This just got passed on to me by a good beer-drinking buddy. I'm surprised I haven't heard this song yet — it's by one of Austin's best bands, the Asylum Street Spankers. Yeesh, I've really fallen out of touch with the local music scene since I quit being a music critic.
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.
For the Austinites, and those who have visited Austin:
At the newspaper for which I write, The Austin Chronicle, we're preparing for our annual "Best of Austin" issue. Which got me to wondering: Now that the number of breweries here is expanding enough to almost say we have an actual brewing scene, I want to know what is your favorite among our locals. Thus, please see the poll in the right-hand column of this blog.
Although I realize an argument could be made that Shiner qualifies as an Austin brewery, I decided I'm limiting it to nothing further away than Blanco – in other words, anything within about an hour's drive of Downtown.
I'm also limiting it to breweries that are actually fully operational and currently putting product out on the shelves and in the barroom taps, so you fans of Black Star and others will just have to wait until next year, when I'll hopefully remember to run another such poll.
Yes, the poll is unscientific, and you could get away with voting multiple times, but I'd really appreciate it if you'd just vote only once. I'm leaving this open for a good long time: a whole month.
Congratulations, Austin — in this year's list of the drunkest cities in America, Men's Health magazine has ranked you seventh! No doubt, this is due in part to the fact that Austin is home to the drunkest motherfucker in the world. I'm just glad I could do my part. With some assistance from the famous Austinite in this photo.
