Will travel for beer

These 6 San Antonio craft breweries are the ultimate summer draft pick

Freetail Brewing is a must-try in San Antonio.

Freetail Brewing

No one needs much of a reason to road-trip to San Antonio — or to enjoy an ice cold beer — but San Antonio’s beer scene is pouring on the ways to visit. Whether you're planning a late-summer getaway to the Alamo City or you're scheduling next year's travel, consider this your indispensable guide to the city's best brews.

Blue Star Brewing Company
Lone Star, Southern Star, 14th Star. For some reason, brewers like looking to the heavens. San Antonio’s own entry into the celestial sphere has been around since 1996, giving it more than two decades to perfect its sessionable lagers and pilsners. Those German styles might go best with pub grub like the spot’s famous beer cheese dip, but that’s not all this Southtown fave is all about. The fruity sours and heady ales are just as likely to launch us into the stratosphere.

Cactus Land Brewing Company
Dustin and Erica Teague, the married co-owners behind this tiny nanobrewery, started out as hobbyists, but it was always clear that their ambitious beers needed a larger audience. After winning several home brewing competitions, they were able to get a commercial operation off the ground with the help of a Kickstarter and a lot of hard work. Today, they make some of the area’s most intriguing beers, using native prickly pear cactus, fruits, and herbs in their creations to achieve real Texas terroir. Check the website before making the trek to Adkins, however. The taproom is only open on alternating weekends.

Issla St. Brewing
This small batch beer works may be brand new, having only arrived on the scene in January, but its South Texas roots run deep. Owners Josh and JD Peña make beers in a variety of styles, but the best throw in some San Antonio flavor, like the empanada-inspired IPAs and the juicy He Mang and the Mangos of the Universe with tajin. It also needs to be said that Issla’s pun game is always on point. A gorgeous purple brew offered in April payed homage to La Reina with the name Witty Witty Plum Plum.

Freetail Brewing Company
Not to question this brewpub’s knowledge of biology, but the Mexican free-tailed bat pictured in its logo might actually be a dragon. Needling aside, the mascot does seem appropriate. Freetail makes monster core beers like the citrusy rye wit and the rebelliously bitter Sour Doubt IPA. Stock the fridge with those cans, then visit the brewpub for more flights of fantasy like the piney Vader Saber imperial red ale or the crisp Pretty in PFNK, a 2019 brew meant to raise awareness of women in the craft beer industry.

Roadmap Brewing Company
Even if the beer wasn’t very good, this downtown hot spot would likely still pack guests in. The tasting room is one of the most chill places in San Antonio, welcoming kids, leashed dogs, and outside food. As it happens, the beer is very good — and diverse enough to tickle almost anyone's tastebuds. Hopheads will naturally gravitate to the classic Mama Dukes IPA or the Simcoe and Mosaic-packed Mini Van Dad. Guests who want something sunnier can tackle Professor Plum’s Alibi, a fruity kettle sour, or the beachy, low ABV salted wheat beer, Boom Gose the Dynamite.

Weathered Souls Brewing Company
After years of doing it itself, Weathered Souls finally signed a San Antonio distribution deal in March, but it hasn’t lost an ounce of its indie cred. Supplies are sourced from South Texas and the company eschews advertising for word-of-mouth. The old-school attitude makes a difference when patrons visit the taproom. Instead of being bombarded by marketing speak, guests are just allowed to hang out.

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Airline News

American Airlines launches new gate program to foil early boarders

Photo courtesy of American Airlines

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Fort Worth-based American Airlines has launched a new system to catch passengers who try to sneak ahead in line.

According to a release, the airline is deploying a program in which technology is used to deter passengers who try to board before their official boarding group has been called.

Passengers who try to board early will not only hear a beep when they scan their boarding pass, but a tattletale message will pop up on the scanner, alerting the American Airlines employee of the passenger's correct group.

The airline trialed this modern technology over the past month at Albuquerque International Sunport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and Tucson International Airport. It will now be deployed at more than 100 airports across the U.S.

If a customer boards before their assigned group is called, the new software will not accept the boarding pass and instead makes an audible sound to alert the gate agent and customer that the group has not yet been called. In these instances, the American team member will invite the customer to rejoin the line when their boarding group is called.

According to a story in the NY Post, airline employees have a name for these people: “gate lice."

A statement from American Airlines says that those passengers who are paying for early access should get their just desserts. People who are paying extra are mad when others get the same benefits.

"The new technology is designed to ensure customers receive the benefits of priority boarding with ease," it says.

Surely a factor is the way American Airlines' current boarding system has become an exercise in the haves vs. the have-nots, with nine levels of boarding groups, from elite status members and credit card holders all the way down to the Basic Economy nobodies. It's gotten worse since the pandemic, with extra charges applied to every element of flying, including a charge if you want to choose your own seat.

As an explanation of why people might do it, the NY Post cites a theory that travelers try to get ahead "out of a tendency of conformity and a sense of competition."

Public shaming is a powerful motivator, and Larry David fans would surely agree that line-cutters should always be called out — but in this case, there is an actual valid reason for trying to get a jump in line, and that can be summed up in two words: overhead bins.

Too many travelers place their luggage in overhead bins that are not located over their seats. Who has not seen the guy breezily stash his suitcase in whatever bin is closest? And this is an inequity that is not addressed by flight attendants, who admittedly have enough on their hands.

But the fact remains that if you get on the plane when your boarding group boards, the odds are slimmer that your designated overhead bin is going to have room for your suitcase.

If the airline is not going to enforce the overhead bin situation, then it's hardly fair to blame gate lice for worrying about where their suitcase is going to end up — or worse, whether they'll face the horror of having to get their bag checked at the last minute because some other passenger stole their overhead space.

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