Still Austin mills, mashes, ferments, distills, barrels and bottles on one South Austin site. Chris Seals gave the Austin Chronicle the buying rule behind it: white corn out of Texas, red winter wheat grown in Travis County, barley from Brady. Jester King takes the same rule down to the yeast, catching house cultures off foraged flowers and berries and running a mixed fermentation of brewer's yeast, native yeast and native bacteria on well water off its own ranch. C.L. Butaud makes every wine from Texas fruit, down to a Counoise off Farmhouse Vineyards, and Aviator keeps over fifty draft lines with nothing on them from outside the state.
Texas in the glass.
The guide
Austin breweries in drinking orderI send people to four beer rooms in Austin: Meanwhile, Lazarus, Austin Beerworks at Sprinkle Valley for the barbecue parked on its lot, and Nosh and Bevvy for the British end. Everything after them runs in my order of drinking: sours first, then the hops, then the British ale and the cask. The yards come next, because for most of the year the shade decides the afternoon before the beer does, then the four rooms I would hand to somebody else, and the four addresses that need a car come last.
The rooms, best first
- Still Austin Whiskey Co.verified
The whole mash is a state buying rule, and Chris Seals gave Wayne Alan Brenner the map for the Austin Chronicle in 2018: white corn out of Texas, red winter wheat grown in Travis County, barley from Brady, all of it milled, mashed, fermented, distilled, barreled and bottled on one South Austin site.
- Jester Kingverified
The buying rule is the place itself: mineral-rich well water off the ranch that shapes the mash and the yeast, locally grown and locally malted grain, house cultures caught from foraged flowers and berries, lab yeast abandoned across the range for a mixed culture of brewer's, native yeast and native bacteria, and a SPON line built on Texas-grown albarino and muscat. Anna Toon got the brewery on the record for the Austin Chronicle in 2014, and Chris Hughes did it again for Austin Monthly in 2019.
- Aviator Pizza & Drafthouseverified
Over fifty draft lines and every one of them Texan, so the wall turns over with whatever the state's breweries put out that month.
- The Austin Wineryverified
The wine is made in the St. Elmo building from Texas High Plains fruit, including a single-vineyard Sangiovese off Walker Vineyards made in 205 cases. The Infatuation reads the range as natural and low-intervention and says there is usually something interesting open.
- C.L. Butaud Winesverified
The buying rule is the whole producer: every wine is made from 100 percent Texas-grown fruit, and the current lineup names its High Plains AVA sources, including a 100 percent Counoise off Farmhouse Vineyards.