Published 12/24/2025
Barking Armadillo Brewing Opens Second Location
A Christmas gift to all: Barking Armadillo Brewing out of Georgetown has successfully opened their second location in… still Georgetown, but closer to Round Rock. The new spot, dubbed Barking Armadillo Social, is sharing a space with Bahler Street Pizza, which previously operated a popular food truck often seen at breweries in North Central Texas. The brewpub is the first expansion for Barking Armadillo, who opened their original taproom in March 2020, which was probably the worst possible month in modern history to launch a brewery. But they’ve survived, they’ve thrived, and now they’ve expanded southwards. The new spot is open every day but Monday; go check them out!
Grit & Gyle Brewing Coming to Kyle
If you’ve glanced at our Comprehensive List of Brewery Openings and Closures, you know that we’re very detailed on what’s up and coming here in Central Texas. Grit & Gyle is a brewery that I heard about several years ago, but had so little information to go on that I wrote it off as abandoned. I was very wrong – Community Impact identified the TABS filing for the new $3 million, 6,250 square-foot property going up just off I-35 in Kyle. This will be Kyle’s first brewery, following a few attempts (Prismatic Brewery, Cassette Brewing) that were unable to see their plans through to fruition. Grit & Gyle Brewing is planning for an early 2027 opening date; feel free to note their address, and then drive by yourself to watch the progress unfold.
Live Oak Brewing Expands Distribution to Dallas / Fort Worth
In our last Six Things article, we reported that Live Oak has ended self-distribution and signed on with several companies to increase their footprint in Texas. Earlier this month, Live Oak announced another distribution partner, Andrews Distributing, which will bring their product up to the DFW area.
I’m now going to share something tangential with you that I’ll admit I only learned while googling further information to write about for this story. Live Oak previously distributed to DFW prior to 2017, but had to stop due to too much success. They could not produce enough product to supply North Texas, and had to focus on the Austin area. This was posted by Live Oak Brewing to a forum thread on BeerAdvocate. Clicking on their profile shows that they haven’t logged in to this site in almost 8 years, but in 2017 this was a meaningful way to disseminate brewery news.
Anyway, I just thought that was funny, and provided extra context for the whole “YOU’VE WAITED LONG ENOUGH” rhetoric of their recent announcement. Enjoy, DFW!
“2.0 Brewing Company” Acquires Texas Beer Co. and Meridian Hive Meadery
This is a follow-up to our story from September that Texas Beer Co. was facing foreclosure. We mentioned that they would be operating under new ownership, and we can now clarify that the new owners, real estate developers Perry Lorenz and Caitlin Olle, have formed a new brand under the name 2.0 Brewing Company, LLC. Following the purchase of Texas Beer Co., 2.0 Brewing also acquired Meridian Hive Meadery, which had been contract brewing at Thirsty Planet, and then Celis, in the years following the closure of their taproom. This appears to have been a smooth transition for both the brewery and meadery, as the new 2.0 Brewing Co. website shows the combined brands, along with the brewery team featuring the same familiar faces (both human and feline). While we’re not necessarily fans of consolidation, we would not be surprised to see additional brands acquired by or contract brewing at 2.0/Texas/Meridian in the future.
Beerburg Brewing is Reopening with Public Hours
Follow-up number three! In our last Six Things article, we wrote about Beerburg Brewing, who closed, and then reopened for events… then also reopened to the public twice a month. We also speculated that they were trending toward producing more, unique beers, and were likely to reopen permanently. Great news! Beerburg will be opening up a new public beer garden with standard hours for both weekdays and weekends. This will be a totally new section of the property, formerly just forest, near the road (see second image on the above Instagram post). The new area is planning to open in February, and we’re looking forward to checking it out.
Austin Beer Garden Brewing’s Property Rezoned for Mixed Use
Austin Beer Garden Brewing (ABGB) has submitted, and been approved for, a rezoning of their land for mixed-use commercial and residential use, as reported by hoodline.com. An important detail of this story is that ABGB owns the land that the brewpub and music venue sits on, meaning that this was a choice of theirs with regard to future planning for their space. It’s difficult to predict what this will mean for the future of ABGB, but at the moment it seems to be a strategic move to increase the value of their land for developers should the owners decide to sell. There do not appear to be any immediate plans for this to occur though – and if it does, it will be the decision of the ABGB team.
As a final item,
I know you’re all curious what the future of Independence Brewing will be. Unfortunately, we do not have any additional information to share; we’re hoping they will recover from their current predicament and continue to be around for years to come.
