New Braunfels Brewing Makes Austin Debut at Craft Pride

Brewing beer in a town with heavy German roots, Kelly and Lindsey Meyer knew their first had to be – what else? – a wheat beer. They chose a hefeweizen.

They’re spreading their love of the light summer brew on Saturday, June 15, starting at noon at Craft Pride, when the New Braunfels Brewing Co. will debut in Austin for the first time.

The lettering on the New Braunfels Brewing Co.’s logo is similar to the logo of the original 1920s brewery.

Kelly and Lindsey, the husband-and-wife founders of the reincarnated brewery, will be on hand starting at noon to raise a pint to the growing success of the brewery they opened in 2011. It’s sure grown a lot since the 2-barrel system it was at its start, and has now produced three beers so far. The hefeweizen, which they’ve dubbed LuftWeiss, is the beer on tap at the Craft Pride launch. There’s also an IPA, FeuerWeiss, and a dunkelweizen, ErdeWeiss.

Each of them, Kelly said, is heavy on the wheat, a big industry in New Braunfels. LuftWeiss (“luft” means sky in German) is lighter than traditional hefeweizens, and FeuerWeiss (fire) is spicy with hops and jalapeños. Their most recent brew, ErdeWeiss (earth) is dark, 12 percent midnight wheat. The couple has carefully planned this trio and hopes for at least two more in this series.

Kelly has been homebrewing since the early 2000s, but not to be left behind, Lindsey’s catching up and doesn’t mind rolling up her sleeves and getting down and dirty at the brewery. (She’s our kinda girl!)

By choosing to call their brewery the New Braunfels Brewing Co., they’re making old history fresh again. Kelly had researched names for his brewing project and had stumbled across details of the original New Braunfels Brewing Co. – a microbrewery that opened just before Prohibition began and couldn’t survive the dry times. It was shut down after getting caught bootlegging.

But the new brewery with Kelly and Lindsey at the helm will go in no such direction. Located downtown, the place already gets plenty of beer enthusiasts stopping by and asking for tours, Kelly said.

“There’re a couple breweries here and a brewpub. That just goes to show that even in a small town, Texas craft beer is really growing,” Kelly said.

That’s no better reflected than in the 54 Texas-only taps at Craft Pride. At the party there Saturday, expect an all-day celebration complete with live blues music, free pint glasses with the purchase of a LuftWeiss, and lunch and dinner pairings of the beer with food from the Bacon bus: a German-style sandwich during the day, a schnitzel meal at night.

“We couldn’t have picked a better place to debut our beer in Austin,” Kelly said.

-Ari