A new brewery, Starbase Brewing, is now in South Austin. Starbase opened at 4700 Burleson Road in the McKinney neighborhood as of June 5.
According to its website, Starbase was founded by a group of engineers who are passionate about beer and colonizing Mars (it was originally called Boca Chica Brewing, and it is not officially affiliated with SpaceX). To whit, its mission outlines a plan to donate one percent of the profits to science education, have the taproom serve as a “gathering spot for the space community,” and eventually develop tactics to brew beer on Mars. (Starbase also calls itself the “Official Brewery of Mars,” although this does not appear to be grounded in any actual designation.)
Texas Monthly notes that Starbase has trademarked “GigaBeer,” the Tesla beer that Elon Musk announced at Gigafest 2021.
For now, Starbase offers several beers with more to come. There’s the Lucky Launch Day, a Mexican lager; the Of Kölsch I Still Love you, a honey kölsch; the Terraformer, a red ale; the Starhopped and the Moon Base Alpha, hazy IPAs; and more. The brewery’s mission states that it will use all renewable energy and offset its carbon.
Starbase took over the spot vacated by Orf Brewing, which closed in May 2021.
Update, July 28, 2:21 p.m.: This article, originally published on May 10, has been updated to reflect Starbase’s opening status.