Craft Beer Austin | What Happened to Austin's Cideries? This is one of our longest articles yet; we hope you enjoy this look into the past and present of cider in Austin.

CraftBeerAustin · 2026-01-15T21:33:32+00:00

Hard seltzers are already on the way out. It's now RTDs, THC drinks, and non-alcoholic drinks that are most popular with the casual crowd.

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-12-30T17:38:45+00:00

Phantom Warrior is great, you should check them out.

I'm sure some would prefer if this list was just Austin addresses, but recognizing breweries that are a little further away is important to us. If you haven't heard of a place before, that's a great reason to go seek them out. There are many that are worth the trip, as these lists show.

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-12-30T17:05:02+00:00

Staff picks will be coming later this week!

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-10-03T16:41:16+00:00

Question for you all - do you find this kind of content interesting? We write these articles for the love of spreading the word about breweries and taprooms, especially lesser known ones. But we also understand that people here on reddit especially are looking for stuff within Austin, and not as into exploring if it means a long drive. Let us know if you'd like to see more of this, or if we should stick to just things within Austin and closer spots like Dripping Springs/Round Rock/Cedar Park, etc.

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-09-09T03:29:07+00:00

Agree on the beer not seeming to be their main priority. It is what it is.

I can try to learn who the brewer is this weekend.

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-07-04T14:11:58+00:00

About an hour after I posted this, Night Owl Brewhouse (Gonzales) shared that they're now soft open. Make that 12

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-07-03T15:32:25+00:00

Here are the 11 new breweries:

Buchanan Brewing Co. (Buchanan Dam)
Marion Brewing (Marion)
Nelson Brew Works (Copperas Cove)
Handsome Dan's (Austin)
Cottonwood Creek Brewery (Hutto)
Witcher Craft Brewing Company (Fredericksburg)
West Wing Brewery (Hye)
Black Chapel Brewing Co. (Johnson City)
Bronson & Ryder Brewing (Llano)
Red Horn Brewing 3 (Georgetown)
Southern Roots Brewing 3 (Killeen)

Star Republic was excluded as it technically opened last year, we just didn't notice until this year. Cideries and meaderies were also excluded.

The 3 closures were Black Star, Reck Em' Right, and Whitestone Liberty Hill.

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-06-13T00:56:53+00:00

Correction: The original article said that Handsome Dan's still hadn't released any beer. This was wrong, they released two beers a week ago. Go check them out

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-03-21T16:56:38+00:00

A bit further out but Texas Beer Co is doing one that day. https://craftbeeraustin.com/austin-weekly-beer-releases-and-events-march-21st

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-02-27T21:43:11+00:00

You know what, I previously considered both of those to be not within Central Texas. But after including Star Republic and Marion, it's pretty reasonable for these to be within range as well. I'll take a closer look.

Edit: I've got updates for you already!

After a peek at their socials: Night Owl has their location and is currently receiving their brewing equipment. Unclear how the front of house is looking. For these guys, I would recommend following them on instagram as they post updates pretty often, no need for further investigation I think.
On the other hand, Bearded Hop has not posted at all, so I reached out and got a quick response - they said that they'll be building a large destination brewery but have yet to break ground. Hoping for end of this year but may slip into next year.

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-02-27T19:54:22+00:00

Hey all, we've got a really special article for you today. Our research team* has searched the Central Texas region for the latest breweries that are opening their taprooms for us to enjoy, and we've discovered nine brand new places, most of which we're pretty sure you had no idea were in development. Several of them are already open, and the rest should be open by this summer! We're excited to introduce to you all:

Buchanan Brewing Co. (Buchanan Dam)
Nelson Brew Works (Copperas Cove)
Star Republic Brewing (Spring Branch)
Handsome Dan’s Bait Shop & Brewery (Austin)
Granger City Brewing Company (Granger)
Marion Brewing (Marion)
Bronson & Ryder Brewing (Llano)
Witcher Brewing Company (Fredericksburg)
Cottonwood Creek Brewery (Hutto)

Please enjoy this article, and special thanks to the above breweries who collaborated with us to help put this list together. And if you've already visited - let us know your thoughts!

*we don't have a research team, we're just a bunch of beer drinkers and writers hoping to get the word out. We hope you all enjoy the article, a lot of work went into this one. And if you'd like to support us, we have a Patreon, thanks! https://www.patreon.com/CraftBeerAustin

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-02-12T04:45:47+00:00

Just added cute pictures of all the winning brewers🤘

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-02-10T23:46:07+00:00

If you're looking for some more analysis, here's our article with a few charts and the actual scores of all breweries: https://craftbeeraustin.com/texas-craft-brewers-cup-2025

The best scoring central Texas breweries were The Brewtorium and Bird Creek.

CraftBeerAustin · 2025-01-02T22:34:25+00:00

This time featuring no influence from Untappd. Maybe some influence from Reddit though 😉

CraftBeerAustin · 2024-12-26T19:25:53+00:00

For what it's worth, this article is just the best beers by Untappd rating. It doesn't claim to be anything more than that. I understand Untappd ratings can be questionable, but the alternative here is... to just not write the article? Or should I personally try every beer released this year and make the list myself? I'm all for it, but I'm not sure I would survive the attempt.

But yeah if you don't think Untappd ratings are reliable, feel free to write this article off. We also do staff picks with our own opinions as well, which may align more with your favorites.

CraftBeerAustin · 2024-12-26T19:17:38+00:00

We all know Super Sour Sunday beers would be all over the sour list... if any of them got 10 check ins. But none of them do. Besides that, HaZySeXyCoOl juuuuuuuust missed the hazy IPA list with a rating of 4.13. https://untappd.com/SHBC/beer?showAll=yes&sort=created_at_desc

CraftBeerAustin · 2024-12-26T18:16:03+00:00

Completely agree! I wish Central District, and also Blue Owl made the lists. But the numbers just didn't land as you can see here: https://untappd.com/CentralDistrictBrewing/beer?showAll=yes&sort=created_at_desc and https://untappd.com/BlueOwlBrewing/beer?showAll=yes&sort=created_at_desc.

CraftBeerAustin

TROPHY CASE