Pour a cold one

7 best local craft brews to beat the summer heat in Austin

Beerburg Brewing produces classic styles, seasonal beers, and an experimental Wildcraft Series, made with ingredients sourced as locally as possible.

Photo by Lisa Hause

Summer has hit Austin with a vengeance. There’s no better way to cope than with a cold, refreshing beer, and Central Texas craft breweries have what we need. We sampled seven brews perfect for summer days or nights hanging by the pool, floating on the river, or cooling off after mowing the lawn.

Barking Armadillo Brewing Strawberry Poptart Hefeweizen
This Georgetown brewery combined 40 pounds of the filling from Georgetown Pie Company’s handmade strawberry poptarts with a Hefeweizen to make this beer. It has a light refreshing flavor with just a hint of sweetness. (If they’ve run out of it, try El Guapodillo, a light Mexican-style lager, or the refreshing GTX Cream Ale, made with a dash of corn flakes.) A family-owned operation that started in 2013, the Barking Armadillo says it is committed to using carefully selected ingredients in fresh and tasty pours. Available onsite only, along with a menu of staple brews, rotating guest taps, hand-selected wines, and non-alcoholic beverages. There are daily food truck offerings, and dogs and kids are welcome. Open Wednesday through Friday from 4-10 pm, Saturday from 12-10 pm, and Sunday from 12-7 pm.

Beerburg Prickly Pear Milkshake IPA
Beerburg Brewing produces classic styles, seasonal beers, and an experimental Wildcraft Series, made with ingredients sourced as locally as possible (except for hops, which don’t grow well in Texas). Owner/brewmaster and native Texan Trevor Nearburg and head brewer Gino Guerrero have made this seasonal IPA over the years, despite multiple rattlesnake encounters while foraging the fruit. They use vanilla beans, lactose sugar, and lots of oats and hops with melon and berry flavor profiles to boost the earthy melon flavors of the prickly pears. The beer is pink, hazy and delicious, perfect for the summer. It will be available onsite starting June 16 for several months. The brewery features an outdoor deck and wooded beer garden with a fenced-in kids play area and a dog park. Also onsite, Taqueria la Violete, which has an extensive antojito, taco and a la carte menu and an ice cream stand with homemade ice creams and sorbets. Open Thursday from 3-8 pm, Friday and Saturday from 12-9 pm, and Sunday 11 am-7 pm.

Austin Eastciders Passion Fruit Cider
Austin Eastciders uses real fruit in its ciders (including pulp). Passion Fruit Cider, available through August, evokes tropical places with a sweet and tart passion fruit flavor and notes of grapefruit, citrus, and mango. It started as a fan favorite in the Austin tasting room and has a decided summertime flavor, says vice president of marketing Dave Rule. “It pairs well with some of the season’s favorite foods, including Hawaiian BBQ, coconut curry, mascarpone, and sorbet, making it perfect for summer.” Austin Eastciders products are available at major retailers including HEB, Kroger, Target, and Whole Foods and in bars and restaurants, as well as by online ordering or at the Springdale Road tasting room. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 1pm to 10 pm and Sunday from 12pm to 7 pm.

Fitzhugh Brewing Hefeweizen
Austinites love their Hefeweizens, a yeasty wheat beer, cloudy due to the yeast. The one from this brewery in Dripping Springs is “a perfect beer for sipping on the porch or by the pool on a hot summer day,” according to head brewer Nathan Rice. “Hefeweizens are light-bodied, low in alcohol content and won’t leave you feeling heavy.” He actually set out to create a Kristallweizen, a beer with the flavor profile of a Hefeweizen but clear rather than hazy, but the yeast had other ideas. “It still has excellent flavor and body, it’s just hazy, like a traditional Hefe.” Rice says the brew was inspired by Fitzhugh customers. “While I like brewing obscure historic styles, I’m also very open to customer feedback and requests. The two biggest questions we get at the bar are ‘What’s your lightest beer?’ and ‘What do you have that’s like a Hefe?’ I think people know and enjoy the style, so I thought bringing one to the table was the only smart choice.”

Available on site and to-go through July 4thor until customers drink it all. Featuring a large family- and dog-friendly outdoor garden, a menu of smoked meats, comfort foods and seasonal sides served by PEJ Kitchens, Fitzhugh Brewing is open Thursdays and Fridays from 4-8 pm, Saturday from 11-9 pm (kitchen closes at 8 pm), and Sunday from 12-7 pm.

Lazarus Brewing Black Pearl
A summer offering from this East Sixth street brewery, Black Pearl is a rice lager brewed with a special mountain peppercorn native to Taiwan called Maqaw, which lends notes of lemongrass, ginger and citron to the beer. Black Pearl was inspired when general manager Marcus TenHarmsel discovered the exotic spice at a local Gin Bar in Taiwan and realized it would lend itself well to a beer. “At 4.9% ABV, it's one of those beers you can drink several of and is immensely refreshing on a hot day,” he says. “And, we won a gold medal for Black Pearl at the World Beer Cup just a couple of months ago. We currently have a little bit left on tap at the brewery, but will have another batch coming soon.” (If they’re out, try East of Eden, a farmhouse-style wild saison with peaches inspired by the ales commonly produced in Belgium and France). Available on tap and in four-pack tallboys to-go. Lazarus features a large shaded patio and deck, and is dog-friendly. Open weekdays from 7:30 am to 11 pm, Saturday from 9 am to 11 pm and Sunday from 9 am to 10 pm.

