Ok sorry in advance, but the beers I am about to mention are all from Texas. I know we have a few texans here, and everyone else ought to visit at least once. This is a good way to spend such a visit.
For my birthday last august, my girlfriend and I did a brewery tour of Texas. We did five brewery tours in four days. Best. Birthday. Evar.
This actually takes a bit of finesse, since two of the tours only run on weekdays.
We started driving out to Shiner, Texas early Friday morning at about 8:00 a.m. to get to the Shiner brewery tour at 10:00 a.m. They are best known for their bock, which is fairly well known throughout the u.s. and is the only one of the following beers you can get outside Texas.
Shiner is a good gateway beer. They are very tasty, but are on the light end of craft brews. They have been dabbling in other styles, and I had my first shiner Oktoberfest at the tour. A tasty but lighter version.
After shiner we drove to Blanco, TX for the Real Ale brewery tour at 2:00 p.m. This turned out to be my favorite. A great, informational tour and all the free tastings you want of their many varied and strong beers that you want. I didn't have it there, but their coffee porter is awesome.
We then stayed the night in Austin, TX at the historic Driskill hotel downtown. Beautiful place to say the least.
Saturday morning we got up, and after eating went to the Live Oak brewery tour -- my second favorite. (Humongous live oak trees are all over Texas, thus the reference and their tagline, "made in the shade.") They recently hired a true German brewer recently, who has been refining some of their recipes with great success. They make an excellent hefeweizen, a very cloudy, fruity beer the type of which I love. He explained where the fruity flavors come, namely the banana flavor. Turns out, a certain yeast produces the same enzymes that also help give bananas their flavor. So it's not just beer knurds being snooty, it's science!
After that, we went to 512, named after austin's area code. This was the first one that was a humongous party, because as it turns out it was their anniversary (just like me!). It was also miserably hot and outdoors, in the middle of august in Texas. Immediate swamp ass. Their beers are tasty and strong, but not quite what I was looking for in that heat. They are also keg only at the moment.
We stayed one more night in Austin, then headed back home to Houston on Sunday and rested. Monday morning we then went to the oldest and greatest craft brewery in Texas, my old favorite -- Saint Arnold, the patron saint of brewers. They just moved to their newery closer to downtown Houston, and Jessica hadn't been yet. They make amazing beers which have won many numerous awards at the great American beer festival. They were first introduction into good beers, so they will always be my first love.
And many more. They're most fun to find and to try is their divine reserves. Each one is unique and only produced in very limited quantities. My favorite so far is the pumpkin Imperial stout (DR9), the ONLY pumpkin beer I've had that actually tastes like pumpkin. YUM.
So for those that love beer and are in Texas, this was a great trip. If you can't make it to the breweries, then get to either the Gingerman pub or the flying saucer pub, both of which are in a city near you, and ask for one of these true domestic beers.