Guide
The Best Beers of 2025 (By the Numbers) Welcome to the end of 2025. There was a lot of movement in the Central Texas craft beer industry this year, and it’s looking pretty good – our comprehensive openings and closings list counts fifteen brewery openings (plus one cidery, two meaderies), and six brewery closings. Compare that to 2024’s seven openings, and the closings to 2024’s twelve. That’s a pretty sizable increase! Most of the new […]
Austin Ale Trail Passport Review (2026): The Best Brewery Perks to Collect This Year It’s that time of year again: The Austin Ale Trail has returned with their sixth annual brewery passport for the 2026 season. If you’re raring to go, you can get your passport early at the two launch parties this weekend – Nomadic Beerworks on Saturday 12/6, and Southern Heights Brewing on Sunday 12/7. General sales will begin soon at these fifteen […]
Location Spotlight: Round Rock Originally published 11/26/25. Please fill out our survey! It can be difficult to capture a location in writing, with businesses coming and going all the time. Last month, I went through the older location spotlight articles and had to remove a number of closed venues, but thankfully was able to fill a few of the empty spots with newer openings. As you’ll soon read, this article may also need an update… […]
A Comprehensive List of Brewery Openings and Closures Updated 12/24/2025 This is a complete list of all brewery openings and closures since 2020. We also maintain a table of all Central Texas breweries that you can view any time here (or from the navigation bar above, under “Beer Guides”), which can be filtered by region. Openings 2026 Open Now Nothing yet! 2026 (Pending) The Alright Brewing Co. (Austin) Pour Choices Brewing Company (Fredericksburg) Three Kings […]
The Best Beers (Maybe?) at Texas Craft Brewers Festival 2025 We’re back for the third year of TCBF beers by the numbers. Last year, we saw thousands* of attendees walking around the festival with this article on their phone, using it as a guide to target the most sought after beers. Will you join their ranks this year, or will you be normal? Disclaimer: just like TBBofT(SF) and Style Breakdown series, this article is based […]
The Best Beers of the Year (So Far): Quarter 3, 2025 As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been putting a lot of work into the Location Spotlight series recently – but I also know that it’s time for the quad-annual best beers rankings. There’s a consistent theme between the two series though: the breweries in the greater Central Texas area are making some fantastic beer. You’re going to see a lot of breweries outside of Austin […]
Location Spotlight: Fredericksburg Originally published 10/12/25. Please fill out our survey! Guten Tag! That’s all the German I know. Oh, and Prost! Nein? I imagine that nearly everyone reading this article has been to Fredericksburg at least once, as it’s a popular destination for culture, food, wine, and granite mountains. But did you know, beer?? Yes, as we often do at Craft Beer Austin (dot com), we’re here to inform and enlighten you about all […]
Location Spotlight: Taylor + Hutto 10/9/25: Refreshed article for 2025. Please fill out our survey! If you last visited Taylor and Hutto a few years ago, it’s time to return, because everything’s changed. What used to be one brewery is now four, plus there’s now a great bottle shoppe, and quite possibly the coolest beer bar in all of Central Texas. This article has been awaiting publication since October 2023 – there was always something […]
Location Spotlight: Liberty Hill 10/9/25: Refreshed article for 2025. Though, I’m keeping the eclipse framing for fun. Please fill out our survey! I have a secret for you – I’m not driving out towards Dripping Springs for the eclipse next month. I’m staying far away from 71 and 290. Instead, as you can tell by the title of this article, I’m planning to head northwest towards Liberty Hill, which is actually slightly closer to the […]
Location Spotlight: Blanco + Johnson City Originally published 10/2/25. Please fill out our survey! Welcome to a brand new edition of Location Spotlight, where we fill you in on the top beer destinations in Central Texas, outside of the Austin city limits. While an article on Dripping Springs might seem like an easy pick, we’re assuming that Craft Beer Austin readers are probably already familiar with the area; rather, we’d like to invite you to […]
Location Spotlight: Cedar Park + Leander 9/25/25: Refreshed article for 2025. Please fill out our survey! The Cedar Park and Leander beer scene has grown into one of the busiest corners of Central Texas. If you haven’t explored the suburbs northwest of Austin yet, take warning – it’s too much for one day. In this article, we’ll cover the brewery options, top beer bars, and bottleshop(s), and maybe even reach a bit further to other […]
Location Spotlight: Georgetown 9/25/25: Refreshed article for 2025. Please fill out our survey! Have you done a beer day in Georgetown yet? A quick drive up I-35 from downtown Austin (estimated time between 40 minutes and 8 hours, depending on traffic) puts you in the county seat of Williamson County. The historic downtown square houses several beer-centric businesses that are worth checking out, and a few miles outside of downtown you’ll find two breweries – […]