Austin Stouts and Sours

Welcome to Austin! Having just moved here in late 2020 myself I'm fairly new to the area as well so I'm hoping someone with a bit more time living here may be able to chime in, but I'm happy to share my experiences so far.

If you're looking for saisons/wild ales of Side Project's caliber, Jester King is the only local brewery in the same league IMO. That being said we recently began seeing distribution of Fair Isle who also makes some really nice saisons, so I would say definitely check them out as well. Also worth mentioning if you're willing to travel outside of Austin a little is Hedgehog Brewing in Cedar Park who also has some nice farmhouse ales.

For stouts, you're likely better off looking for something brewed out of state. Most breweries in Texas cater to the climate here which means that stouts don't make a lot of sense unless it's winter. You'll have a much easier time finding a quality lager compared to a stout, and since stouts (and wild ales too, actually) are very shelf-stable you don't need to worry about freshness as you would with an IPA or lager. We also have excellent distribution here, so you shouldn't have any issues finding solid stouts from the likes of Founders, Deschutes, Firestone Walker, Epic, etc. Outside of Austin, St Arnold in Houston makes some good coffee stouts (French Press), and worth mentioning again is Hedgehog Brewing who also makes some solid stouts and Barleywines.

And while you didn't necessarily ask, for lighter beers you should also check out Live Oak for their Hefeweizen and excellent lagers and Meanwhile for their GABF gold medal winning Pilsner and Helles. And finally, if you like IPAs then a lot of people seem to be crazy about Pinthouse Pizza so they're worth checking out, but my opinion is that their beers are good, but not necessarily better than something from Spindletap who usually has more competitive prices. Their pizza is solid, though.

 

Just to echo what @o29 posted, you won't have a lot of luck with stouts locally but Saint Arnold, Prairie and the nationally distributed breweries should be around. If you're really desperate for a Texas-based stout, I'd make the trek or trade for Turning Point based out of DFW. They do the best BA/general stouts in the state in my opinion.

 

According to my fridge, Commissar by Real Ale is the best continuously available central Texas-made stout. I honestly don't know why people sleep on this one. Sure, it isn't barrel aged, but its so solid and $6-8 a bomber.

Pinthouse releases Jaguar Shark and its variants once a year. Jester King periodically (probably once a year) drops batches of Black Metal and occasionally some barrel aged stouts as well. St. Elmo releases Deluxe once a year. The Austin Beerworks release event for Sputnik (very coffee forward) is so fun and they'll have a few versions at the brewery. Outside of these winter releases, not too much going on with stouts around here sadly.

Jester King is the best for sours. Oddwood often has Family Matters or other sours which are criminally overlooked. Live Oak's Grodziskie and ABW's Einhorn are love em or hate em and more tart than sour. Blue Owl isn't for me. Let us know here if you find any that you like!

 

Great additions!

I probably should have mentioned Commisar in my post. All of Real Ale's offerings are good representations of their respective styles IMO.

As far as I'm aware you're correct about JK's Black Metal -- the OG version is released once a year during their annual Doom Forge day (this year hosted on 02/20). The "new" version of their Black Metal they actually classify as a "farmhouse stout" since it's spontaneously fermented, so make sure you pay attention to which of the two you are getting, particularly if the latter doesn't sound appealing to you. This year for Doom Forge day they also were selling a bourbon barrel aged vanilla version of their OG Black Metal stout (limit 1), along with several other stouts such their Imperial Coffee Stout which they only brew once a year for the event.

Sputnik from ABW is also worth trying IMO, and all of the variants I've had have been at least pretty good to very good.

I'll have to take note of your other suggestions myself!

Cheers!

 

Pecan porter might hit the spot. Saw it on tap at various places when I was there last week. Damn delicious beer. Draught House had an Irish stout on too.

 

Weathered Souls distributes to Austin. I'd be looking for kegs of their stouts around town and cans of recent releases.

 

Welcome! Unfortunately you just entered a stout desert, but we've got lagers galore!

 

best stouts in the state are unfortunately not in austin. Few of my personal favorites: San Antonio (weathered souls), houston (copperhead) and dallas (celestial, turning point, false idol).

certainly nothing on st louis levels but no city is perhaps.

 

Vista is nothing to write home about imo

A total ape or attempt to ape Jester King's business model, without the substance to back it up. If you want wild ale and better food, just hit JK instead. Not as far of a drive either.