Hop to it: Craft beer garden set to open
Restaurateur plans to help broaden patrons’ palates with specialty brew range.
Two friends are planning to offer Lake Travis residents an outdoor beer garden and indoor venue in Lakeway boasting 44 craft beers on tap and 20 wine selections by Jan. 31.
Lakeway residents Matt Ward and Trent Chastain collaborated on the plan for Hops & Thyme Beer Garden and Brasserie, 2125 Lohmans Crossing Road, Suite 400, at the corner of RM 620.
Ward recently managed the Lakeway Market’s growler bar as well as Little Woody’s in Bee Cave and is a former director of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin. Chastain is a commercial real estate broker in the area.
“I will have craft beer from all over the country,” Ward said. “Of course, I’m going to have a lot of local Texas ones because some great craft beers come out of Texas.”
The 2,290-squarefoot indoor venue complements a 2,500-square-foot outdoor patio primed for live, acoustic music sessions in the spring, Ward said. Small food plates including steak skewers; shrimp and grits; macaroni and cheese; boar ragu; meatloaf; chicken and flapjacks; and an assortment of salads will be created by Chef Nathan Pearlman in the sushi-type, open-view kitchen, he said. A brunch menu is set to be offered all day Sundays, he said.
“This area has needed a beer garden for a long time,” Ward said. “What we’re going to do is educate people on beer. We’re going to teach them about it and help them develop their palates.” What is a craft beer? A craft beer is more of a specialty brew, a “craft-made beer,” Ward said. Craft beers broke the mold of the general style of beer that includes domestic beers such as lagers and pilsners, he said, noting there are probably about 26 different varieties of craft beer.
“You’ve got the IPAs, you’ve got the Hefeweizens,” Ward said. “There’s always been stouts and porters but, during the winter, you can get yourself a really good chocolate stout or a porter infused with Scotch or whiskey.”
Also, Ward said the alcohol level, or alcohol by volume, on some craft beers is 12 percent or higher.
“It’s the middle-age to upper-age (consumer) that is the main customer of craft beer, and it is what has made that industry so big,” Ward said.
During the past 10 years, and especially in the past five years, Ward said, the craft beer movement really took off. In 2015, Texas posted $3.4 billion in craft beer sales.
“Your Anheuser-Busch (companies) and the other beer companies — they have bought a lot of craft breweries,” Ward said. “The (big companies) don’t change anything. They flush (the craft breweries) with funds so they can market, make more beer and broaden the areas they can sell in.
“There are some real die-hard craft beer people who will boycott any of the craft beer companies that were bought by the big boys, but it’s kind of silly,” he said. “All they’re doing is helping these (craft breweries) get bigger, reach their potential sooner.”