Day Trips

Karbach Brewing Co. in Houston is like a giant neighborhood party on Monday, Friday, and Saturday afternoons, and you're invited. Three days a week, the loading dock turns into a beer garden with picnic tables, dogs milling among the crowd, and a line for the food truck that parks where the delivery vehicles usually stop. Only a small percentage of the early arrivals get a spot to tour the shiny brewing equipment, but nobody seems to mind.

The real reason to visit is to taste the beer. This isn't an Anheuser-Busch of craft breweries. Karbach's beers, even the pale ale, are full-bodied with flavors you can savor and dissect.

The tastings come in two sizes with "classic" and "specialty" tokens for trips to the kegs. The specialty pour, only one per admission, usually has a higher alcohol content and is often a more adventuresome style of beer.

At only two years old, Karbach Brewery is one of the fastest-growing craft breweries in the nation, and they seem to be earning converts one mug at a time. New brewing facilities are expected to be operational next year and will expand capacity from 10,000 barrels to 60,000.

Now is the time to visit Houston's Karbach Brewery so that you can say you remember when they were in the small, nondescript industrial building at 2032 Karbach. Tours and tastings are Monday, Friday, and Saturday afternoons. For times, check at www.karbachbrewing.com or call 713/680-2739.

1,169th in a series. Collect them all. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of "Day Trips," is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, P.O. Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.