Beer O'Clock in San Antonio

In my rush to get to thrilling tale of vomit, I realize I cut short my (admittedly less thrilling) tales of hunting for craft beer in San Antonio. That stop at BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse that I mentioned? Well, that was actually a late lunch. Evening rolled around too slowly for bed, so we ended up checking out another local spot, Freetail Brewing Company.

Freetail is a lot closer to what Denverites would recognize as a craft brewery. It's in a strip mall, is decorated with lots of corrugated metal, and though it does have food, beer is clearly foremost on their mind. They had 18 different selections on tap during our visit, and we sampled our way through most of them. Being a big fan of IPAs, my boyfriend liked Velocihopter. I was similarly pleased with the Yo Soy Un Berliner. But many things made a fair impression.

In fact, we decided to go back to Freetail a couple days later in the trip, only to find that several beers had rotated (and that the new tally was 20 in all). In came Spirulina Wit (a "weird green beer") and Jamaica Wit (a "weird pink beer), along with the menacing Thanatos.

But I was more impressed by a place we found driving closer to downtown San Antonio. This was a few hours after Six Flags, when I felt like I'd recovered and was apparently willing to push my luck. We went to a place called Blue Star Brewing Company, and if it had been closer to our hotel, we'd have surely been there every remaining night of the trip. Fans of darker beers would likely be disappointed -- there was a Barleywine, and a "Spire Stout" which I sort of liked (meaning any true fans of stouts probably wouldn't have). But for fans of lighter options, there was plenty, from the solid Texican Lager to the fantastic Raspberry Geyser (a sour).

So while there weren't the dozens (hundreds?) of tasty brewery options we enjoy in Denver, San Antonio nevertheless had a decent foundation in the craft beer market.