On September 30th your humble co-operative brewpub was featured on Thrillist. Watch the video below, and read the whole story at Thrillist Austin.

Back in the summer, Michael and I took a day trip down to Palacios, TX to check out Lonestar Aquafarms—quality purveyors of sustainably produced redfish—to get a feel of their operation and meet the owner, John Turner.

Turner has been running his operations since 1992 (it began as a grad-school project in a garage, much like the origins of our brewpub) and has consistently harvested 25,000 pounds of redfish every Monday, which he sells to seafood purveyors in Houston, New Orleans, Austin, Dallas, and other places far and wide in Texas. We were turned on to Lonestar Aquafarms by one of our member-owners, Sarah Harper, a fishmonger at Quality Seafood, who sells Turner’s product.

Having been to fisheries and hatcheries when I was a kid, I was impressed by the scale and cleanliness of Turner’s operation; that he was obviously passionate about his craft—he was like a proud child or parent when he showed us a thirty-six-hour-old redfish (which was basically a dot and a line suspended in brine), the plankton they eat, and the magnificent specimens that are used for brood-stock for the entire operation. Any one of those thirty-five pound monsters would be any angler’s dream!

We found this place to be somewhat serendipitous. We had thinking for a while about sourcing for our fish and chips, which will probably be a popular menu item, and what our options for Texas sourced, sustainable fish would be. We knew we didn’t want to go down the catfish road, and tilapia is rather ubiquitous nowadays—so when we heard about Lonestar Aquafarms we were excited.  Texas redfish fish and chips anyone?

Often when I’m talking to people about the Co-op, people ask why they should become member-owners. There are many reasons why you should join, ranging from practical to ideological; so in no particular order, here are just a few:

• You’re an equal owner in an awesome brewpub–seriously, how else could you own a brewpub so easily?
• You’re part of a movement–co-ops are unique organizations owned by the membership and focused on benefiting member-owners and the community.
• Member-only perks, such as brewer’s dinners and a free pint on the anniversary of your joining.
• Equal voting rights–at Members’ Assembly meetings we vote on matters of significance to the Co-op, and you can make your voice heard! One share, one vote.
• Patronage refunds! Get a return on your bar tab–when the Co-op has a good year, so do you!

• Petitions can be brought up for a vote by the membership with a minimum of 25 signatures–how’s that for being involved in the process?

• Run for the Board! Member-owners are entitled and encouraged to run for the Board of Directors.
• You’re part of an organization that’s dedicated to good pay for its employees, fair prices on its products, and the support of local businesses. If we do well, others will be encouraged to follow our lead.

And I’m sure that’s not all–we’re working on new benefits of membership all the time. Please consider joining the Co-op and being a part of this great organization. We’re the world’s first co-operatively owned and worker self-managed brewpub, but we hope we won’t be the only one for long. Let’s show people the benefits of building a business based on co-operation!