Ninth Stop - Independence Brewing

I’m realizing that breweries tend to be built where rent is cheap. Because of that I’m slowly gaining a great appreciation for breweries that aren’t in neighborhoods rough enough that I get shifty-eyed when cruising by in my Toyota Corolla. It has significantly stood out in a few of these areas to say the least!

My assumption that all city breweries I visit will be in bad areas left me pleasantly delighted when I found Independence Brewing Company of Austin Texas. It’s in a nice, relatively new warehouse/office park.

That wasn’t all that impressed me right off the bat either. My dad has owned a family business for almost exactly twenty years now so I have a certain appreciation for any true family business. When I hit the door at Independence I was met by the husband/wife co-owners Rob and Amy Cartwright, their one month old daughter Ruby, and their two dogs Jasper and Indy. I don’t know how it could get to be much more family-oriented than that!

More than any of that, it was just a fun environment. I know that every brewery is full of hard workers and Independence is no exception, but they seemed to have some kind of “X” factor that made everyone love walking in the door for work. It might have been the relaxed atmosphere, the cool bosses, or the dogs just hanging out. It may have had something to do with Rob cooking up some BBQ on the grill out front. He had a full rack of ribs, some hand-twisted sausage, and a beer can chicken going. Of course, not just any can though, a custom made one that he could pour Independence Brewing’s Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout into. Rob and Amy even invited me to stay and eat with them but sadly I had to move on and get to Real Ale out in Blanco, TX.

Despite the fact that Austin seems to be a new mecca for craft brewers (at least seven are currently in development stages), Independence is currently the only one that bottles their beer. They still do a brisk keg business. In fact, Rob told me that their keg business has been increasing over the last year to take back a majority of their business.

The increase in keg sales is great but Independence still has one beer that ALWAYS sells out of bottles in a matter of a few days of when it goes on sale. Oklahoma Sucks. It’s an amber beer that goes on sale the week before the annual football game between the University of Texas and Oklahoma. The beer is a creative idea that came about when Rob and Amy found out that a brewery in Oklahoma sells “Texas Sucks” year round.

Watch for the book version of All Hopped Up where I’ll tell you about some of the amazing events hosted by Independence Brewing, more about Rob and Amy, and some other neat stories about the brewery.

Eighth Stop - 512 Brewing Company

The 512 Brewing Company is located in a nice new warehouse park. As has been typical on these trips so far I got there fine but thought I was in the wrong place. 512 has absolutely no signage in front of or on their building. If it had not been for the half open garage door I could see the fermentation tanks through I wouldn’t have found it.

When I did manage to find it 512 it didn’t even matter for a bit. No one answered when I knocked so I went around to the open garage door and hollered in. Even then, no response. It took a few minutes of silence before something blared from the speakers. It was the video series “drunk history.” If you’ve never seen it I highly suggest checking it out. It’s just some drunk guy trying to explain events in history. I’ve got a lot of respect for any brewery willing to take a break in the middle of the day to watch funny videos of drunk people.

At the brewery I spoke with the owner/brewer Kevin Brand. We had a long conversation about how he got started, how things have gone in the two years they’ve been in operation, and how 512 is going to expand.

As it currently stands 512 can barely make enough beer to keep up with the orders they get. And that’s after they had just expanded. Luckily that means that 512 can continue to expand and not worry about overproducing. In fact, Kevin told me that he is going to be expanding into the rest of the warehouse he currently shares as soon as possible.

Every successful brewery has to have something unique. Something that sets them apart or makes them different from the thousands of other breweries in the world. If they’re the first brewery in a city, that can be a gimmick. They’re “Houston’s brewery” or something like that. In Austin, a town with quite a few small breweries cropping up in and around town, you really do have to make a statement if you’re going to get notice. I think 512 has done that with one of his beers, the pecan porter.

The pecan porter comes off extremely well. It is made from locally grown pecans, organic 2-row and Crystal malts, and some black and chocolate malts. It has a nice aroma to it, but I couldn’t really smell much in the way of pecans. That didn’t come until I actually took a sip. The flavor was full and malty with some of the taste of pecans leaking through the malts. When tasting this beer I thought about how it would be an excellent starter beer for someone who thought they didn’t like porters/dark beer.

Since my visit to 512 I’ve gone to Independence Brewing Company in Austin and Real Ale in Blanco, TX. Today I’m headed up to Fort Worth so watch for either or both of those posts to be coming soon.

Fifth Stop – Live Oak Brewing Company

Live Oak Brewing in Austin isn’t in the best neighborhood, they don’t use fancy marketing, and their facility isn’t the most picturesque. None of that matters. When you produce consistently excellent beer that you’re knowledgeable and passionate about you get a free pass on those periphery things.

I made it to Live Oak in Austin and met with owner/brewer Chip McElroy. I was also lucky enough to speak briefly with brewmaster Steve Anderson. The most significant thing I will say about my talk with Chip is that I learned more from him than I have from any single beer conversation I’ve ever had.

I know what wort is. I understand how yeast works. I get what hops add to the flavor of beer. Basically, I know the basics.

Chip however, is a fountain of knowledge. More than that, he’s completely happy and willing to share that knowledge. In fact, it seems like a mission of his to spread the word about good beer to the masses.

One of the many things we talked about was the Live Oak Hefeweizen. Currently, the hefe is ranked on Beer Advocate as the number 67 beer in the world. It also comes in as number two in the hefeweizen category. Not too bad for a little brewery in Austin that doesn’t bottle or can their beer. In fact, it’s downright tough to get their beer.

This is a list of cities where they have at least one tap:

Addison, Alpine, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Kerrville, Marathon, New Braunfels, Plano, Rockdale, San Antonio, San Marcos, Temple, and Waco.

That’s right, 15 cities. All in Texas.

I looked through Beer Advocate and it seems like most of the ratings of Live Oak beers don’t actually come from cities where they distribute; they come from people who got it in trades. That means someone filled a growler from a bar’s tap and drove it to places like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, or Canada. I can’t imagine they’re getting anything close to the fullest flavor once the beer is driven twenty-four hours in a growler. And yet, it still ranks extremely well.

The Live Oak Hefe is one of their year-round beers brewed in a traditional Bavarian style. The head on it is thick enough that it could probably support your weight if you were inclined to try standing on your beer. The aroma gives off a clear scent of bananas and maybe a little bit of cloves and vanilla.

In the book I’ll write more about the Live Oak hefe, the new brewing facility they have planned, and all kinds of history and general brewing knowledge that Chip shared with me.

Since going to Live Oak I hit Saint Arnold’s in Houston yesterday and Spoetzl brewery in Shiner, TX today. Posts coming soon!