When starting a new business — especially one that sells alcohol — one always expects the hassle of jumping through government hoops.
Nonetheless, even a beer industry veteran like Mark Norman could not have predicted this one: to get Lago Vista Brewing off the ground, he had to go through the United States Embassy in Malaysia.
“The land we wanted was owned by a guy in west Malaysia,” Norman says. “He had never stepped foot on the property, and so during Covid, he was just liquidating. He was just trying to get rid of stuff.”
Due to Malaysia’s severe pandemic quarantine policies, the owner was trapped at home.
“I never thought I would have to contact the American embassy to arrange a police escort,” says Norman, who was a Texas-raised Aggie just wanting to brew some beer. “But I did. It was real weird. Their lockdowns were super strict. They couldn’t go anywhere, and we didn’t trust their notaries. He had to sign the papers at the American embassy, but wasn’t allowed to leave his house without a police escort. So I had to call the embassy to arrange it.”
Remember: Malaysia is 13 hours ahead of Texas.
“I was staying up until 3 or 4 a.m. trying to coordinate this. It was bizarre.”
Despite that inauspicious beginning, Norman and his business partner Dylan Byerly got their brewery up and running by 2022, and Lago Vista is now producing award-winning beers in the city of Lago Vista in the hills above Lake Travis. Instead of worrying about Malaysia, he’s dreaming of Germany, because that country produces the beer styles he loves most.
“That’s where I lean,” says Norman. “That’s what I drink.”
That said, he does other nations right, too. His Gold Bars, Babe just took (appropriately) a gold medal for best Czech Lager at the Fredericksburg Craft Beer Festival. He also makes a fine Italian pilsner, some excellent IPAs, and this summer, a peach saison (a French style) called Hill Country Strong, benefiting flood relief efforts ($3 for every pint sold).
He and Byerly began developing those tastes when they struck up a friendship in Aggieland. Both were in the Corps of Cadets, and in between the military drills, they found time for a few drinks.
“There was a craft beer bar in College Station, O’Bannon’s, and they had a hundred different beers,” Normal recalls. “I think about 75 were on tap and then like 25 bottles.
“You’d get a card and if you stamped all 100, you know, you got a mug and everything. You could only get one stamp a day. And we got that in a little over a semester. So we were just there every day, like, after class and or in between classes, just trying different beers.”
Norman even took his first swing at making it — perhaps not in an authorized area.
“I was majoring in biology and made a little bit in our dorm room, because it was really funny that I could make alcohol in our dorm room. Well, word got out, but, you know, the people that mattered either wanted some or didn’t know.”
From there, Norman took a route not uncommon to the brewing profession.
“My wife Samantha bought me a fancy home brew kit, and I started doing it, and loved it. I was just doing it more, just out of the love for it, not anything else.”
By this time, he and Samantha were living in Dallas but realized that big city life wasn’t for them. They had previously considered someday retiring to Marble Falls, but decided to accelerate that life plan. Norman got a job teaching there and for grins took a part-time job at Save the World Brewing, “just because it was fun. I had no goals there — it was just fun to drink a lot of beer and serve beer and I had a little extra time.
“Then they offered me the assistant brewer position. And then it was like,OK, I can get serious about this.”
He loved teaching, but he knew he could always go back to it if brewing didn’t work out, so he took the plunge.
But the brewing did work out. He eventually was promoted to head brewer at Save the World, then did a stint at Johnson City’s Pecan Street Brewing, and then took another turn at Save the World.
Finally, he took the biggest step. He and Byerly finally secured that property, with Mark leading the brewing and Byerly, who earned a degree in agricultural leadership and had experience managing a factory, heading up the business end. They built a little tap room, with a floor-to-ceiling window with a view of the hills surrounding Lago Vista. You can’t quite see the Colorado River, but it’s close enough that boaters can finish off a day in their biergarten.
There, you can try some of his award-winning beers — in addition to the Gold Bars, his All Burn rauchbier (smoke beer) won bronze at the Texas Craft Brewers Festival and the Bronco Blonde won bronze at both Fredericksburg and TCBF.
By the time you read this, you should be able to sample his Oktoberfest brew, a rye Märzen (he gave us a sneak preview straight out of the tanks, and trust us, you want it). “I’ll lean heavy German when we get to Oktoberfest season,” he says, also promising a helles lager and a Munich dunkel. And if you like the heavier, darker brews, his Cinnamon Roll Stout (yes, you read that right) was in kegs at the time of our interview.
“That beer gained a whole lot of traction,” he says. “I don’t know why. People always ask for it and it sold really quickly the last time we made it.”
Surprisingly, though, there’s one obvious style that he won’t have yet.
“Kind of a quirky thing about me is I’ve never brewed a German pilsner. I feel like that beer should be your masterpiece. And I think I’m still learning. I think I can still be better. So I won’t brew a German pilsner until I feel like I’m ready to make my masterpiece.”
Give him time.
Lago Vista Brewing
8001 Bronco Lane, Lago Vista, Texas, 78654
512-992-0030 info@lagovistabrewingco.com
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday: 3-8 pm
Friday noon-9 pm
Saturday 10 am-9 pm (farmers market 10 am-2 pm)
Sunday 1-6 pm
Closed Tuesdays