Beer is Near! (Austin Breweries)

Austin may have won out over Denver for food- but no one can match our craft beers. Austin gave it a good show though.

Adelbert's Brewery was the first craft brewery of the trip. It's named after the founders brother, who loved beers and telling stories of his adventures. Many of the beers are named after his tales, and the cans are stamped with the background stories.

The barrels were located directly in the taproom.

They sold really cool art by local artists in Austin. A large-scale connect 4 was fun to play, and there was also giant jenga.

They had a really large and varied beer menu. The best deal was the wristband for $14- it came with a souvenir glass and 6 half pours of beer. It was basically their version of a flight, and it allowed us to try a lot of their beers for a decent price. The "one mark" and "two mark" on the menu denotes how many marks got taken off your wristband for that beer.

Where the yeasty magic happens. The mango wit was our favorite- in fact, we bought it again in cans and enjoyed it at Krause Springs.

We visited Lazarus a few days later. The decor and the menu names had some distinctly Christian elements to it, and the beer was delicious. The Blushing Bride was our favorite- light and crisp, and the Desperaux had some really complex flavors.

I regularly review restaurants and breweries on yelp to help keep track of places that I visit. I posted a question for the business about the stained glass over the patio, not really expecting a reply- but the owner replied that evening! Here's what he said about the glass:

So the stained glass was a commissioned piece created by Sylvia Laks, out of Costa Rica. There's a famous story in the Bible (Luke 7) where Jesus encounters a woman who was a "sinner". Instead of condemning her, she gets commended (for loving him). We like that idea. And you can make the case (based on John 12), that she was none other than Mary the sister of Lazarus (whom Jesus raised from the dead). We thought that would make a nice stained glass...

Reviews say the food is also top-notch, although we didn't have an opportunity to try any of it. It certainly looked good.

Blue Owl Brewing specializes in sour beers. It was located in an up and coming neighborhood off of Cesar Chavez, close to the infamous Rainey Street. They sold beers a little differently here- you paid $15 for the take-home glass (which was absurdly well designed by the way) and got to fill it up 4 times with whatever flavor of beer you wanted.

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The decor was as good as the beers. The herringbone tile behind the beer taps mirrors their flagship beer's can design (Spirit Animal).

The little free library, some games, and a bench for seating. Our bartender wistfully talked about how she designed and built much of the furniture and decor throughout the brewery.

I thought the little mason jars bolted to the wood were clever planters! Project idea for this summer, for sure.

The saying "I do as I can" was also featured on a larger poster back on the canning line (see photo below). I thought it was super clever.

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