On my recent trip to Austin, I was lucky enough to be able to take a private tour of Austin Beerworks. I’m a big fan of trying new beers, especially craft beers so I knew it was going to be one of the highlights of my trip especially when I realized that they were the brewery that made the 99 Pack of beer for $99 which was all over the internet last year. I must say the brewery tour was definitely one of the best I’ve ever been on. Since our tour was on a Tuesday morning, their Peacemaker Anytime Ale was clearly the best way to start off our tour. We were able to try a can right off the packaging line, and it was absolutely delicious.

After we had beers in hand, we got started on our tour. We were able to learn about their whole process, but most importantly we got to ask questions along the way. As a group of chemical engineering nerds, we definitely had a ton of questions. It’s not that often on a brewery tour that you really get to ask anything that comes to mind, but since we were a small group we really got to dive into the technical questions. We learned about everything from the controls system they developed to how changes in crops can affect the taste of the beer. A big shout out to Tim (aka the best tour guide ever) for not only putting up with all our questions, but also giving us great, in-depth answers!

As on any brewery tour, the tastings were the best part. Austin Beerworks has a slightly different line up than most breweries I’ve been to. They have four core beers that they serve year round and then the rest of the beers on tap are seasonals and limited editions. We of course, tried them all. The Peacemaker was my favorite out of all the beers because it’s so refreshing, clean, and crisp. The Spud Light, a beer made with 25% potatoes in the mash, was the most unique plus it had a Mr. Potato Tap which was awesome. I also thought the Gringo de Mayo was a great play on words (it was made with maize). The beer I was most surprised to like was the Mr. Falcon which was actually a combination of their Fire Eagle IPA and Black Thunder German-Style Schwarzbier. I almost didn’t try it since I don’t like IPA’s and dark lagers tend to be hit or miss depending on whether or not they taste more like coffee or chocolate. The combination was surprisingly delicious. The chocolate notes of the Black Thunder perfectly complimented the citrus notes of the IPA.

So now I’m sure your wondering where you can pick up some Austin Beerworks brews, well unfortunately if you don’t live in Austin you’re out of luck since they only distribute locally. That said, while you’ll find it on tap in Austin bars, you should definitely make the trip out to the brewery if you’re in town. Fair warning, they are a bit hard to find, but trust your google maps, they are where it says, just not in the front of the building. They are open Thursday through Sunday and typically have a food truck outside, plus $10 will get you a pint glass to take home plus three tokens which get you three pints of beer. If you want to do more than just drink beer, tours are offered at 3pm on Saturdays. While you’re there, you’ll also be able to buy some of their awesome Merch. They have t-shirts, hats, glasses, and even onesies (which my nephew and quite a few other babies with chemical engineering parents will be rocking this year)! You can find out all the details about visiting the brewery here.

I hope you check out Austin Beerworks and enjoy it as much as we did. I know that they will be tied with Swift’s Attic at the top of my list of things to check out again next time I’m in Austin!