Jeff Flowers on September 30, 2013 0 Comments Over the weekend, I attended the 2013 Texas Craft Brewers Festival here in Austin. What started off looking like a dreary day, turned out to be quite nice. The rain didn’t pour down like some forecasters were expecting, and the heat never quite reached the boiling point we’re accustomed to here in Texas. Starting in 2003, the Texas Craft Brewers Festival provides you the opportunity to taste true Texas craft beer and experience breweries from across the state. Here’s a few photos I took at the festival. Invalid Displayed Gallery List of Beers I Tried There were a lot of familiar faces there, but I wasn’t there to drink beer I know I already like or is readily available to me at my local grocery store. No, I was there to try different brews that I’ve never tasted before, and will probably never have the chance to taste again. Here is a list of all the beers I tried, in order, with a link to where you can learn more about each one. South Austin Belgian Golden Ale Saint Arnold Endeavour Rahr & Sons Visionary Double IPA Live Oak Smoaktoberfest Independence Stash IPA Deep Ellum IPA 512 Tripel Alamo Golden Ale Buffalo Bayou More Cowbell IPA Texian Old 300 Interesting Takeaways from the Festival Long lines — You should expect some long lines at any sort of festival like this, especially in the beer tasting lines. However, I noticed that the the tasting lines at Buffalo Bayou Brewing, Austin Beerworks, Lakewood Brewing and Southern Star Brewing were unusually longer than the rest of the tasting lines. For the most part, the wait to taste a beer was only a couple of minutes. Some of the breweries you could just walk right up, get a beer and talk to the guys from the brewery. But for the four breweries listed above, the line and wait time was significantly longer. That was nice to see, even though I wasn’t patient enough to wait in any of them. Alamo Golden Ale — I had a somewhat long conversation with the owner of Alamo Beer Company. His passion for his beer was strong and hearing the history of it was very enlightening. In the ten minutes that we talked, he made me a fan. I’ve seen Alamo Golden Ale for sale in stores, but have never given it a chance. Will have to put it into my rotation. Plastic Tasting Glasses — I was also surprised – and disappointed – to receive a plastic tasting glass at entry to the festival. I’ve wrote about beer glasses here before, and like most beer geeks, have my own little collection at the house. Was not happy to get a cheap, plastic glass upon entry. Most brewery tours give out better glasses with a purchase of a ticket, than the tasting glass I received here.. and those tickets are a third of the price. Did you go to the Texas Craft Brewers Festival this weekend? We would love to see your photos.
