Just home from holiday in Austria. A few notes that may help anyone visiting, although if it is just beer you are after, then don't go! Most breweries produce variations on 'euro-fizz'. Can be expensive as well. I didn't get to Vienna or other touristy cities, where perhaps the beer scene is better?
I didn't do much research and went armed with printout from
Bad Ischl: Gasthaus Alt-Ischler
Gasthaus is still open but is not a brewery. Got impression from staff that it ceased brewing long ago. Sells national fizz instead.
Schladming: Schwalben-Braü
My goodness, what a wild goose chase this was. I couldn't find the address and locals were equally confused. Finally tracked down the road and 'Firma Felix Gruber'. It is in an industrial estate north of town and Gewerbestr.
639 is indeed 'Firma Felix Gruber'. Mr Gruber is in the building trade and no. 639 is a builders' supply depot! This can never ever have been a brew pub, although one of the buildings could once have housed a brewery I suppose, but very unlikely.
However, the brew pub may exist. I wasted so much time tracking down above I had no time to check out this:
Schwalbenbräu Siedergasse 89
8970 Schladming Open: 10:30 to 24:00 daily except Sunday (closed). May brew a wheat beer and a dark beer, so sounds of interest. Pity I missed it.
Nobody had ever heard of Fritz Schneeberger brewery and with no address it was impossible to research further. As local interest in beer in Austria is zero, the fact nobody knows of a brewery means little.
Sankt Georgen
Thought I had discovered a new brewery, but no. The brewery here is now under a new name and perhaps owners. It is now Brauerei Karls. Is a brewpub rather than a micro brewery, with kettles within pub. Produces organic beer. Location is slightly confusing - from address appears to be in St Georgen, but is immediately outside Kreischberg railway station, which is in turn is in St Lorenzen with another station only a hundred metres or so from latter! Opens daily 10:00 to late; food 12:00 to 21:00.
What is annoying is that Austria can produce decent beer - Zwickl or Kellerebier styles are good if you find them which is rarely. Wheat beer is another alternative, although the chances are that this will be from Bavaria rather than Austria. The Weiss from the Salzburg Weissbierbrauerei was very good, but menus will rarely show brewery. Asking bar staff who brews the beer shown on menu seems akin to asking them to drop their underwear. Supermarkets sell 'specialist' beers, again showing the local breweries are able to turn out something drinkable, but most never appear on Gasthof menus.
Also visited Stadtbräu Josef in Linz, which must be the biggest brewpub I have ever visited - it is vast. But is a trendy sort of yoof hang out, with prices to match. Beer unexceptional but a good deal better than the standard fizz elsewhere in city. A second visit found it closed with local police ensuring that was so! A rock band had been playing earlier.
David