The Texas Craft Brewers Guild recently launched an Instagram series called #BehindTheBeer featuring the people behind the scenes working hard to bring you excellent Texas craft beers. As you can imagine, in an industry that has a $4.5 billion-dollar impact on the Texas economy, there are a variety of jobs that extend beyond the brewing process including packaging, laboratory technicians, quality assurance, marketing and much more.
Craft Beer Austin has partnered with the Texas Craft Brewers Guild to expand on #BehindTheBeer with a series of articles featuring each highlighted Guild member.
For this installment, meet Matt & Virginia Benavidez, co-founders of The Beer Museum.
Tell us just a little bit about The Beer Museum & what your day-to-day looks like:
The Beer Museum is currently a mobile pop-up museum, so we’re most active on weekends. When we don’t have events, we’re brewing, reading beer history books, researching old recipes, and making beer puns. We’re capable of some pretty bad beer jokes. Dortmunder estimate us.
How did the idea of a beer museum come about?
We had an overgrown collection of every beer bottle and can we’ve ever tried (no duplicates) and wanted to find a good home for it. When we discovered there wasn’t a beer museum anywhere near us, we decided we should fill that void. We are now the good home for our beer collection as well as others’. We’re also the good home to two cats, a baby, and a Nicolas Cage pillow.
If someone asked you to describe the current state of today’s craft beer climate what would you say?
We’re tempted to say “mostly sunny,” but that’s a weather condition, not a climate. So…humid subtropical?
What are your future plans for The Beer Museum?
We plan to move the museum into a permanent establishment here in Austin where we will brew ancient and historic beer styles that can be consumed as you walk through the museum, thus creating a complete sensory experience that will transport you back in time. Not literally. Well, probably not literally.
What’s the most interesting story behind an ancient beer?
One thing a lot of people don’t know is that women were the original beer brewers and remained the brewers for thousands of years. It wasn’t until a market for beer emerged after recovery from the Plague that men took over the business of making beer. So brew dudes are a bunch of newbs, historically speaking.
What beer are you currently drinking the most of?
Yes!
Keep up with The Beer Museum’s events on Craft Beer Austin and follow them on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter.
To keep up with the #BehindTheBeer series on Instagram, simply follow the hashtag and follow the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. If you are a member of the Guild and would like to participate in this series, please check the latest Guild newsletter for details.
