We first became aware of Jester King Craft Brewery during our spring 2011 visit to Austin, Texas, and were eager to learn more about the farmhouse facility’s efforts to produce naturally fermented, often organic ales southwest of the city center. We recently interviewed brewmaster Jeffrey Stuffings, who co-founded Jester King with brother Michael and friend Ron Extract, and he explained his connection to craft beer.

At what point did you know you’d work with beer for a living?

I’m actually just realizing that now with our brewery starting to achieve some modicum of success! As a small business owner, the thought of “Will we be around next year?” is always on your mind. But more to the point of your question, I’d say I knew I wanted to brew beer for a living within just a few months of beginning to homebrew. The hobby turned into a way of life very quickly.

Is there anybody who mentored you along the way? If so, what did they teach you that was so valuable?

There are a number of brewers from whom we’ve regularly sought advice and who have been extremely helpful and forthcoming whenever we have. Ron Jeffries, Vinnie Cilurzo, Chad Yakobson, and Yvan De Baets are a few that immediately jump to mind. Their advice pertains to working with wild yeast and bacteria and running a barrel program. Brad Farbstein of Real Ale also deserves a lot of credit in helping us learn how to build a brewery in the first place.

What was the first beer you ever brewed, and how did it turn out?

It was an American Pale Ale I homebrewed with my brother in law. He appropriately called it “Bottom Feeder” due to the massive amount of trub that ended up in the finished beer. It wasn’t terrible, but it isn’t something I’d be proud of today.

Do you have a very first beer memory, good or bad?

My first beer memory is my dad letting me try a PBR when I was about ten. I don’t remember liking it.

What music do you like to listen to while brewing, if any?

Punk and Metal. I’m a big fan of The Sword from Austin, Texas.

Where and what do you like to drink when you’re not working?

I like to hang out at Draught House, Whip In and Black Star Co-op here in Austin. My go to beer is Live Oak Pilsner.

Does it make your job easier or harder to have so many other craft breweries in the U.S.?

We’re very much of the mindset that it’s easier to sell a category than it is a single product, which is to say that we’d rather see our beers on the shelf alongside other authentic, artisan products, and especially alongside some of those that have helped to inspire us. At the same time, though, not everything that’s broadly in the category of “craft beer” is cut from the same mold. Beers that are rushed through the brewing process, that use substandard ingredients, that suffer from poor brewing practices, that lack direction or vision, or that otherwise simply aren’t very good, often get lumped together with masterfully crafted, authentic, artisan products, and whenever that happens, consumers who happen to make the wrong choice can get turned off to what they see as the entire category of craft beer.

What’s the criteria for a beer that you brew at Jester King? What does a beer have to be?

We like our beers to be dry, complex, and yeast driven. If and when we decide to incorporate new ingredients, we try to get to know those ingredients as well as we possibly can, and we look for a balance of flavor that’s subtle and nuanced. Whenever possible, we like to try to overlap some of the flavor elements, so that it’s not always entirely obvious which notes are coming from which ingredients. Perhaps most importantly, there needs to be a clear and distinct vision behind everything we brew, and before we consider releasing it, we need to be thoroughly satisfied with the result.

Who’s a brewer you’ve never brewed with before that you’d most like to brew with?

Picking one is pretty tough, as there are a lot of brewers from whom there’s a lot that we could stand to learn, including all of those that we named as our industry mentors. If we had to pick one, maybe Ron Jeffries at Jolly Pumpkin.

What’s your top selling beer at Jester King, and why do you think that’s the case?

We make so little that whatever we make normally sells through fairly quickly. We’ve probably brewed a little more Black Metal than we have any of our other beers, so I guess that would make it our best seller.

How do you go about naming your beers?

Generally the names have a connection to both the beer and the people brewing them. Black Metal for example is an aggressive beer that has some sophisticated, symphonic notes like black metal music. It’s also a style of music we enjoy listening to around the brewery. Boxer’s Revenge Barrel Aged Wild Ale is our own alternate ending to George Orwell’s Animal Farm in which Boxer the horse gets revenge against the pigs. Boxer signifies the farmhouse brewing tradition, but he also represents our own struggles to escape a life working for pigs.

What was the most recent beer that you brewed, and what was your inspiration and approach?

As of the time that this is being written, the most recent batch we brewed was Bonnie the Rare Berliner Weisse. Though a number of our beers draw on historical research pertaining to the specific traditions on which they’re based, we went much further with Bonnie, and did everything we could to stay true to the traditional techniques. We love sour beers, we love low-ABV session beers, and we love exploring new flavors and techniques. Berliner Weisse just seemed like a natural fit. Also, when we first brewed Bonnie, there wasn’t any Berliner Weisse available in Texas, and we thought there really should be.

How are you able to maintain balance in your life, if you’re even able to?

Balance isn’t actually something I’m that interested in. Even when I’m technically not working, I’m still thinking and talking about beer. Brewing and running a brewery isn’t a job to me, it’s a way of life that I’ve adopted, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you could only drink one more beer, and you couldn’t brew it, what would it be and why?

I just had some Drie Fonteinen Schaerbeekse Kriek, so I’ll go with that for no other reason than it was fantastic.