Freetail Brewing Co. in San Antonio

I first tried Freetail Brewing Co. at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo and decided that their brewpub would be the place to spend some time on a rainy and cold day.

The Freetail Brewing Company Brewpub is located in a pad site at a shopping center. The interior is large and industrial with a decent size bar and lots of tables. The bar has a large roll up glass door that opens to a pretty big patio which I am sure is sweet in better weather. There’s a few bright / serving tanks along the back wall but other than that the brewery is out of sight. They have a large draft selection here, with 18 or so selections on the day we visited. Flights of 4 – 5oz pours are available and are priced according to your selections.

We chose to do 2 flights to get a feel for some of the styles that they brew here. Some of the standouts were their Local Coffee Stout which is an American Stout at 7.7% ABV brewed with, you guessed it, local coffee. The coffee to stout balance was dialed in here, not over the top but obvious it was a coffee beer.

Velocihoptor was another standout. It’s their American IPA at 6.5% ABV and 60 IBU but the thing that caught my attention is that it’s a single hopped beer, with just Falconers Flight. Big on aroma and pleasantly citrus, how I like it, this hop is a proprietary varietal of Hopunion. I’ve had it and even used it before, but never in a single hopped beer with this much hop forward character. Well done and a great look at a single hop.

Another beer worth mentioning was Old Bat Rastard. This brew stands out for being a style you don’t often see, old ale. Old Ale is a dark and malty style that seems to show up most often in winter. Often breweries brand them as “winter” or “warmer” beers, and at over 8% abv this one certainly fits the bill.

Finally, the Freetail Broken Headlight which is a Belgian Amber Ale, was another delicious choice. Browns and ambers will never get the love they deserve on rating sites, people are too hop conscious. But this amber was well balanced and delicious.

We didn’t dine at the brewpub, but they also offered a pizza, sandwich and wrap centric food menu with prices in the $10 – $25 range.

Overall not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon in San Antonio Texas.