Blue Star Brewing Co. A San Antonio Original

San Antonio and the surrounding area has had an interesting history of craft brews over the years, with the likes of the Pearl Brewery, Shiner, Real Ale, The Covey Restaurant Brewery, The Laboratory Brewing Co. and recently The Freetail Brewing Co.  With Freetail’s opening, Blue Star and Freetail are the only brewpubs currently open in San Antonio.

Blue Star Brewing is the brain child of entrepreneur Joey Villarreal. Villarreal started out with Joey’s Bar on St.Mary’s and opened Blue Star in 1996. Since then it has blossomed. Now a long time local favorite, the brewery has several of its brews always on tap, with seasonals and limited releases cropping up to delight you. I did not get a chance to speak with owner Joey Villarreal, but did get a chance to speak with brewmaster Dustin Davies. Davies is one of the youngest brewmasters you’ll meet. Having learning the basics from Freetail’s Jason Davis, he became brewmaster in his own right upon Davis’ departure from Blue Star. Davies started out home brewing and has been brewing for four years now, the most recent year at Blue Star. Using recipes already on hand, Dustin does get to put his own spin on the seasonals and the cask brews. After having lunch with my two suns and enjoying a couple of their brews, Dustin was kind enough to show us around the brewery and explain the brewing process they use to the boys.

Blue Star boasts quite the menu while enjoying their brews. While my oldest enjoyed a Blue Star burger (which he described as the best he’d had), my younger son enjoyed an excellent pepperoni pizza, while I had their Bratwurst sandwich served with Sauerkraut & Spicy Mustard with fries on the side. In addition, their menu boasts such unique as the Nachos Borrachos their black bean nachos with Monterrey Jack and cheddar cheese. While I was enjoying their Wheathead White, the boys were enjoying their homemade hot chocolate and handcrafted orange soda.

Once we were ready to go, and I had grabbed a growler of the Wheathead White to go, we headed upstairs to their bike shop for a look around. Although small, they have Electra ‘Townie’ bikes for both sale and rent and are also branching out into custom making Townie and road bikes.

All in all a great place, solid beers and a good time to be had by all.