Why Two Decades Is Worth the Wait for Canned Live Oak Beer

If you ’re meetingLive Oakfounder Chip McElroy at his newly opened saloon , you might have to wait a few minutes . The father of one of Austin ’s first craft brewery notoriously moves at his own gait – taking 19 year to finally can his beer – and also , his tractor might have blown a gasket on the other side of the belongings .

The grand two - Akka belongings site just north of the airport is still a work in advancement . Just like with the rest of the brewery , microprocessor chip study a hands - on approach path , physically clearing the way for a forthcoming disc golf course and nature trail . Luckily , after a day ’s employment outdoors , there ’s 10 taps of beer waiting .

Anyone who has shoot the breeze a streak in Austin in the last two decennary should be conversant with Live Oak . But until this spring , the only option for enjoying authentic lager from the trailblazing brewery was on rap . While it may seem odd that Live Oak had n’t packaged its beer until recently , it hold sense give the diachronic advance of the brewery .

live oak hefe

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When Chip began homebrewing in the ' 80s , the only stead to buy constituent was Wheatsville Co - op . He left to pursue a biochemistry PhD in California , then repay to see the growth of iconic ' 90 beer swot fixtures like Austin Homebrew Supply and the Austin ZEALOTS brewing social club . Despite growing popularity , normal Austinites were still unbelieving .

“ People were like , what ’s this microbrewery business ? Are you stool this in your bathtub ? now you just hang a shake and you’re able to sell tons of beer , ” says Chip .

Live Oak open up in 1997 and set up itself apart from other crafty fledgling brewery by eschewing the popular pale ale and ostiary of the clip , instead focusing on a realm shunned by beer nerd as macro territory : the lager . The first beer was the classical Pilz , shortly followed by the HefeWeizen , whose complex flavors were a far vociferation from the American straw beer like Pyramid that most consumers were familiar with .

beer garden

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“ There ’s a special yeast that gives a hefeweizen that banana and clove flavor , and if you ’re calling an American wheat beer without that yeast a hefe , it ’s like you ’re bringing out cole slaw and calling it sauerkraut , " enunciate Chip . " Now , I care cole slaw . It ’s fine . But it ’s not sauerkraut . ”

Austin ’s taste buds got acclimated to the more traditionally Bavarian HefeWeizen , and it became canonized in the taplines of beer prevention across town . With the exception of some minor distribution in Houston , it ’s still largely brewed for and by Austinites . Most successful guile breweries take a 60/40 proportion of package to draft beers , make Live Oak ’s success as a swig - only brewery a lawful outlier . For age this was because the brewery only could n’t make enough to sell elsewhere .

“ When we started off , we were limited by our fermentation and conditioning storage tank , and at various time by kegs , but we ’d corrupt fresh tank and we could make more . finally we just fill up the position , and then we had to move , ” pronounce Chip .

live oak tapboard

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The new brewery solves that problem , enabling Live Oak to brew more or less 10 times as much beer , with space for a canning line able of zigzag out 3,600 beer an hr . The HefeWeizen was the first off the line , and the Pilz was quick shortly before SXSW . Contrary to rule attitudes on banking on out - of - townsman , Live Oak held onto the release until after in the spring because it would ’ve trade out during the fete .

“ There ’s a fate of people that have been clamoring for the Pilz . We ’re eager to deal it to Austinites , and eventually we ’ll get it out to the repose of the populace , but we did n’t be intimate if we ’d have enough , " says Chip .

“ We do a lot of things that multitude suppose are stupid . ' Why would n’t you just sell it all ? ' Well , because we ’re gon na be OK . We do n’t need to just sell it all right now . People in Austin want to have some . ”

chip mcelroy live oak