Austin: Part 4: Give us, us Independence!!!

And later on...

We zip around town a bit burning some $3.95/gallon gasoline, and eventually find our way to the Flying Saucer in Austin. Turns out this Sauce is in one of those new style apartment complexes, where there are trendy yuppy shops and stores on the bottom floor, and apartments above. But I know I could not survive living above a Sauce. I'd easily gain for 40 pounds and be the next D. Rather than going all through the menu, we just decided to do a sweep of Independence Brewery.

Independence Freestyle Wheat
We got full pints rather than little samplers. Pretty clear beer that was the color of tinged straw. Light head, but of slight spice, citrus, sourness/lager smell. A fadeaway white head. Not much of a mouthfeel. A medium body, and not so good sourness/hop aftertaste. Medium carbonation yet not much of fruitiness. Not much of a wheat beer to be honest. Just some hops in a fuller light ligher. It does taste of a little bread as it warms up.

Independence Amber
Now that we've gotten past that one, I copped the amber. Crayon brown with a white head. Can't get a smell though. Buttery taste with a medium malt, low hops and a very quick finish. Some citrus halfway through the draught, nice surprise. A little hollow like a light beer on the mouthfeel. Hmm.

Indy Bootlegger Brown
Now the sobriety points are starting to run low. We already know the wife will be driving us back to Houston, as we are going straight back home after this beer. Dark brown to black, with an offwhite head. Roasted malt and pipe tobacco smell, awesome. Biscuity but NOT malty. Full body and smokey. It has a smokey aftertaste like a cigar. A little light chocolate as well.

Since I have four Indy beers, I decided to rank them.

4. Freestyle Wheat
3. Amber
2. Bootlegger Brown
1. Pale Ale

I appreciate what Indy is doing as a microbrewery, but I think I'll take Uncle Billy's over them.

This wraps up our Austin trip. We stayed for one night and managed to hit 4 different establishments, 3 brewpubs and 1 beer bar. It's good stuff going on, much more variety than Houston. We did not get the Lovejoys as that was downtown and we were steering clear of the biker convention going on. We also did not get to a few other beer bars, so I can't say absolutely who was best, but of the places we visited I think you absolutely most go to Uncle Billy's. The food was awesome and so was the beer.