About 20 miles outside downtown Austin, Texas, it’s easy to forget you’re a short car ride away from one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. Sitting partially hidden in the middle of spacious farmland is one the crown jewels of modern U.S. beer: Jester King Brewery.
Enthusiasts make the pilgrimage from all over, waiting in line to try some of the most beloved wild, sour, and spontaneous beers being made today, every one of them with a purpose of time and place. It’s the brainchild of Jeff Stuffings, co-founder of the family-owned business and an advocate for all the ways making beer can be an intimate process. Plenty of wooden barrels and stainless steel tanks comprise a modestly sized brewhouse at the farm brewery, but it’s the ideas of what beer could and should be that have made Jester King such a popular brand among drinkers.
And as you’ll find out in this conversation, the process of what's taken Stuffings and his team to this moment in time—not to mention what he hopes to achieve in years to come—is very much based on a connection to the land and people around him.