Central Texas Breweries Come Together at Hops for Houses Craft Beer Festival

Beer is such a wonderful thing! Of its many splendors, it tends to bring people together. And when it brings people together for a good cause, the beer tastes that much better. So…

We have another beer festival coming! On Feb. 29, 2020, Hops for Houses Craft Beer Festival will take place at Williamson County Expo Center in Taylor, east of Round Rock. Several Austin breweries will be represented, comprising nearly half of the total in attendance, with the others hailing from the towns surrounding us.

The festival will run all day with a VIP option that allows access to all of the samples an hour early. Regular admission begins at noon.

If driving out to Taylor from Austin to go drink beer feels a little dicey, then there’s also a transportation option sponsored by ATX Beer Bus (disclosure: my personal project) that’s available as an upgrade with your ticket purchase. Three round trips will be made from Circle Brewing to the festival.

Doing Good in a Lot of Neighborhoods

This festival is a benefit for The House That Beer Built, which is a year-long fundraising campaign partnership between Habitat for Humanity and local craft breweries.

This support began taking shape in the form of pint nights in various locations. But this year, the organizers wanted to do something unique. Something bigger!

It’s the collaborative spirit of the craft beer community that led Nicole Vommaro, Resource Development Director of Williamson County Habitat for Humanity, to create the first beer festival for this chapter.

The chapter aims to raise $65,000 to complete its current build and construction is already underway. The project began with a panel-building event at Rentsch Brewery in November, and the team broke ground in January.

The future Habitat homeowner is Shonta, and you can learn more about her story here. I’ve learned quite a bit about Habitat for Humanity’s homeownership program, like the houses are earned and not given away. Along with meeting minimum residency and income requirements, the homeowner has to put in “sweat equity.” Many hours of volunteering on other builds and working at ReStore contribute to this equity.

The recipient must also complete a homeowner education component, as well. As Vommaro put it, “This is a hand up, not a hand out.”

Most Habitat for Humanity projects take about 12 weeks to complete, and this one should be done by the end of March 2020 with Shonta and her four children taking residency in early April.

Keep reading: Austin Habitat for Humanity Gives Families Hand Up

So, do you like beer? Of course you do. Do you like supporting good causes? Of course you do. Hops for Houses Craft Beer Festival is your chance to incorporate both at the same time!

Here are a few links to all the things:

• Information about the festival, including a list of participating breweries
• Facebook event
• Buy tickets, including shuttle upgrades

Want to do more? Handy with a hammer? You can learn about becoming a Habitat for Humanity volunteer here.

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@theAustinot wants to know:

Have you ever participated in a Habitat for Humanity build?