The bustling San Antonio beer scene is always brimming with new reasons to raise a glass. From a buzzy new festival at Roadmap Brewing to an outpouring of area brewery support for Hill Country flood victims, here's the news every beer lover should know.
Detour Fest at Roadmap
Roadmap Brewing is gearing up to host its first Detour Fest on July 26, bringing together more than 10 breweries from across Texas and the United States to its downtown San Antonio flagship.
The festival builds on Roadmap's long-running Detour Series — a lineup of collaborative brews created with partners such as Freetail Brewing, Cibolo Creek Brewing, and a range of out-of-state breweries. Now, Roadmap says the time has come to invite those friends to San Antonio for a mini-beer fest that celebrates the relationships behind the beers.
According to a Roadmap social media post, the collaborating breweries have traveled thousands of miles to partner with Roadmap.
"The goal of this festival is twofold," wrote the brewery. "First, to show our brewer friends across the state and country why San Antonio is worth a detour, and to show our beautiful city a couple of our beer buddies who are worth a detour themselves."
Participating breweries at Detour Fest include:
- Branch & Bone (Dayton, Ohio)
- Crooked Crab (Odenton, Maryland)
- Dancing Gnome (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
- Denton County Brewing Co. (Denton, Texas)
- Equal Parts (Houston, Texas)
- Goodword (Duluth, Georgia)
- Hold Out Brewing (Austin, Texas)
- Little Thistle (Rochester, Minnesota)
- Lupulin Brewing (Big Lake, Minnesota)
- Modern Brewery (St. Louis, Missouri)
- Pondaseta Brewing (Amarillo, Texas)
- Strange Craft Beer (Denver, Colorado)
- Tall City (Midland, Texas)
- Vector Brewing (Dallas, Texas)
General admission is $35 and includes a commemorative Detour Fest glass, six 4-ounce pours, and access to the taproom from noon to 5 pm. Additional beer tokens will be available for purchase at $5 for two pours or $10 for five pours.
Cibolo Creek Brewing is among the local breweries lending a hand to flood relief.Cibolo Creek Brewing/Facebook
Breweries give back
As soon as news broke about the flooding tragedy that struck the Texas Hill Country, many San Antonio-area breweries stepped up to support flood recovery efforts.
Among the first to respond was Roadmap Brewing, which partnered with Back Unturned Brewing and Kunstler Brewing to encourage visitors to donate food, water, and other supplies over a few days. As a result, Roadmap's representatives say that 21 pallets full of donated supplies were shipped out to the Kerrville Salvation Army location.
Here is how some other area breweries, craft beer taprooms, and distillers are still supporting flood recovery efforts:
- Cibolo Creek Brewing in Boerne is donating $2 to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund from every Freedom Fuel light lager sold.
- Tusculum Brewing in Boerne is donating $2 from every Lion Slide Kolsch sold.
- Milam and Greene, the Blanco distillery, is donating 15% of all online and taproom sales now through July 31 to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund. Milam and Greene is also donating up to $20 per bottle sold at Spec's store to Texas Pets Alive through July 31.
- New Braunfels Brewing will donate a percentage of sales at the taproom on July 19.
- Cactus Land Brewing is offering guests the opportunity to donate to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund.
Bandera Brewery, Boerne's 28 Songs Brewhouse and Kitchen, and The Growler Exchange were among other area beer businesses that held fundraisers on the weekend of July 11-13.