and restaurant are cool. Have an ok beer selection. BBQ can be hit or miss depending on day you go, used to work near there and found tuesday wednesday had the most tender meats. Can get packed on weekends. Breweries I would hit ABGB, Live Oak, Meanwhile, Roughhouse, Oddwood, Pinthouse. Cheers.

 

We checked into our hotel around 530pm last night and uber’d straight to Stiles Switch BBQ. There was a Rudy’s closer, but opted for Stiles because it looked like they had some decent can selections. Good bbq and cans. Brought cans back to the room. After some more researching there was a Blind Pig Pub down the street. Untappd showed a good selection on draft. Good thing I didn’t walk over to the pub as they had a bomb threat right in that same area. After checking out today we are heading straight to Salt Lick to check out their bbq before heading back to the airport for our flight back to LAX. We’ll be back

 

I haven't been to Salt Lick in Driftwood in a loooong time but it has always been BYOB and cash only. It's also in the middle of nowhere, so don't expect to grab any good cans along the way. Whichcraft is open today so you could grab cans to go from there. Closer downtown, Whole Foods has a decent selection.

 

Thx. I read it was BYOB & $$ only. We ended up not making it to SLBBQ. Long story short….they upgraded our car rental (yesterday) to all electric, Polestar2. We spent most of our time in the car trying to figure out how to use/drive it. Today we were trying to find charging stations and when we did we were waiting for it to charge. Negative. We ended up not being able to charge the car and getting it back to the airport without being charged extra for <50% charged. We ended up eating at Salt Lick inside the terminal. Thank god they had a decent ipa on tap. We’re in the U club enjoying a Texas ipa on tap. Damn e cars. Lol.

 

Sorry for this, but fn' cracked me up. Went down a YouTube rabbit hole the other day and one of the thinks I watched was about a guy who ended up with a Polestar rental (not requested) from Hertz and how it consumed his whole trip.

 

Ha! What an upgrade! Glad that you managed to still get some bbq!

 

It's been 20 (ish) years since I've been to Austin, going to be there in September for a concert at Moody Center. Any area better or worse for staying? Right now we booked something in the University are but can easily cancel / adjust. We will have some extra time and breweries, BBQ and watching NFL (Sunday / Monday) will be on the list. Appreciate the help.

 

That isn't a bad area, not much immediately around it, but if you don't mind walking or short uber you can get to a lot of places relatively easy

 

Kreuz (Crites) in Lockhart. The brisket is great, the sausage gets all the brisket trimmings, the chicken, the pork chops, etc. Not a wide selection of beer, but, they DO have Lone Star.

 

not bbq but pinthouse brewing probably your best beer/nfl game on tv combo

 

It almost never gets mentioned but I like Celis up on Rutland and Metric. The food trucks are what they are, but the beer is good and not too expensive, and they have a broad mix of styles all executed competently at the very least. Some are outstanding. Very nice beer garden. I agree 100% with Stiles Switch for bbq. You don't stand in line (mostly) and it's all good.

 

Yes nice beer garden and the 2 times I was there there was live music on the stage. Good family type joint.

 

I see the Draught Horse has changed it's name to the Draft House again. This place has changed back & forth for a few decades. The Waterloo Brewing Co. gets bought to build a new office building for the lege. Then they don't build it. What? You mean the Dog & Duck is gone? See what happens when you leave Austin for . . .several years??? Oh well, at least the Broken Spoke is still there.
Celis is back? Well now I really must make a trip down to Austin.

 

The Draft House was my go-to for quite a while. It has gone through many changes of ownership and it has been re-invented many times. I'm guilty of not having gone there in many years now (something like 10 years now). I'll try it again now that you've brought it to my attention. Thanks for that.

 

I like Draught House quite a bit. The house beers are decent to good and it's always a nice vibe. Not sure if the frozen cocktails are new this summer, but they seem to be a hit.

 

Can anyone share the relevance of the S, A and B in the original post breaking down breweries? Maybe it's something obvious and I'll kick myself for asking! Thanks

 

new ranking system
https://turbostreamer.com/tier-list-letters-meaning-sabcdef/

 

Where do they have cask ales in Austin?