Texas Craft Brewers Festival

A fantastic time of great beer served and brewed by good people. Make sure you spend the couple of bucks extra for the early entrance and sudsy swag.

Being new to Austin, I decided to go to the Texas Craft Brewers Festival to sample some local beers. My goal was to find something as delicious as Half Acre Brewing back in Chicago. Well, I found some really good beers, but my favorite was out of Houston and not even sold here.
The festival was great, however the lines to enter were extremely long. I recommend doubling the amount of people checking ID’s for next year. Took about 45 minutes to get in. The food options were excellent, but every time we went to the music tent it seemed like they were either between sets or the band was taking a break.

Everybody nowadays thinks that the start up, incubation, genius and creativity of ideas all come from Silicon Valley with their flying drones, driver-​less cars ‘an app for that’ mentality and their sincere belief that they are the new rule makers and therefore that they Rule the Planet.
Wrong.
The real creative geniuses are the men (and some women, yea!) who toil in garages and warehouses tinkering with yeast, bacteria, pumpkins, hops, apricots, barley, freeze chambers, voodoo magic and a wing and a prayer to make something really special, and tasty, the stuff that dreams are made of. Basically, liquid ambrosia.
I’m talking craft beer. Eventually these home brewers make the business leap (most without hundreds of thousands in VC funding mind you) to become a craft brew company. And they file for an LLC. And then they join the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. And from here, every September, they come to you.
This year was the biggest year yet with over 50 craft breweries setting up small tents and tapping kegs for your pleasure. For around $ 30 you can get a fistful of tickets and a 4oz plastic cup and try all… the…craft…beer…you…want. At least, until you run out of tickets and need to buy more. FYI, starting in 2014 each pour is only 1 ticket unlike in previous years when they charged various ticket amounts. For around $ 75 you can buy VIP which means you are allowed early entry to beat the crowds and mingle with the best.
Not only are the best Texas breweries represented here but throughout the day starting at noon until close various breweries and brew pubs will have special keg tappings where you can taste the upcoming seasonal or special brews they have been experimenting with. Lines are long and sometimes they run out but thus far overall it seems that most people are able to get to sample what’s being offered. Even if you aren’t seeking out special taps get there early because the lines to get into the fest will be long and as the day progresses some of the kegs will run out.
This is something that is really worth the money. If you don’t want to pay any money at all or don’t want to wait in the massive line just donate your time. I have my TABC pouring license so for the past 2 years I have served up beer. This year I served for the Dallas based Four Corners and had a blast! If you pick the 11 – 4 shift you get a handful of tickets to use after your shift ends to try the various beers for free (plus an after party at Hops and Grains) so it is well worth it. Plus you get to mingle with the brewers (very cool people) and fellow volunteers who are typically avid beer nuts themselves (also very cool people).
Cash only food trailers are available if you get hungry, and Fiesta Gardens park (where the fest is held) has covered areas with picnic benches if you need to sit.
Texas Craft Brewers Festival is really an awesome place to come see the true creative genius flowing.

We had a blast this year! 55 breweries, hundreds of different beers.
We did have to wait a while to get in but once we were in, the lines weren’t bad at all. We tasted 17 different beers from 15 different breweries and met some of the brewers. Best beer, for me, was Lakewood’s The Temptress and Rogness’ Titanoboa.

I actually volunteered for this even this year. And while the organization could use some definite tweaking (I was sent to two different tents, neither of which turned out to be where I was originally assigned and it took almost an hour after my shift was supposed to end for someone to relieve me), I thoroughly enjoyed myself, despite the torrential downpour!
Any and all of the TX craft breweries imaginable are represented here! There is a ticket system and for some of the more desirable brews, two or even three tix are the asking price, so when you only get 6 tix for your entrance purchase or volunteer quota, it can turn pricey quick. Lucky for me, this very nice and inebriated young lady gave me about 18 tasting tickets, so I really got to get a fantastic sampling of each brewery.
Fair warning… the lines at some of the more popular breweries can be something out of the SXSW playbook and the more popular brewery concoctions and releases go quick, so if you don’t get the hourly special releases early on (as in have your patootie in line at least 30mins before the release) they will literally tap out and ticket or no, you are SOL.
Honestly, what really helped me this year was the super thunderstorms that rolled in halfway through the fest. While the masses huddled under the pavilion, I braved the wetness and got immediate samples of my picking at each and every tent… wait times were nil!
The foodcarts at the fest were also stellar and though plagued by long lines as well, were worth the wait. The fest did have the standard port o potty set up, but they also had Purell stations outside, which was a great set up! Also, I found a couple of abandoned tasting tix in the port of potty (of destiny) I went into.
Another friendly precaution is make sure you have a DD or are substantially sober when leaving the Fest. There were a menagerie of APD stationed at each and every exit like lions primed to pounce any and every possibly DWI prey… definitely worth the overpriced bottled waters to sober up before you leave.
In any case, great location and great festival. I will definitely be volunteering again next year!

This was a really cool event and I think it’s only going to get better the longer it goes on.
I mean, there are so many great Texas craft breweries. How can you go wrong here? Fiesta Gardens is the perfect place to attend an event like this, and it seemed pretty well organized overall. There did seem to be a merchandise booth that randomly was moving around do to the random rain, but the breweries were in alphabetical order around the premises.
This would have been more helpful if there was a list somewhere of what breweries were in attendance… with what beers… but ya know, what can you do. Apparently there were no programs. That was kind of a debbie downer.
Also, $ 20 ($ 25 at the door) for six four oz samples really isn’t that great, especially since some of the more «elite» beers were more tickets, so you aren’t really guaranteed 24 oz of beer. But still, that’s $ 20 for less than two pints. Eh. But it’s for a good cause, so it’s hard to complain.
Overall, I would totally go back. It was a good event. More people would probably come with me if it was a little more cost friendly, but with the Texas beer scene getting so big, it’s definitely worth a stop by.

I recently attended The Texas Craft Brewers festival, not to be confused with the disappointing Austin Beerfest this past summer. Not only are you supporting our local breweries, the proceeds from the festival benefits the Austin Sunshine Camps, that provides services to economically disadvantage boys and girls in our area.
The festival is held outside at Fiesta Gardens and is a great way to spend a couple hours on a weekend. For a small entry fee of $ 20, you get a commemorative 4oz. plastic tasting glass and 6 tickets for sampling the large variety of Texas brews. You can opt to purchase beers, but I found the sampling tickets sufficient, given the high alcholic content of the beers (this aint your Budlight!) and the generous pours from each brewery. Most of the breweries also had a special tap at different times throughout the event. There is also an option for designated drivers ($ 10 fee for nonalcoholic beverages) and $ 20 – 30 extra for food and wine pairings. The Antonelli cheese and beer and the Delysia chocolate and beer pairings looked interesting. I’ll be sure to sign up for them next year!
Overall, the event was relaxing and ran extremely smooth. There is plenty of street parking in the area, but the neighborhood is a bit sketchy. There were lines, but we never waited too long at any of them. The beers were cold and delicious. There was plenty of space to wander and a large shaded area with live music and seating. My only complaint was the food option was pretty slim (Red’s Porch, who opened late, Boomerang, a pretzel place and some awful taco stand). A larger variety of local food trucks and better music would definitely make this a 5-​star event.
If you love craft beer, this IS the event for you. My favorites were from 512 Brewing, Live Oak, Hops and Grains and No Label. I look forward to making this one of my annual events.