It’s Friday, autumn has arrived and a “cold” front pushed through Austin late yesterday bringing the promise of a high temperature in the 80s. That hasn’t happened here since mid-May. It’s enough to put a smile on the face of any heat- and drought-weary Texan.
So how to celebrate the change of seasons and the impending weekend? Road trip!
Another member of the Austin Marketing Syndicate executive leadership team and I are headed to Shiner Texas today to tour the K. Spoetzl Brewery. Any beer-loving Texan, especially Central Texan, is well acquainted with the brewery’s signature sud, Shiner beer; which begs the question, which was named first, the town or the beer?
This won’t be my first brewery tour. Around the time I was 12 years-old I toured a brewery while on a family vacation in upstate New York. As of this writing, I don’t recall the name of the brewery or the city that it calls home. I do recall the not-so-pleasant smell that hung in the air around the plant, both inside and out. I also remember finishing the walk-through in a room with a small bar where jovial adults were sampling some of the company’s products. Under-age patrons were served root beer. I’m really not a fan of root beer, except when it has a luscious scoop of sweet vanilla ice cream in it, but boy, that root beer was superb!
I expect today’s tour to become a memory I’ll never forget. The odor will no doubt be present, and so will the bar at the conclusion of the tour. Instead of root beer, this time I’ll be amongst the boisterous adults sampling their barley pops fresh from the tap.
In the immortal words of Homer Simpson: “Mmm, beer.” I can’t wait.
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