The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co.
The core five here are all low-ABV lagers and ales, built to be drunk in sequence.2
Why go
The core five are Hell Yes Helles, Industry Pils, Day Trip pale ale, Superliner IPA and the Rocket 100 pre-Prohibition Pilsner.2 The Austin Chronicle ranked ABGB seventh in the city in 2024, and it has held first place twice. The paper calls the lagers some of the best lagers available in the entire country
.1 All of it pours onto a large patio with live music most nights. A full kitchen behind the taps does pizzas, salads and sandwiches.3
Order this / avoid
- Hell Yes Helles, bronze medalist at the 2024 World Beer Cup.1
- Industry Pils, which took gold in the Pilsner category at February's Texas Craft Brewers Cup, a competition the Chronicle likens to Best Picture for Texas beer.2
- Rocket 100, the pre-Prohibition pilsner, saved for Friday happy hour.1
- On a cold night: Captain Ivan Drago Russian imperial stout or Negra Royale dunkel, the two seasonals the Chronicle picks out. The BEEginning honey lager, a GABF silver medalist, is the year-round one.2
What locals & experts say
- Eric Puga, the Austin Chronicle's brewery power rankings, 17 October 2024, put ABGB seventh in Austin and called it
the most comfortable brewery in town with its approachable menu of low-ABV, easy-drinking lagers and unfussy list of pizza pies
. The same piece records the 2024 World Beer Cup bronze for Hell Yes Helles, and puts ABGB on the Favorite Lager Brewer in the U.S. list as the only Texas brewery on it. That last one it sources to "the readers of Craft Beer & Brewing", so it is a readers' vote and is written as one.1 - The 2023 edition, 10 October 2023, ranked it eleventh and carries the medal count:
There are six GABF medals and three GABF Brewpub of the Year trophies between 'em, and if the ABGB never offered an ounce of anything else beyond these beers, it would still be one of the best breweries America has ever produced.
2 - Nicolai McCrary, The Infatuation Austin, page dated 5 March 2024, sends groups who cannot agree on anything here, and says the two house favorites are
clean, refreshing, and well-suited to combating the Texas sun
. The Infatuation attaches no number to breweries by its own stated policy, so the ranking to read is the Chronicle's.3
Good to know
- Where: 1305 W Oltorf St in Bouldin Creek. Walk-in, patio, live music most nights, free or cheap.32
- On the pizza, precisely: I haven't found more than a phrase written about it. The Chronicle calls it an
unfussy list of pizza pies
inside a sentence about the beer, and The Infatuation calls ita pretty big menu of pizzas
. Both describe the menu and neither names a pie. Order the beer on the medals and the food on your own judgment.13 - Hygiene: clean. Austin Public Health has one business at this address, scoring 91 in June 2025, 90 in December 2024 and 94 in June 2023. Nothing near the city's 70-point failing line.4
- Do not borrow a score: South Austin Beer Garden on Menchaca and Austin Beerworks on Springdale are separate businesses with their own permits.4
Verdict
must-visit — Walk in, take the patio, and drink the core five in sequence. Come on a Friday if the Rocket 100 is what you want.