Jester King Craft Brewery: FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

: What are your opening hours? Do you offer tours?; Do we need reservations?; Are children allowed?; Are pets allowed?; I already have a Jester King glass; should I bring it when I come back?; Do you sell beer in your tasting room? Can I order bottles online?; In what formats and packages are your beers available?; Where can we find your beers?; Are your products available outside of Texas?; Is the brewery available for private parties, group tours or other special events?; Our organization is hosting a special event and looking for sponsors; would you be willing to donate some beer?; Are you interested in any advertising, marketing, or promotional opportunities?; I'm a collector. Can you send me your bottles, labels, or crowns?; Are you hiring?

What are your opening hours? Do you offer tours?: We host public tasting room hours most Saturdays from 1-4pm, with brewery tours at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30. $10 covers parking, entrance and access to the brewery grounds, a spot on any of the tours (or all 3, if that’s your thing), and a souvenir glass, which you can use to sample our beers. For additional details, please see our EVENTS page. For a map of the brewery locations and detailed directions, please see our CONTACT page.
Do we need reservations?: Though some special events may require advanced tickets and/or reservations, individuals and small groups don’t need to reserve ahead of time for our normal Saturday tours. For groups of 15 or more, please email events@jesterkingbrewery.com.
Are children allowed?: Yes, children are welcome, free of charge, as long they’re accompanied and supervised by responsible adults. Beer samples, however, are limited to adults of legal drinking age.
Are pets allowed?: Unfortunately, we have to ask that you leave your pets at home, as they tend to spook the other animals on the property.
I already have a Jester King glass; should I bring it when I come back?: No, we prefer that you not bring any outside glass to the brewery, including glasses that you may have purchased during previous visits. Since state law prohibits us from selling beer to our guests (see below) sales of tours, glassware, and other merchandise are our only means of recovering the expenses involved in hosting our weekly open hours.
Do you sell beer in your tasting room? Can I order bottles online?: No. Unlike Texas wineries and breweries in other states, Texas production breweries are not allowed to sell their products directly to consumers for consumption either on or off site. Conversely, Texas brewpubs can sell directly to consumers but cannot distribute their products elsewhere. There’s a consumer organization called Open he Taps that’s currently working to change this, but some of the established players in the industry, who have done very well under the current system, are highly resistant to any kind of change, even if it could potentially benefit them in the long run. We strongly support the efforts of Open the Taps, and encourage anyone who might be reading this to do the same.
In what formats and packages are your beers available?: Our primary objective is to produce hand-crafted, bottle-conditioned artisan farmhouse ales in 750ml bottles. Along with these, we’re also continuing to produce a small amount of draught beer, the majority of which gets used in our tasting room during our Saturday tour hours, but some of which we do send out into the market from time to time. Of the small amount of draught beer that we do make, an increasing quantity is in traditional English firkins and German gravity kegs, rather than conventional modern kegs. Like our bottles, all of our draught is now naturally cask or keg-conditioned.
Where can we find your beers?: Until recently, we weren’t allowed to tell you, but thanks to the efforts of our legal team, now we can! Check out our new FIND page to locate a retailer near you. Though certain specific beers remain very limited, and we’re now doing very little in the way of draught, we’re starting to reach a point where we have enough bottles of our core products to supply any and all licensed establishments that are interested in selling them. If you don’t see our beers at your favorite retailer, restaurant, or bar, please ask! If they say no, you may want to consider finding a new favorite retailer, restaurant or bar.
Are your products available outside of Texas?: Ordinarily, we only distribute in Texas, but we have sent some special one-off shipments to other parts of the US and Europe, and may continue to do so from time to time, when availability allows. West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago currently has a small amount of original Wytchmaker and Black Metal, and offers mail order service wherever it’s legal. The same beers are also being distributed in limited quantities by Lime Ventures in California and Mikkeller, while supplies last. We do plan to start looking much more closely at the possibility of regular out of state distribution at some point, but before we expand into other markets, we want to ensure that we’re able to meet the ongoing demand for our products in Texas, as servicing our local customer base must always remain our top priority.
Is the brewery available for private parties, group tours or other special events?: Yes! Please email all inquiries, to events@jesterkingbrewery.com.
Our organization is hosting a special event and looking for sponsors; would you be willing to donate some beer?: As a small brewery that’s struggling to keep up with our current production schedule, we’re unfortunately not in a position to offer any kind of sponsorship for private parties or corporate/for profit events. If you’re organization is sponsoring a non-profit event or charity fund raiser, where you feel that Jester King would be a particularly appropriate co-sponsor, please email all relevant details to info@jesterkingbrewery.com.
Are you interested in any advertising, marketing, or promotional opportunities?: Not at this time.
I'm a collector. Can you send me your bottles, labels, or crowns?: We label all of our bottles post production and are currently using generic crowns. We also tend to stock only enough labels to serve our immediate needs, meaning, unfortunately, that we don’t have enough to be able to send to collectors upon request. Should this change in the future, we may look at adding these items to our Web Shop.
Are you hiring?: Unfortunately, not at this time, but if things go well and business continues to grow, we will most likely need some skilled individuals to fill future positions. There’s no telling what the time table for this will be, but you’re welcome to send a cover letter and resume to JKCB@jesterkingbrewery.com.