And the Winner Is …

My highly unscientific poll is done (see right) and Austin's (possibly) most popular brewery is: 512! Congratulations, Kevin.

Of course, results in these kinds of web polls have to be taken with a big shaker of salt, but I do think we can get a solid generalization from these results: 512, Real Ale, and Live Oak are far and away the best-loved Austin-area brewers. The reasons for this are numerous: First off is, yes, taste. But also, those three are more widely distributed than brewpubs, which can only sell on-site. And Real Ale and Live Oak have been around for a while and built up some brand loyalty. 512 is a quite a bit younger than those two, so 512 has done an impressive job of whipping up a fan base very quickly.

With all the new brewers trying to go pro over the next few months, it will be interesting to see if these results change a year from now.

Okay, this was a fun little exercise, but please don't mistake it for properly done market research.