About Austin Beerworks

You shouldn’t go to Austin, Texas without stopping by Austin Beerworks! Known for their vibrant and eclectic branding but also their always tasty core lineup; Pearl Snap, Fire Eagle, Flavor Country, Peacemaker, Amber Vision and Sun Shovel. These set the foundation and there’s so many more styles to taste especially those from the RAD Laboratory, built for delicious experimentation. We reached out, virtually of course, with Brewmaster and one of ABW’s founders, Will Golden, to get the full story of how he began, his passions and Austin Beerworks’ status over the last months.

There are four founding members of Austin Beerworks including; Michael Graham, Adam DeBower, Mike McGovern and Will Golden. Each have different backgrounds but have one thing in common; their passion for brewing high quality beer.  ABW opened in April of 2011 with their first batch of Fire Eagle IPA. Now ABW is one of the largest production breweries in Texas keeping Austin one of the premier beer drinking cities in the USA!

 

Passion for the craft brewing industry

We were curious at how their beer style ideas came to fruition. Will explains where his passion started, “I gained interest in brewing while on an art history trip to Europe. When I returned home I wanted to find a way into the industry so I started hounding the guys at The Frederick Brewing Co. for a job (now the Flying Dog brewery). Until they finally hired me to work in the cellar.”

Will also invokes a passion for Austin itself, “The community is top notch. From the camaraderie, resilience, and creativity. The ability to pivot on a dime to reinvent our businesses during the crisis and helping one another all while doing so.”

Honestly who can blame him? Austin, Texas is truly a special place.

Will’s enthusiasm really shines through when talking about beers he loves and brewing in general. Will is still excited about, “creating new flavors and using science and technology to do so.”

When asked about his favorite beer style he couldn’t pick just one. Will explains, “Truthfully my favorite styles change with what I’m interested in exploring.” No wonder ABWs creativity is constantly flowing with new beer styles coming out on a regular basis.

 

Challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic

Like so many other breweries, ABW have faced challenges recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic and have put their employees first. Will describes their main priorities and challenges, “The mental health and wellbeing of our employees have been our main concern. This has been a challenge because we as owner-operators have wanted to stay home and flatten the curve while protecting our families. However, we felt compelled to come in, because we felt that we can’t ask others to come and work if we are not willing to ourselves. People are scared but willing to take the risk to help keep this company that they love going. So we have to be very mindful of the safety of our people as well as their mental health.”

Will and the ABW team have had to be flexible and creative with packaging in order to not waste any product. Will explains, “We have had to try and salvage hundreds of kegs so that they could be packaged in cans to be sold.”

The brewery has completely shifted to carry out orders in such a short period of time. Will describes this process, “We are using unused old stock cans to package new one-off beers that would normally have been draft only to sell in the taproom. We have also been doing some virtual collaborations to help drive sales for to-go beer and raise moral!”

 

Moving forward with support

Austin Beerworks has still managed to move forward with a few initiatives. Their most recent collaboration Will describes as, “a hoppy kolsch that was supposed to be featured at the Craft Brewer’s Conference and is a collaboration between us, Malteurop Malting Company and Roy Farms.” Here at Malteurop Malting Company we could not have be more proud to be partnered with our friends at ABW and Roy Farms and look forward to tasting!

They have also been able to experiment in the brewery including a Hazy Double IPA made with Incognito^TM, a flowable hop extract from John I. Haas, used in the mash as well as in the whirlpool. Will explains, “We felt this was a good way to experiment with new products and new techniques and the result was an amazing full and soft mouth feel.”

The Austin community has been nothing but supportive. Will explains, “we have had many restaurateurs stopping by to drop off meals for the people still working. Yeti is donating a lot of merchandise to give away as a thank you for the community support. We have had a lot of out of town people placing orders for beer and gift cards to give out randomly. As Texas breweries and restaurants prepare to open with capacity restrictions we encourage everyone, who feels comfortable doing so, to stay safe and support your favorite neighborhood spots. They are such a vital part of our communities!

 

Thank you!

We want to extend a big thank you to Will at Austin Beerworks for participating in this initiative during American Craft Beer Week! We know many breweries across the country are going through similar situations. Our goal is to celebrate our partners and tell their story’s during this difficult time.