The Battalion Science and technology reporter Connor Smith sat down with entomology professor Adrienne Brundage to talk about what it’s like being one of the founders of one of the first craft breweries in College Station.
THE BATTALION:  What made you decide to get into the beer-brewing industry?
BRUNDAGE: My husband and I lived in the San Francisco bay area for about 10 years. That’s like a Mecca of beer, and beer is delicious. And when you get to be around a lot of craft beers, you get to try a lot of neat flavors. My husband got into home brewing, which is great because you can make exactly what you want. When I got the position out here, and we moved out here, it was just barren of anything. Which didn’t make any sense to us, because it’s a 50,000-strong student body and professors. It’s the same basic makeup as the bay area. It just seemed right for a brewery. We also just wanted to drink good beer again.
THE BATTALION: Are there any major similarities between being a professor and running a brewery?
BRUNDAGE: Yeah, brewing is really science based — like super science based. So there’s a lot of microbiology and management involved. You also get in people who have never really been in the industry before, so there’s a lot of teaching involved. There’s also having to think on your feet … Basically nothing goes as you expect it, ever, which is pretty much what it’s like being a professor.
BATTALION: Of the beers you brew, do you have a personal favorite?
BRUNDAGE: Oh man, yes. So I’m an IPA fan — a big IPA fan. So we make a double IPA, that was my big push — I really wanted to make a good IPA. That’s probably it, it’s called Whipsaw, and it’s one of [my] absolute favorites. But for the summer months, I go with Kadigan, which is a blond, and it’s just super good for those really hot days. It’s super refreshing. I am not that big of a porter fan, but we make this porter for the winter, it’s called Windlass, and it’s my favorite, because it’s nice and balanced. I don’t like really malty beers, you know, I want hops. It really just depends on the season, but my year round sort of go to is Whipsaw, summer is Kadigan and winter it’s Windlass.
BATTALION: Is there a story behind the names of your beers?
BRUNDAGE: So the way that we name our beers is that we want to pay tribute to craftsmen and women, so we choose a crafts person, and we name the beer after a tool or product that they use. So you’ve got Skylight — my dad is an architect. Whipsaw — my grandfather was a carpenter, and a whipsaw is that double saw that you use to cut down trees. Our original beer, Dammit Jim, used to be called Bellows — my husband’s father was a blacksmith, and that was a great name. We marketed the beer as Bellows for two or two and half years or something like that. Then we got a cease and desist letter from a large distillery who sells a bottom shelf plastic line of liquors called Bellows … We just put it out to our core group of fans on Facebook and told them what was happening. Then one of our friends came up with the name Dammit Jim I’m a beer not a bourbon. That plays not only to Jim Bean who makes the bottom shelf whiskey, but also the nerd in us. So we named it Dammit Jim I’m a Beer not a bourbon! So we have that on the can, sort of this smart-ass story of how we got the name.