Visiting San Antonio this week from Grand Rapids

Stella Public House has great food and a superb tap and bottle list. Filling Station is close by and has reasonably cheap beer, but they do serve in plastic cups and there are an overwhelming number of IPAs/PAs on tap.

 

Live Oak Hefeweizen is a must. Also try Real Ale Brewing and Freetail. I would recommend going to the Freetail brewpub; that way you can buy some bottles at Gabriel's right up the road.

 

I wish I could recommend San Antonio breweries but when I was there last about a year ago, there wasn't a brewery within easy reach from the riverwalk/downtown.

 

The only decent brewery in SA is Freetail, if you are staying downtown they just opened up their Macro-production brewery about 1 mile south of the river-walk, they brew-pub is about a 20 min drive north and has food / larger tap offering..

If it's nice out you have to go to Friendly Spot, it is within walking distance of the river walk.

There is a Big Hops location about 10 min drive from river walk, that is a good place, decent tap line up.

Missions Untapped just opened up somewhere down there too, haven't been, heard good things..

Word of warning, San Antonio is nowhere near the beer city that Grand Rapids is, if you have any expectations you should lower them about 200% and you will be pleased.. If you seek out anything, I'd scan the taplists for Yellow Rose from Lone Pint Brewery, world class IPA...

Enjoy

 

Oh yeah, if anyone tells you to go to Blue Star Brewery, immediately slap them and walk away, worst piece of shit beer you'll ever encounter, might as well go down to the river walk and dunk a snifter in the river and drink that, same quality liquid and it would be free...

 

Here are all the breweries and taproom hours in Texas.

http://www.craftbeeraustin.com/texas-brewery-brewpub-tour-listings-map/

If you have a car, it can't hurt to check out some of the regional ones as well.

 

Today and tomorrow at Easy Tiger, 3 oz pour flights, they have great food too

 

Or Draughthosue on Wednesday just as a pour.

 

I can only imagine the sh** show that is going to be lol, if Big Hops here in San Antonio sold out in like 15 mins ( would have been less but they ran out of glasses )

 

Oh I plan on skipping it. Not worth it for me.

 

I don't think there are too many breweries that stand out in SA. Ranger Creek is ok. Freetail is overrated IMO (although their pizza is awesome)....Real Ale is probably a little far (although if you're willing to go to Real Ale, drive the extra 40 minutes and hit up Twisted X in Dripping Springs and Jester King in Austin...prob 1 hr 45 min from Riverwalk)
For bottle shops, Specs on de Zavala and Gabriels on 1604/Blanco (both are north side and prob 20-30 min for downtown).
About 10 min north of downtown, hit up the Granery Cue & Brew in the Pearl Brewery district...beer is decent but has great food.
I second The Friendly Spot if it's nice out...good tap selection and close to downtown.

 

I also like The Granary for some of their house beers.

 

In this thread I learned that Freetail is over-rated and that Twisted X is worth driving 1 hr and 45 minutes. Interesting take. Not sure I would walk across the street for a free Twisted X. But, tastes vary.

 

The difference is that Twisted X uses jalapenos and Freetail uses Ancho peppers.

 

Anyway if you're mostly staying downtown I recommend Stella, Freetail 2 (their production brewery) and they might have food trucks there, and dare I say it Friendly Spot (sorry @Grendle ). If you're up for it, which it seems like you are up for driving to Austin, then making it out to the original Freetail would be a good option. People are usually disappointed when they visit them because people know them for their sours and they don't always have them available. The Granary is a good choice for daytime. I personally recommend Specs on I10 and Dezavala for bottles. Austin is obviously worth the trip but depending on how much drinking you plan on doing up there I wouldn't necessarily recommend driving back, so there is that.
Cheers

 

No....I said if you're going to Real Ale, might as well drive the extra 40 minutes to hit up Twisted X and Jester King.