First thing’s first! let me know specifically when you’ll be in town (with a couple of weeks notice), and some of us may be able to meet you for drinks! Email me at info@thebeerists.com

Updated 4/11/2019

Bars:
Austin is a fantastic beer city. Lots of great spots to drink, and most restaurants will have a decent craft beer selection. Here are my picks for must-visit beer spots.

1. Draught House
An Austin institution with a big, well curated craft beer selection. Great neighborhood pub atmosphere.

2. Craft Pride
All Texas beer on draft and an incredible selection of it. Great bar (and great pizza truck on the patio- VIA 313)!

3. Pinthouse Pizza  North and South locations. 
The pizza is ok, but the beer they make there is fantastic. They specialize in amazing IPAs, but everything they brew is top-notch. Get a flight or two at each location– they each have different brewers and lineups.

4. Easy Tiger
Awesome bakery/beer garden. Great food/beer selection. Voted one of America’s top new artisanal bakeries. Food by Top Chef Andrew Curran.

5. Wright Bros. Brew and Brew
Great beer and coffee, some bottles to go. Awesome people.

Must-Visit Breweries:

1. Jester King
This is a must. They’re out in the hill country, and are making some very interesting and delicious beers. Check their website for tour info. Oh, and skip the pizza there, and instead go to Pieous down the road. Their pastrami is some of the best I’ve had.

2. The ABGB
The guys KILL IT at GABF, wining tons of gold medals, and Large Brewpub of the Year 3 years in a row. Great beer and food, and lots of indoor and outdoor tables.

3. Austin Beerworks
Great beer. Check their website for tour info.

4. Live Oak
They just opened their taproom right by the Airport. Seriously one of the best brewers of German style beers in the world.

5. Pinthouse Pizza  North and South locations. 
Get a flight or two at each location– they each have different brewers and lineups, and are both stellar.

6. St. Elmo
One of the new kids on the block, but making solid brew. Carl Kölsch has quickly become a favorite. Also, be sure to eat at the food truck, Soursop! The food is insane.

7. Blue Owl
America’s first all sour mash brewery! Great stuff, and will only get better.

8. Hops & Grain
Great beer and tap room. Check their website for tour info.

Food:
1. Uchi and Uchiko
Chef Tyson Cole’s sushi/japanese fusion projects. Truly spectacular.

2. Barley Swine
Brice Gilmore (up for a James Beard chef award) is doing some amazing stuff here.

3. East Side King
James Beard Award winner (and Top Chef) Paul Qui’s crazy Japanese street food restaurants. Several locations (mainly food carts behind bars).

4. Ramen Tatsu-Ya
There’s a reason multiple publications rated this place as the best Ramen in the nation. North and South locations make this an easy stop.

5. Valentina’s, Kerlin BBQ or LA Barbecue.
Franklin BBQ is the best, but the 5-hour line you’ll be standing in first thing in the morning to get some before it sells out SUCKS. These other 3 are practically just as good, and you won’t have to wait more than an hour.

6. Odd Duck
Another killer restaurant from Brice Gilmore. Try the barrel-aged cocktails, and as many of the small plates as you can.

7. Salt & Time
Best burger in town (dinner only) get it with cheese, andouja, and a fried egg to see what heaven tastes like.

8. VIA 313
Incredible Detroit style pizza. Grab some from their E 6th St trailer, or their sit-down restaurant in Southwest Austin.

Cocktails (all of these are amazing):

1. Whistler’s
Outstanding cocktails. While you’re there, eat at the food truck and check out the Mezcal bar (Mezcalería Tobalá) upstairs.

2. Tigress
This place is tiny, but completely worth it.

3. Midnight Cowboy Modeling
Used to be an Asian massage parlor, but is now a hidden, throwback prohibition-style cocktail bar. Reservations required.

4. Peche
Yum. That’s all I have to say.

Tips: Aside from my reccs, avoid most of 6th Street nightlife West of the Interstate (frat boys and college thug wannabes). East 6th is pretty cool, if you like hipsters and great music. Check listings for shows in advance. Lots of music stuff sells out (the stuff that’s worth seeing, anyway). Hope you have a car.

We all live in, and produce the show from beautiful Austin, TX.

Theme music for everything post episode 111 was provided by Grammy Award winning artist Adrian Quesada of Grupo Fantasma, Brownout, and Spanish Gold. He’s also host John Rubio’s cousin, because that’s how Mexicans work.

Simple. I want to make the show I’d like to listen to. Podcast ads annoy me, and skipping them is a hassle. I’d rather spend a fraction of the time other podcasts use for advertising on asking for donations from people who love what we do. We don’t get any other funds to produce this show, and every cent we get goes back into the show for beer reviews, hosting, equipment, upgrades, and any travel we take for the podcast.

This may change in the future, but I’d like to stay independent of advertisers for as long as I can.

If you’re a listener or brewery who would like to send us beer to review, please email us at info@thebeerists.com so we can figure out the best time for us to schedule a shipment, and for the address you can ship to.

Why do I need to schedule?
We produce one episode a week (with 4 beers per episode), and we don’t want your beer to sit around waiting for an opening for the show. It’s important to us that what we taste is as close to the brewer’s intent, and that usually means the sample should be fresh.

Here’s what we look for in a good sample:

1. The fresher the better. Please don’t buy any beer until we’ve agreed on a good date to ship. Also, please check date codes to ensure we’re well within the “best by” date, or within 90 days of packaging. If you’re not sure about how fresh a beer is, please pick something else.
2. Please plan on sending 2 of every beer that is 16oz and under. Anything above 16oz, one will be fine.
3. If you send us more than 4 different beers, we can’t guarantee they’ll all be on the show (but they might be featured on a Patreon Mini episode!). If you send fewer, we’ll have to put something in to fill time that might not fit the theme you’re going for. If you don’t care, that’s cool too. Just be sure to let us know which 4 you want us to review on the main show.

How to ship:

1. FedEx Ground is our preferred shipping method. Send me a tracking number when it has shipped. Please do not use USPS.
2. Wine (bottle) shippers are great! Wine shops with shipping departments and U-Haul are where we get ours.
3. If you’re packing your own box, use lots of bubble wrap (at least 2 layers on each bottle, less for cans) and pack it so that nothing touches the walls of the box, or each other. Also, you’ll want it packed tightly, so nothing can move around in transit. The best packed boxes can survive a tumble down a flight of stairs (don’t test that- ha!).

Note: If you send us beer we end up not liking, don’t worry- we won’t hold it against you. It’s not your job to please us. The mere action of sending us beer is great, and makes for good content either way. If we didn’t have beer, we wouldn’t have a show.

One more thing: If you send us beer, there is no guarantee it will be featured on the main show. We haven’t had to completely omit anything from the show yet, and will absolutely try our best to feature every beer you send, but we can’t guarantee it. We hope you understand our time constraints.