Ceremony Botanical Brewing Introduces a New Category of Functional Beer Built on Cultural Ingredients, Ritual and Intentional Drinking on April 4
AUSTIN, Texas – Ceremony Botanical Brewing, Austin's first botanical brewing company, will make its public debut Saturday, April 4, with a free tasting event and ongoing residency at Hi Sign Brewing, located at 730 Shady Lane in East Austin.
The launch introduces a new category of beer with two inaugural releases – the Matcha Botanical Pilsner and the Hibiscus Botanical Ale. Unlike flavored beers that treat ingredients as additions to existing recipes, Botanical Brewing starts from the botanical itself, building each beer around a single ingredient's cultural history, sensory character and the drinking occasion it belongs to.
“Beer is one of the oldest fermented beverages in the world, but the expectations of today’s drinkers have evolved,” said Jens Stoelken, founder of Ceremony Botanical Brewing. “Younger consumers are looking for new flavors, new ingredients and drinks that feel more intentional. With Ceremony Botanical Brewing, we’re bringing botanicals people already love – like matcha and hibiscus – into a clean beer base to create something fresh and relevant for a new generation of drinkers.”
Stoelken, who grew up in Germany where beer is deeply tied to heritage and identity, developed the concept in 2024 after encountering a matcha beer at Kyoto Brewing Company while traveling in Japan. Where many saw a novelty, Stoelken recognized a signal that botanicals could serve as the foundation of a new brewing category rather than a supporting flavor. He returned to Austin and ran the idea by Hi Sign owner Mark Phillippe and Master Brewer Kevin Decoud, who embraced the concept immediately. Together, they developed Ceremony's process, approaching botanical brewing as a new way to rethink and redefine what beer can be.
He returned to the U.S. and spent the following year building Ceremony's process around matcha and hibiscus – not as trendy additions but as cultural ingredients with centuries of tradition behind them, each carrying its own rituals and reasons for gathering.
“What excited me about Ceremony was the chance to rethink the brewing process around botanicals,” said Hi Sign’s Master Brewer Kevin Decoud. “Instead of finishing a beer and then adding an ingredient, we built the entire recipe around the botanical’s natural character. That changed how we approached balance, aroma and structure, and it led to beers that feel both familiar and entirely new. The botanical defines the experience. The beer supports it.”
The Matcha Botanical Pilsner, brewed at 4.9% ABV with premium matcha, pours a natural green with a clean, bright and subtly earthy profile. The Hibiscus Botanical Ale, also at 4.9% ABV, is brewed with whole hibiscus flowers and pours a deep ruby. It is tart, refreshing and lightly floral, drawing on the tradition of hibiscus in Mexican aguas frescas, West African bissap and Egyptian karkade.
Ceremony Botanical Brewing's beers will launch at Hi Sign Brewing on April 4 at 4:30 p.m. as part of the brand's residency there, with plans to expand to additional locations.
ABOUT CEREMONY BOTANICAL BREWING
Founded by Jens Stoelken, Ceremony Botanical Brewing is Austin's first botanical brewing company and the creator of Botanical Brewing – a new category of functional craft beer that uses natural botanicals as central ingredients rather than flavor additions. Ceremony's beers are built around culturally rooted ingredients, each crafted to reflect a specific intention. Ceremony Botanical Brewing is an independent brand currently in residency at Hi Sign Brewing, 730 Shady Lane, Austin, Texas 78702, with plans to expand availability to additional locations. For more information, follow @ceremonybotanicalbrewing on Instagram. ceremonybotanicalbrewing.com
For More Information:
Welcome to Botanical Brewing