Austin Beerworks New Taproom on Springdale Road

Austin Beerworks Opens Austin’s Newest Destination Brewery

Malteurop brewery partner Austin Beerworks is building a new “forever” home. The new Austin Beerworks taproom opened on June 15, 2023, just a few miles from its popular original location and a bit closer to downtown Austin, Texas.

While the idea is for everything ABW to eventually be housed at the new location, the original location isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Plans call for the current taproom, which also serves as the main Austin Beerworks production facility, to remain operational for as long as is feasible.

Austin Beerworks’s new location is on a sprawling 64-acre property in Northeast Austin along Springdale Road, which most Austinites are familiar with. It allows Austin Beerworks a new 5,000 square-foot taproom that sits on a manicured five-acre lot with a beer garden, hiking trails throughout the property, a disc golf course, and endless opportunities.

Most importantly, this new home secures Austin Beerworks’ future. With ownership of a total of 64 acres, they are in control of their own destiny, no longer beholden to someone else’s best interests.

Austin Beerworks: All about quality and community

Founded by Adam DeBower, Mike McGovern, Michael Graham, and head brewer Will Golden in 2011, Austin Beerworks quickly made a splash in the Austin beer scene. That was thanks in large part to their dedication to two ideals: to consistently brew exceptional craft beers and to build community in the town they love.

That is also reflected in their mission statement, which is “Quality of Beer, Quality of Life.” They have maintained both admirably since their founding more than a decade ago.

The Austin Beerworks taproom is always bustling. Austinites and those out-of-towners who don’t quite understand what “Keep Austin Weird” means can choose from a wall of taps that ranges from six core beers to anything and everything under the sun that Will and his brew team come up with.

Community tables abound, surrounded by shiny steel tanks and a bustling bar with a disco ball spinning overhead. Step in through the out door to enter an outside yard with more communal tables along an astro-turf greenway covered by shade sails. At night, the yard is lit with a string of star-like lights twinkling overhead and the Can-Tina food truck off to the side to satisfy your belly.

It is one of the most popular beer spots in Austin. So why the need for a new forever home?

Why Austin Beerworks secured a new, massive location

Put simply, the reason Austin Beerworks was in search of a new forever home is an age-old story. Things change.

In their original neighborhood, just down the street is the Austin FC soccer club’s Q2 Stadium. That came in well after Austin Beerworks was established in the mostly industrial neighborhood. That would seem a great way to draw more people to the area. People who might want to drink good beer.

It has drawn more people to the area and, yes, many of those soccer fans have become Austin Beerworks fans. But along with more people in the area came the opportunity for developers to build increasingly popular condominium and apartment buildings coupled with retail space. That’s also more people, but it is driving prices to new heights that many existing businesses in the area can’t accommodate.

“We love our current site, but since we don’t own (the original facility), the lease basically doubled overnight,” Will explained. Those leases aren’t expected to take a downward swing anytime soon.

“We used to kind of be considered a brewing district. That’s going away. There’s already been two breweries (in the area) that have been priced out and they had to go out of business.”

They tried buying the land they’re on, but being part of a much larger holding of property, there is more value for the owner in potentially selling it all at one time to a developer. Austin Beerworks will hold on to their original location as long as they can. They don’t want to leave it behind, but they felt the urgency to secure a future that was within their control.

A new home reignited the creative spirit

The fringe benefit to that security is that the property they purchased re-ignited their independent streak and their imaginations. After all, 64 acres leaves the door open to any number of creative ways to expand upon their vision for community building.

The new ABW location starts with a 5,000-square-foot taproom on top of a hill. That taproom sits on five acres of manicured land that serves as a stunning green space with ample room for beer drinkers to roam.

There are many more ideas that dance through their heads, but to start, the other 59 acres will have hiking trails that wind through the property, snaking around a disc golf course created and operated by Austin’s Mint Discs. Again, that’s just the start, Will has visions of eventually getting permitted to allow for pop-up Tiki bars and hidden beer gardens.

Following hiking trails and disc golf could be a downhill bike course and pump track. There is talk of a concert space along the hillside, where a sort of natural amphitheater space already exists. Again, the possibilities are endless.

For now, Will and his crew simply wanted to finish the hard work of getting the taproom and trails open. And just like when Will and his other co-founders first started, they are still involved in day-to-day operations, including construction on the new site.

They opened up a special Beerworks for Life mug club to help fund the new taproom. For $1,000, there are 200 lucky ABW fans that don’t just get a special mug, they get to fill that mug for free, every day, for the rest of their lives.

“That’s why we’re doing all the construction ourselves. Because that’s really the money that’s funding this build. We’re trying to be very conscious of the money we’re spending on this,” said Will, as he was sitting outside the new taproom that they built, at a community table that they installed and painted, under shade sails that they put up, on property that is theirs.

It’s a lot of work. They could have tried to get more money from investors or raised it some other way and had more of the work done by someone else. But somehow, that doesn’t feel like the Austin Beerworks way.

Will was on site basically from the moment they began construction, which wasn’t until January of 2023. It was taxing, but rewarding at the same time.

“It’s been super exciting. I love putting this together and watching a vision come together,” he said, his face weary, but his eyes aglow for the adventures ahead.

Austin Beerworks will be the area’s newest destination brewery

Just like the passion that founded Austin Beerworks all those years ago, Will’s passion for their new home is palpable. He knows more about his new home’s history than most people do about their family history. That history mixes with his love of preserving this special place not only for ABW, but for the community that they embrace as much as it embraces them.

“It’s preserving this green space and opening it back up to people. It became private land in 1947, just after World War II. It used to be its own city called Sprinkle, Texas. They had a school here, a post office, a railroad stop, all of that. But right after World War II it kind of got absorbed into Austin,” he recounts.

“Because it’s been private land, people haven’t been able to enjoy this green space because it’s been gated off and closed to the public. Now we get to re-open that and have people come out here and enjoy the land again. To me, that’s the most exciting thing, having people out here enjoying the land again.”

For Austin Beerworks, Will is excited to secure the company’s future and for the ways that it has opened them all up to what Austin Beerworks can be.

The Austin area is renowned for breweries that have become destinations in their own right, but they are typically a fair distance outside of town. ABW has the unique opportunity to become such a destination brewery that is minutes from the heart of downtown.

“The biggest thing (for the company) is the future security of our plans going forward,” said Will, but he lights up in talking about what it has done for the heart of the company.

“It’s really made us change and really think more imaginatively about our business model as a whole. Before we focused much more on distributing and getting beer to market. I think this will shift our focus more to a customer experience, making it more of a destination.”

Malteurop and Austin Beerworks have been partners for many, many years. It’s a partnership that we cherish. We couldn’t be more excited for all that Austin Beerworks has created and for what they are building on Springdale Road.

Cheers to many more years and for keeping craft, truly crafty.