Beer News

What’s brewing in San Antonio: New craft beer bars pour into Alamo City

Editor's note: The bustling San Antonio beer scene is always changing — usually with openings and closures, but there are other twists along the way. Let's discuss it over a cold one.

Beerhead Bar launches
Beerhead Bar and Eatery, a pub chain mostly familiar to upper Midwestern craft beer fans, recently made its Texas debut in northwest San Antonio.

Having opened in early January, the first Beerhead in the Alamo City is located at 19338 Babcock Road, north of Six Flags Fiesta Texas and La Cantera. It features a curated craft beer list with more than 50 brews on tap and hundreds available in bottles.

According to a news release, Beerhead offers a full-service menu with indoor and outdoor dining, including a patio featuring duel firepits. The family-friendly eatery will also host acoustic-only musical guests on most weekend evenings.

Beerhead’s kitchen has lunch and dinner menus marked by pub grub staples, such as burgers, pizzas, shareables, desserts and their signature Barbarian Pretzel. Brunch is available on Saturdays and Sundays, including the Good Morning Goodfella Pizza, Brunch-ITO burrito and tequila mimosas.

San Antonio residents Marci and John Jewett own the new local franchise, which joins fellow Beerhead Bars that operate mainly in Ohio.

“The thoughtfulness of the food menu appeals to nearly every taste, and the vast craft beer, spirits, and wine list make it a perfect place to unwind and enjoy in the growing community of northwestern San Antonio,” Marci said in a statement.

Customers at Beerhead may also get take-out or have food delivered using the Beerhead app or through their website. Customers may also take advantage of the Beerhead 365 Rewards program to access promotional discount and VIP invites to new releases and tastings.

Coffee and beer bar opening up
Northwest San Antonio has another newcomer that local beer and coffee aficionados will embrace.

Refuge Coffee and Beer Garden will be opening its doors later this January at 11011 Shaenfield Rd. According to the owners, Refuge will offer craft coffee and treats using locally sourced ingredients, and will focus on Texas craft beers, wines, and mead.

There are also plans for food trucks, entertainment, special events, and spaces that can accommodate a recreational visit or a spot to work or study.

More dry options at breweries
As more beverage-makers are meeting the wants and needs of people seeking non-alcoholic options, more San Antonio brewpubs are getting on the wagon by offering non-alcoholic beers and zero-proof spirits.

Thirsty Pups Brewery in Castle Hills introduced Sober Water, a hop water with what the owners described as having a “slight floral and grassy aroma, finishing with a slight citrus and carbonic bite.”

Idle Beer Hall and Brewery now provides a mocktail menu, including Spanish Tonic, made with Ritual zero-proof gin, Fever Tree tonic, juniper berries and fresh citrus. Idle also just added bottles of Heineken 0.0 to their offerings.

Black Laboratory’s first seltzer
CultureMap San Antonio reported last month on Black Laboratory Brewing’s decision to stop brewing beer in favor of seltzers.

While the East Side brewpub sells off the last of its originally produced beers, it introduces its first seltzer of the year, just in time for the upcoming annual San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, which takes place a short drive from the brewery.

The Rodeo Tea, described as a hard sweet iced tea, was unveiled January 10. Rodeo Tea has 5.0 ABV and is available only on draft and to go in growlers at Black Laboratory.

Big Hops exits Cibolo
The San Antonio-based chain of craft beer bars Big Hops has closed its Cibolo location. The owners provided no details about the closure, but the franchise northeast of San Antonio was reportedly shuttered at the end of 2023.

$\u200bBeerhead Bar and Eatery, a craft beer-centric restaurant based in the Midwest, began the new year by opening their first Texas location in northwest San Antonio.$

Courtesy Beerhead Bar and Eatery

Beerhead Bar and Eatery began the new year by opening its first Texas location in northwest San Antonio.

Big Hops bars remain open at Bitters Road and West Avenue, Potranco Road, and at Loop 1604 and Shaenfield Road. Big Hops also closed its New Braunfels storefront in 2023, and Big Hops at Huebner Road appears headed for a change in ownership and name although the concept will stay the same.

san antonio breweries craft-beer beer openings closings

NYT loves AUS

Pastry chef from San Antonio makes New York Times Best Bakeries list

Comadre Panadería/Instagram

Comadre Panadería is known for nostalgic Mexican bakes with feminine flair.

The New York Times has once again shined its spotlight on Austin’s culinary scene. It included Comadre Panadería, an Austin bakery by San Antonio native Mariela Camacho, on its new list of the 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now.

Interim food critic Priya Krishna praises pastry chef Camacho’s pastries that include conchas and her signature pink cake. “Despite their saccharine appearances, not one of the desserts is overly cloying, and even the coffee drinks (Texas pecan horchata! Cranberry vanilla agua fresca!) strike the playful tone of the pastries,” she writes.

Comadre Panadería has been widely recognized, including by this publication; Camacho, who is now based in Ausitn, won Pastry Chef of the Year in the 2023 CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards. She also earned a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

Camacho and Comadre as a whole are both invested in using baked goods to make a more equitable world, from the bakery's early days as a fundraiser for disaster relief, to a current insistence on charging enough to support ethical and organic foods, and paying staff enough to keep up with rising costs in Austin.

Although Camacho was born in San Antonio and started her baking career there, she also spent a significant time in Seattle, Washington, where Comadre started as a pop-up. According to Austin Monthly, she then moved back to San Antonio, and then to Austin. But no matter where she is, the Mexican cooking traditions of her ancestors take precedent.

Mariela Camacho of Comadre Panaderia in Austin Mariela Camacho, Comadre Panaderia. Courtesy photo

The Times also recognized Houston's Koffeteria. Krishna hails the bakery for pastry chef-owner Vanarin Kuch’s creative fare that includes dishes such as beef pho kolaches, Chinese sausage breakfast tacos, and butter mochi.

“Some of Mr. Kuch’s offerings are rooted in his Cambodian American identity — he makes cornbread with the coconutty, scallion-forward flavors of Cambodian street corn — while others are odes to Houston’s multicultural makeup. But most of the fun of Koffeteria is having no idea what Mr. Kuch will do next, and eagerly awaiting his next innovation,” Krishna writes.

Open since 2019, Koffeteria has been riding high this year. It earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Bakery and a CultureMap Houston Tastemaker Award for Pastry Chef of the Year.

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Comadre Panadería and Koffeteria are the only Texas establishments to make the Times’ list. Only California and New York City, which each have three representatives, earn more recognition.

lists media desserts koffeteria new york times