Shiner Beer ¡Órale!
This Mexican-style lager – with a name that roughly translates to “hell, yeah!” – is brewed with agave and has an earthy, mildly sweet flavor that matches well with summer classics such as tacos, hamburgers, hot dogs, and BBQ. The idea for ¡Órale! came from Carlos Alvarez, CEO of Gambrinus Company in San Antonio, which owns Spoetzel Brewery in Shiner, Texas, where all Shiner beers are made. Alvare grew up in Mexico and has worked with iconic Mexican cerveza brands such as Corona. He noted a spike in the popularity of craft-brewed Mexican-style lagers and had this one crafted just in time for summer. Available at stores nationwide and in the brewery taproom, which is open Monday and Wednesday through Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, and Sunday from 12-6 pm.

Zilker Brewing Killer Light
Fermenting with a hybrid German yeast and cold conditioning for three weeks gives this German Kolsch a super smooth experience, says Patrick Clark, one of the co-founders of the East Sixth Street brewery. “We wanted a clean and simple Kolsch to stave off the mid-summer heat,” Clark says. “This is a super clean, simple, easy drinking light beer.” Available on draft and in cans in the taproom starting June 25th and at Austin area H-E-B, Whole Foods, and Specs stores on June 28. Zilker features a food truck on site, as well as an outdoor seating area, and its taproom is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 11-9 pm, Thursdays 11-10 pm, Friday and Saturday 11am-11 pm, and Sunday from 11-8 pm.

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Whoops

Michelin goofs on a few restaurants honored in first Texas guide

Kau Ba/Facebook

Houston's Kau Ba has been removed from the Michelin Guide.

Texans' reactions to the first Michelin Guide in the state have ranged from glowing to unimpressed, but a few notable mix-ups are more concrete than differences in taste. The November 11 ceremony honored more than 100 restaurants across the state, but at least two were in error. In Dallas the guide confused two restaurants with each other, and in Houston one of them had closed.

Starting in Dallas: The Guide's release announcing the list of restaurants who'd won awards included The Charles, an award-winning Italian restaurant in Dallas' Design District, as one of 57 restaurants that earned a "Recommended" rating.

The Charles is a surely deserving restaurant that opened in 2018, the first concept from acclaimed food & beverage group Duro Hospitality, which has since gone on to open other restaurants such as El Carlos Elegante, Sister, and Cafe Duro.

But the Guide got the wrong Charles: The real recipient was Mister Charles, a sibling Duro Hospitality restaurant that opened at 3219 Knox St. in early 2024.

The Charles specializes in Italian and Texas-inspired dishes.

Mister Charles features French and Italian-influenced dishes.

It wasn't just an incorrect name; it listed the accompanying (incorrect) address.

A spokesperson for Michelin Guide verified that Mister Charles was the winner and said that the listing of The Charles was a mistake.

“This was an internal error caused by our geolocation process. The problem will be corrected in the most expeditious manner,” the spokesperson said. The Guide website has since updated the list and replaced The Charles with Mister Charles.

Having a difference of opinion about a critic's choices is one thing — but having an error of this magnitude is something else entirely.

And blaming "geolocation" as the source of the error is a curious excuse. Geolocation refers to the ability to track the whereabouts of an electronic device using GPS, cell phone towers, WiFi access points or a combination of these.

The Houston mix-up was also disappointing, but only involved one restaurant: In a press release issued Thursday, November 14, the Guide announced that it had removed Montrose Vietnamese restaurant Kau Ba from the list of Bib Gourmand recipients.

The reason: "Upon further investigation, our team has discovered the restaurant has been permanently closed since our Inspection team's visits occurred," the statement reads.

As has been widely noted in local media, Kau Ba closed earlier this month. The restaurant’s Instagram account now belongs to Alora, which is described as “a fresh Peruvian-Vietnamese fusion concept inspired by travels to Saigon.” It is expected to open soon.

Open since 2018, Kau Ba served an innovative take on Vietnamese fare created by Nikki Tran. The restaurant built on the notoriety Tran had achieved after being featured in two Netflix series: Somebody Feed Phil and Ugly Delicious. It earned considerable acclaim, including a spot in the Houston Chronicle’s top 100 restaurants as recently as 2023 and a nomination for Best Neighborhood Restaurant in the 2021 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

The restaurant went through a number of iterations during its tenure. For three-and-a-half years, Tran partnered with Aya Sushi owners Minette Corpuz and Bruce Kish to oversee operations, but they parted ways in February 2023.

In an email sent to Houston Public Media, Tran expressed regret over Michelin's decision.

“But we understand and respect Michelin’s decision to remove Kau Ba from its selection,” Tran said to HPM. “Exercising an abundance of caution from a legal position, I am not able currently to share further details of our situation but I do hope to follow up soon with more information.”

“Until then, on behalf of the entire Kau Ba team, we want to thank the entire culinary community for the recognition and support,” Tran added. “Kau Ba is proud of the dishes we created and look forward to sharing very soon what’s next.”

Thankfully in Austin, things seem to be going okay. The capital city swept the competition with seven stars (one more than Houston now that the change has been made), and two green stars for sustainability — in fact, the only green stars in the state.

Austin also had four of the first-ever barbecue restaurants to be awarded stars. Houston also had one.

Austin's winning restaurants were Barley Swine, Craft Omakase, Hestia, Olamaie, InterStellar BBQ, John Bates, La Barbecue, Alison Clem, and LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue.

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