A new brewing company in Austin is changing the game by really focusing on unexpected ingredients. Ceremony Botanical Brewing is the first of its kind in Austin, debuting Saturday, April 4, at Hi Sign Brewing. Guests will have a chance to the first two releases — made with matcha and hibiscus — for free.
The brews aren't the only flowery thing at Ceremony, which delivers a poetic manifesto on its website. It defines botanical brewing as "a new category of functional beer that starts with the botanical as the architect, building the entire recipe around the plant's natural character." It is not a flavored beer.
An important part of the brand is its ideological approach. It frames its products in terms of heritage, tradition, and process, ending with a promise to supply a thoughtful beverage for whatever rituals drinkers want to build around it. A press release calls these base botanicals "cultural ingredients."
These drinks are based on the ingredients they honor, not just flavored with them.Image by Ceremony Botanical Brewing
Founder Jens Stoelken grew up in Germany, giving him a strong starting point in understanding the cultural importance of beer. He later learned about matcha beer at Kyoto Brewing Company in Japan, which inspired him to explore what it might mean to develop a new brewing category around similarly meaningful ingredients.
“Beer is one of the oldest fermented beverages in the world, but the expectations of today’s drinkers have evolved,” said Stoelken in a press release. “Younger consumers are looking for new flavors, new ingredients and drinks that feel more intentional. With Ceremony Botanical Brewing, we’re bringing botanicals people already love – like matcha and hibiscus – into a clean beer base to create something fresh and relevant for a new generation of drinkers.”
Stoelken developed the concept in 2024 and brought it to Hi Sign owner Mark Phillippe and the company's master brewer, Kevin Decoud. The three worked on the idea together, ultimately resulting in four recipes listed on the Ceremony's website: in addition to the Hibiscus Ale and Matcha Pilsner, there's also a butterfly pea recipe and a mate botanical rice lager.
"What excited me about Ceremony was the chance to rethink the brewing process around botanicals,” said Decoud. “Instead of finishing a beer and then adding an ingredient, we built the entire recipe around the botanical’s natural character. That changed how we approached balance, aroma, and structure, and it led to beers that feel both familiar and entirely new."
Color is an enticing part of the drinking experience, with the matcha and hibiscus drinks showing off their natural green and red characters. The latter references traditional drinks made by multiple cultures worldwide using hibiscus petals: Mexican aguas frescas, West African bissap, and Egyptian karkade. Both of Ceremony's inaugural products contain 4.9 percent ABV (a standard amount for beer).
For now, Ceremony will exist as a residency at Hi Sign, but there are plans to make the products available in other locations.
Anyone can RSVP to Ceremony's free launch party via Partiful. The event runs from 4-6 pm with music by DJ Tradfemme and a raffle for ceramic art by local artist Katie Stevens that is filled with Ceremony products. Hi Sign Brewing is located at 730 Shady Ln.
