Watch out for Electric Jellyfish

Meanwhile Brewing

We absolutely love breweries that have great outdoor spaces. And as far as outdoor spaces go, Meanwhile Brewing of Austin has one of the best we’ve ever seen. The large backyard has turf with picnic tables, and even more tables and chairs in a wood chip landscape with a children’s play place in the middle to keep the kids occupied while you sip on some delicious brews while listening to the live music on the stage. The interior was great too, but in no way compared with the rest of the brewery.

Meanwhile wasn’t back to serving flights yet, but the three beers we had at Meanwhile were really solid. Lonely Mascot (lager), Blue Label (lager) and the Wallbreaker (barrel aged DIPA in Gin barrels). Out of the three, our favorite was Wallbreaker; the gin barrel aged DIPA hit all the right notes of the gin family that we almost forgot it was a beer.

Pinthouse Brewing

Easily one of the most upscale breweries we went to on our Austin trip, Pinthouse Brewing on Ben White Boulevard is a classy establishment. Now there are a few Pinthouse locations, and we can’t speak for the others but the one on Ben White is probably the place to visit. The beer list at Pinthouse is not only extensive, but is some of the best we had on our trip.

In full disclosure, we had more than a standard Beerventurers round here, partaking in 8 samples. Our favorites of the 8 beer flight were the Throwing Hammers, Give Me the Cure, Cat Dad and the Electric Jellyfish. Throwing Hammers and GMtC were both hop loaded, soft and juicy IPA’s. Hammers had a bit of Funk that I just couldn’t put my finger on, but it worked. The Cat Dad, while scoring a modest ⅘ on Untappd scored higher in our hearts because Andrew is a Cat Dad.

Lastly, Electric Jellyfish is one of Austin’s most talked about beers; we literally heard “have you tried it!?” from everyone we interacted with and it was on tap at just about every bar we visited over the week. If there was a must try beer that culminates a trip to Austin, it would be the Electric Jellyfish.

Melissa at Meanwhile — Lovely beer garden

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Left vs. Hard Left

One of the things we quickly had to get used to driving around the city was left vs. hard left. In some intersections, there is what appears to be an off ramp of a main stretch of road that’s actually a U-turn. Sometimes these u-turns are one lane, sometimes they’re two, and they often get you back on the highway – so pay attention. Also after the u-turn, you may not be able to cut all the way right to your destination due to a cement divider; another pain in the butt unless you’re familiar with the area. Moral of the story, sometimes Google Maps just isn’t on the level and will totally screw up the turns for those of us with the Jersey jug handles on the brain.