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If this thread is indicative of the crowd in Austin, the hoarding will be strong with this release. Just go drink some Brash and call it a day
Someone on the Austin Let's Talk Craft Beer Facebook page wished that another person's dog would drop dead on Christmas Morning because they bought too much Sputnik.

As for me, my wife will not allow me to trade this stuff. It's her favorite.
 
Sputnik seems to be cleaned out pretty much everywhere Central. Grabbed the last one at Whip In earlier today and I imagine you'd have to go to Westlake or RR/Pville at this point.

I like it but I'm not bonkers about it. Just kinda like thin cold brew to me.
 
Since we're on the subject of coffee beer, anybody try this Shiner/Chameleon Cold Brew collab yet?

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Any good?
 
Need some Austin advice from y'all. I may be coming for a bachelor party in April. The groom just asked me "where's the place to stay? Important to be downtown? By the lakes?"

Not a typical douchey bachelor party. Not going to any strip clubs or doing bar crawls (though there will be a lot of drinking and eating various foods should we come). Probably going to look for a big Airbnb for say 10-15 people potentially. So what say you Austin TBers?
 
Staying somewhere in east side would put you within walking or short rideshare fares to Rainey (Craft Pride, Bangers and all the various bars there), Hops and Grain, and Zilker. Could even throw in Live Oak if you wanted. Somewhere around South Congress/South Lamar would also be ok (you could hit ABGB and Pinthouse). If you're up for even more breweries, there's brewery/party tour buses who can sort a whole itinerary out. Jester King doesn't allow party buses FYI.

And you'll inevitably end up on dirty 6th, somehow.

Other than brewery stuff, the most common suggestion I hear is water activities. You do have enough people to where you could consider renting out your own boat for a lake. May even be nice enough weather to take a swim at Barton, go tubing, or paddle boarding/kayaking but honestly it's a crapshoot. Top Golf? If you're into video games/pinball, load up on good booze and Pinballz is BYOB.
 
Staying somewhere in east side would put you within walking or short rideshare fares to Rainey (Craft Pride, Bangers and all the various bars there), Hops and Grain, and Zilker. Could even throw in Live Oak if you wanted. Somewhere around South Congress/South Lamar would also be ok (you could hit ABGB and Pinthouse). If you're up for even more breweries, there's brewery/party tour buses who can sort a whole itinerary out. Jester King doesn't allow party buses FYI.

And you'll inevitably end up on dirty 6th, somehow.

Other than brewery stuff, the most common suggestion I hear is water activities. You do have enough people to where you could consider renting out your own boat for a lake. May even be nice enough weather to take a swim at Barton, go tubing, or paddle boarding/kayaking but honestly it's a crapshoot. Top Golf? If you're into video games/pinball, load up on good booze and Pinballz is BYOB.

Since when? I have seen them out there all the time and recently as earlier in the fall this year...
 
Thought that's just the rules but will defer to jeffstuffingsjk
From their website:
Please note, we do not allow party buses and have limited parking for other large vehicles, which must be reserved in advance. Red Star Party Bus, 6th Street Rides, and The Cherry Bomb are specifically prohibited from entering the property, even for drop-off/pickup. To make arrangements for other large vehicle parking or drop-off/pickup, please email
 
Is there anywhere I can watch my Lions on saturday night near East 7/red with a good beer list? Maybe good food too? Am I asking for too much?
 
Bad business model and now begging for customers. I guess their nearly invisible carbon footprint and living wages are costing them. Maybe roasted celery isn't selling well?

I have no idea who or what they're about, but that post tells me all I need to know.

As far as living wages and the restaurant biz go, read the articles about CA and their issues with the rising minimum wage recently. Most are starting to impliment a 3% surcharge for "government mandated expenses" and so far the wages have only gone up $0.50. Imagine what happens when the other $4.50 kicks in.
 
Food/beer wasn't anything impressive so it's never really a destination for me. Also sounds like they're using the living wage/no tipping argument as an excuse to just not bother with even decent service.

Either way, I don't really give a **** about bad service, but that logic is beyond me.
 
I think Black Star is ok and used to go there a decent amount in their early days. But there are just so many more, and better, options now that I don't really make a trip there.
 
maybe I should buy their business and slang whales, bruh...

but nah. I've been there a few times...I also never tried their beer. Oops.
 
I've been to Black Star a few times and liked the few beers I've had. Food has always been good, and service seemed fine. Maybe I'm in the minority on that. With new places opening, such as PHP, the marketplace has gotten harder to stay afloat in. I'm surprised that a place like Black Star is in trouble before more mediocre places like Thirsty Planet or Twisted X, but what may be the difference is the latters' off-premise sales (bottles, lots of kegs). They might be making good stuff, but most people haven't visited and can't buy it around town.

Bad business model and now begging for customers.

I have no idea who or what they're about, but that post tells me all I need to know.
You just like bashing on anything Texas. We get it. Cool Schtick. Keep on bashing places with your uninformed opinions.
 
I've been to Black Star a few times and liked the few beers I've had. Food has always been good, and service seemed fine. Maybe I'm in the minority on that. With new places opening, such as PHP, the marketplace has gotten harder to stay afloat in. I'm surprised that a place like Black Star is in trouble before more mediocre places like Thirsty Planet or Twisted X, but what may be the difference is the latters' off-premise sales (bottles, lots of kegs). They might be making good stuff, but most people haven't visited and can't buy it around town.

Agree here. The stuff I've had from them has been good, certainly. I think off-premise helps a LOT with cashflow. Even if you're making mediocre beer (and I think very few of the beers I had there were mediocre), you can find bars that will host a keg once in a while. For every beer bar that carefully curates selection, there's hundreds of sports bars willing to stock "one of the craft kegs folks sometimes ask for" that have yet to have that tap filled by another local brewery.

I'm sad but not surprised to hear this news. I'm a fan of the co-op model if it can work, but definitely think off-premise is their achilles heel here. Co-op nearly always requires absurd external sales traffic to really thrive, or such a large runway that bad times can be weathered and good times can acquire more owner-members.
 
You just like bashing on anything Texas. We get it. Cool Schtick. Keep on bashing places with your uninformed opinions.

By the time any business is doing crowd funding to stay afloat, they're already in deep trouble. And I was relating it to the nonsense the entire state of CA is starting to go through. It has nothing to do with TX.
 

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