[ethinson]

Next week my wife and I are traveling to Houston and Austin.  We'll be in Houston from Sunday June 24-Sunday July 1 and then Austin Mon July 2 to Thursday July 5.  We are volunteering at a large conference in Houston so we won't have a lot of free time (and won't be able to drink) so we might hit up one spot on the last day once we're finished.  A friend recommended St Arnold, which looks great, any others in Houston that I can't miss?

Austin we'll be visiting family so we'll have a lot more freedom.  Unfortunately, since we'll be there Mon-Thurs, Jester King won't be open the times we're there, but hopefully I can find some bottles to bring home.  I'd like to go to Celis. Where else is a can't miss?

[MDixon]

Houston is painful at times to only travel a few miles. I didn't have time to hit the recommended watering holes when I was there, but was eyeballing this list. Hopefully someone gives you some better recommendations.
https://houston.eater.com/maps/houston-best-beer-bars-where-to-drink

When we were in Austin we enjoyed Black Star Co-op, but it has been years so the entire beer scene nationwide has exploded. On that visit we hit The Ginger Man and Flying Saucer, but I think Ginger Man has closed.

[hopfenundmalz]

Celis has the classic Wit, try it.

Live Oak has a nice place by the airport. Excellent German and Czech style beers.

ABGB might be my personal favorite. Pils, Pils, Pils.

Pint house Pizza has been good - 2 locations.

Draught House has a large tap list, and a couple of house beers.

Beer bars, Craft Pride for all TX beers, Bangers for really good sausage and beers. Both on Rainey St. Wright Bros Brew and Brew (beer and coffee) had a nice list.

[ethinson]

Yeah, I'm excited for Celis, I hope to make it there.  Live Oak was interestingly enough one of the first places I found since it is right next to the airport. 

I met someone from Pinthouse Pizza while I was taking a Siebel Brewing Microbiology short course, so I certainly hope to hit that up. 

If we don't get anything in Houston I won't at all be surprised, we'll have a lot more time and freedom on the Austin side of the trip once the conference is over.  I just looked and St Arnold is closed on Sunday which is our one free day in Houston before we head to Austin.

[hopfenundmalz]

Yeah, I'm excited for Celis, I hope to make it there.  Live Oak was interestingly enough one of the first places I found since it is right next to the airport. 

I met someone from Pinthouse Pizza while I was taking a Siebel Brewing Microbiology short course, so I certainly hope to hit that up. 

If we don't get anything in Houston I won't at all be surprised, we'll have a lot more time and freedom on the Austin side of the trip once the conference is over.  I just looked and St Arnold is closed on Sunday which is our one free day in Houston before we head to Austin.

I forgot to mention that the Pint House Pizza on S. Lamar has the Electric Jellyfish IPA, which was nice. Both locations have guest taps also.

[reverseapachemaster]

Yeah Houston traffic is really rough so either coordinate to hit places close to one another or pick one place. St. Arnold's is Houston's largest and oldest craft brewery. It probably won't blow you away but you won't find bad beer, either. Karbach is also a solid brewery but an AB Inbev acquisition.

Lots of breweries in Houston make one or two good beers and the rest are not great so unless you are really committed to going to a brewery then you might have a better experience tasting Houston's breadth of craft beer at one of the better known bars. Hay Merchant, Flying Saucer, Gingerman are all good options. If you're on the north side Petrol Station is good.

Austin traffic is bad and will be especially bad around the rivers between Austin and San Antonio because of the holiday. Stay off I-35 in Austin if you can. Austin will be crowded in general with the holiday so plan accordingly.

Live Oak is definitely worth the stop. Either of the Pinthouse Pizza locations are also worthwhile stops. I like Austin Beerworks on the north side as well. I am not too familiar with some of the newer breweries like Zilker and Lazarus although I hear good things about both.

If you want the most access to breweries in Austin then the northwest side of town around the 1/MoPAC and 183 intersection will put the most around you. In that general area is Austin Beerworks, Pinthouse Pizza (Burnet), Adelbert's, Celis, Circle, 4th Tap, Oskar Blues, NXNW, and I think one or two others have opened up there. Not all of those are worth your time but plenty of options. The Whole Foods grocery store near there has a solid tap list as well.

If you want to hit beer bars then Bangers and Craft Pride on Rainey St. are the best options.

You'll find some of the Jester King shelf beers around town. Maybe some of the limited but not brewery-only releases if something came out recently. Your best options for more limited offerings are sunrise bottle shop (it's in a gas station, really) or whip-in. Specs sometimes has some good stuff on the shelves and they have locations all around town.

[ethinson]

It's been a while but I noticed I never came back and followed up on this.  Unfortunately the way the trip turned out we didn't get to go many places at all.  We were in Austin on Mon-Wend and most of the places were closed.  So many of the places I wanted to go to (like Jester King) were only open Fri-Sat-Sun type hours. 

St Arnolds was closed, but I did get to try some canned Pils that was great and brought home a bottle of the barrel aged quad with cherries (Bishops Barrel #21). 

The only two breweries we made it to in Austin were Oskar Blues and 4th Tap which were both open on the 4th and are across the street from each other.  Oskar Blues was great as I expected and 4th Tap had some really interesting things going on.  In Houston we went to Platypus Brewing (OK beer, good food), Eureka Heights brewing, which had the best beer of the trip but was in an un-airconditioned warehouse on a 100 degree day so we didn't stay very long, and then Town in City brewing, which was small but nice beer and also a cidery on site. 

I had some Karbach on draft and it was quite good, I didn't realize it was InBev until I logged it on Untappd.  I got draft beers from Pinthouse, Live Oak and Austin Beerwerks while we were out and about and they were all good as well.

We went to Bangers and it was amazing and then hit up several bars on 6th street.  Austin is fun, can't wait to go back.  My wife has family there, so I know we'll be going back.