On night two of our Into the Wild Tour with New Belgium Brewing in Austin, Texas, we stopped at Wright Bros Brew & Brew for Acid Trip, a night of tunes, tie-dye, and tearing up the dance floor.
Brew & Brew, which was started by brothers Matthew and Grady Wright, along a third partner named Matthew Bollick, defies logic. Their motto is simple: “coffee and beer in one spot, with each given equal attention,” but there’s a reason you don’t normally see these two together. “Americans don’t like places that do more than one thing” is a popular refrain amongst professionals who have struggled to market a multi-dimensional cafe/bar space like Brew & Brew. And yet, the space is packed, with folks spilling out on the patio, somehow thinking they’ll escape the 90+ heat by stepping outside with one of the variety of beverages being served this evening.
The Wright Bros also have more Austin projects in the works, including a brewery underway that was the lowkey chatter of the evening, with everyone wanting updates on what will be called The Holdout.
Brew & Brew is an industry darling, attracting service folks from all industries on the regular since 2013. Not only do they have a stellar beer list, but their wine and coffee programs rival some of the best in the city. As we walked in, people were just as comfortable grabbing a coffee and hibernating on their laptop as they were sipping a glass of wine and enjoying conversation with friends.
New Belgium brought three rare beers for people to try as they swayed to psychedelic tunes provided by DJ Clchoate Art, and could pair their beers with everyone’s childhood favorite snack—pizza bagels.
Pizza bagels weren’t the only childhood treat. Guests could take their artistic talents to the tie-dye booth, where you could go buck wild dyeing commemorative bandanas. One of the patrons, after being instructed that they had to wait to unravel their tie-dye creation until the morning, paused, nodded, and pondered, “This is really nice—to do something that doesn’t provide instant gratification.”
Along with your pizza bagels, folks sipped beers like Err on the Side of Awesome, a collaboration beer made with The Rare Barrel in Berkeley, California. The beer was aged in the eponymous pH1 barrel, known as “The Rare Barrel,” and noted for its distinct bacteria and yeast culture (the oldest, continuous sour culture in America) that produces curiously stunning beers. The resulting beer tastes like cherries and pineapple, and is both assertively sour and delightfully crushable.
Because this is industry folks we’re dealing with here, many attendees brought their own beers to share with friends. Everyone shared small pours of beers they’re excited about, beers that haven’t hit shelves yet, and beers that were influenced by New Belgium’s legacy of innovation and precision of their sour beers. Folks were so excited to share their beers—and their stories—that more than a few beers were spilled in excited gestures and hand motions.
Towards the end of the night, one of the bartenders pulled out a rare bottle of La Folie Grand Reserve Geisha, made with a Geisha coffee from the award-winning farm Hacienda La Esmeralda in Panama. Geisha coffees, which rushed on the scene in 2003, are the Michael Jordans of the industry—there’s nothing quite like them in flavor and complexity, their status at the Greatest Of All Time is widely debated, and while they might cost a lot more than most coffees on a typical cafe menu, they’re always worth it. You wouldn’t think a Geisha and a sour beer like La Folie would go together—and yet the beer defies all logic, carrying the light, fruity qualities a Geisha coffee is known for and perfectly complementing the complexity and sourness of La Folie.
So what’s next? The last night of Into the Wild brought us to Draught House, an Austin institution, with stories of desert beer bars, food trucks putting out plates that could best some of the most prestigious restaurants, and banjo Baby Shark.
Words and photos by GBH in collaboration with New Belgium