Austin Brewery Guide – Breweries Near Me

City Brew Tours wants to be your local guide for all things brewing. Our local beer experts have curated a self-guided brewery tour of our favorite Austin local breweries and where to get the low-down on the brewing process from hops to grain to glass. Austin has more than just live music, BBQ and awesome happy hours.

Quickly becoming a craft beer metropolis, Austin TX boasts a booming craft brewery and beer scene. Whether you are looking for large production breweries to artisan nano breweries, Austin has it all. Home to 37+ breweries in the city limits, Austin literally runs on craft beer. With notable staples like Jester King in the Texas Hill Country or Live Oak Brewing Company which opened in 1997, Austin beer is world-class. To name a few others before getting into our local guide: St Elmo brewing, Austin Beerworks, Southern Heights, Austin Beer Garden & Brewing, Independence Brewing, Oskar Blues and more.

Whether you’re moving to Austin or planning an epic beer-cation, this list should be a good starter guide to our favorite Austin breweries – Join us as we take you on a literary City Brew Tours led Austin Brewery Tour – The tours start here!

1. Jester King Brewery

Love wild ales and farmhouse Saisons, then Jester King Brewery is the perfect destination to start your ultimate Austin craft brewery experience. Founded in 2010 by Jeff Stuffings and Michael Steffing, Jester King is one of the most well-known breweries in Central Texas. As one of the most adventurous breweries in the country, you can find creative blends fermented with oyster mushrooms, Texas Syrah grapes, and many more locally-sourced ingredients. If the beer alone isn’t enough to draw you to Hill Country, Jester King entices visitors with goat yoga, wood-fired pizzas and more.
Jester King is situated on 165 acres of pristine farmland in the Hill Country area of Austin, 18 miles west of downtown. With its sprawling patio and gorgeous old world barn architecture, it’s truly an Instagram-worthy destination.

2. Zilker Brewing Co.

Founded in 2015 by Forrest Clark, Marco Rodriguez, and Patrick Clark. This 15 barrel urban brewery serves up mostly clean, sessionable beers with a Belgian twist. Located on East 6th, Zilker Brewing is a prime location for any visiting beer traveler or local. When in the taproom make sure to give their honey Saison or ESB a taste.

3. Live Oak Brewing

Known for their European style beers like Raucht biers and hefeweizens, Live Oak Brewing is one the staples in Austin’s craft beer scene. Live Oak opened its doors in 1997 when only a few breweries dotted the city’s landscape. Originally situated in East Austin, Live Oak has moved to Del Valle next to the live oaks on the bank of Colorado River. Its new location includes canning production, a brand new tasting room, and Biergarten.

Their Smoked Beer is brewed with malt that is toasted over a fire, giving it a unique campfire flavor. Other traditional Belgian styles offered in their taproom are Hefeweizen, Berliner Weisse, and Pilz. Beyond their outdoor Biergarten is a 9-hole disc golf course that guests can play while sipping on cans of fresh beer.

4. Real Ale Brewing

If you are seeking a beer that’s unfiltered, unpasteurized, and unadulterated, then Real Ale Brewing should be the next brewery on your City Brew Tours led Austin brewery tour. Another Austin Staple, Real Ale Brewing was founded in 1996 and mainly produces, you guessed it… Real Ale! So what is Real ale and how is it different? Real ale is brewed from traditional ingredients but matured by secondary fermentation and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide in the vessel it was fermented in.

5. Hops & Grain

For all my environmentally conscious people who want to drink beer with the lowest carbon footprint, City Brew Tours recommends you check out Hops and Grain. Hops and Grain has two locations in Central Texas: Austin and San Marcos. Besides crafting award-winning beer (Gold Medals in World Beer Cup), they are also well known for their spent grain dog biscuits. Make sure to try their A Pale Mosaic India Pale Ale or Porter Culture on your next visit to Hops and Grain taproom.

6. Austin Beerworks

For the quintessential Austin brewery experience, visit Austin Beerworks.  With a slogan of “Local Brewer’s Hellbent on Excellence”, Austin Beerworks has a variety of styles that all your friends and family will love. This iconic can-only brewery hosts pint nights with their core beers as well as tasting hours. You’ll want to make a day of it at Austin Beerworks! Don’t forget to try their Blood-orange IPA or Peacemaker anytime ale. Serving up perfectly paired specials is their on-site Can-tina food truck. Like the tap list, the menu is seasonal and changes frequently, giving you the perfect excuse to come back for more.

7. The ABGB (Austin Beer Garden & Brewery for those not local)

Ranked by Austin Chronicle as one of the top ten breweries to visit in Austin. ABGB is quickly rising in notoriety. Winning GABF awards three years running, ABGB is a must-visit if you are looking for quality, true to style, great beer in Austin. This brewery located on W Oltorf St, near the railroad tracks, also dubs itself as a pizza parlor, craft brewery, and live music venue. If you are a canine person, they also have a dog-friendly patio…so bring Fido!

8. St. Elmo Brewing

Located in South Austin, St Elmo Brewing Co is all about inclusiveness. This founder duo, Tim Bullock and Bryan Winslow, “Aren’t Beer Bigots”. Similar mindsets as our CBT Guides, there is a time and place for every style of beer. St. Elmo is very much a microbrewery with a brewhouse the size of medium SUV. What they lack in space, they make up in quality. Looking to try some styles (Flemish Red, Rye Lagers, Big Barleywine) you may not have had before, St Elmo is the place to do so! Test your knowledge at their weekly trivia nights, or grab a bite to eat at Soursop, a popular food truck with Asian craft beer bites.

9. Southern Heights Brewing

Just over a year old, Southern Heights Brewing is making waves in the Austin craft beer scene.  This Austin brewery is the perfect spot to unwind with your buds, including your pets! Their taproom is located in Eastern Austin and boasts a spacious, colorful interior with games and free wifi. If you love IPAs, Southern Heights is a must-visit. You’ll find dark beers and sours here, but the focus is their extensive juicy IPA selection. Given the fact you are already off the beaten path, don’t forget to check out the neighboring brewery, Hi Sign Brewing company.

10. Celis Brewing Co. 

The name might fool you, but there is more to this business than hand-crafted pizza. Pinthouse Pizza also brews award-winning beer and is known for producing some of the best IPA’s in Austin. Keep up to date with their plentiful menu of house-brewed beers and guest taps on their Live Tap Feed. Pinthouse also gives back to the community with monthly charity donations from food and drink sales.

11. Pinthouse Pizza

The name might fool you, but there is more to this business than handcrafted pizza. Pinthouse Pizza also brews award-winning beer and is known for producing some of the best IPA’s in Austin. Keep up to date with their plentiful menu of house-brewed beers and guest taps on their Live Tap Feed. Pinthouse also gives back to the community with monthly charity donations from food and drink sales.

To conclude, we can’t say enough about the explosive craft brewing scene taking place in Austin right now. At the current clip, there will be a handful of newcomers on the central Texas craft beer scene within the next couple of years. While we only mentioned a couple of the amazing craft breweries in Austin, it’s not a knock to the other breweries in the area. If we kept going, this article would be way too long for anyone to read! For good measure, below are the remaining Austin craft breweries not mentioned above. We hope you enjoyed this literary City Brew Tours Austin Edition.

Check out City Brew Tours Austin for a local and exclusive brew tour experience!

 

Other Breweries in the Greater Austin area