Jeff and Mike are brothers. Jeff used to be an attorney. Mike, an investment banker. Now they’re homebrewers. Spring 2010 they will be head brewers and owners of Jester King Craft Brewery.

This is what freedom’s made of. This is why we support the troops. Here are some brothers that are taking the “and the pursuit of happiness” part serious.

The Story

Summer 2009, I caught wind of some homebrewer assholes calling themselves “Jester King” thinking they could own a brewery. “That’s cute,” I thought and remembered when I first started homebrewing and had high hopes of one day slinging my own beers at some brew pub that would only exist in middle earth, Mos Eisley, or on the set of Back to the Future 2. Then I got an email from a guy named Jeff introducing himself and Jester King. Since getting married, I have made a conscious choice to be nicer, and decided to give Jeff and Jester King the benefit of the doubt. Jeff had us over to his house, introduced us to his brother Mike (whom I called Doug for a long time) and grilled us some burgers.

Then he let us try his beer. And it is damn good (you might think the free burgers might have swayed my opinion of their beer, but after tasting the beer, the burgers were just a blur).

And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

The Back Story

Jeff started homebrewing in 2004 when he was a defense attorney in Boston. In 2006 he and his wife moved to Austin, and after a brief stint working for a firm downtown, Jeff did what most homebrewers only dream of, and quit his job and began raising funds full time to start his own craft brewery. His brother Michael quit his job as an investment banker in Chicago and moved to Austin to join the new family business.

Who hasn’t fantasized about quitting your job and starting a craft brewery with your brother?
Gah! I would be satisfied with just having a brother! (no, offense Amy and Becky).

The brothers Stuffings are starting a brewery in Austin, TX.
They’ve been crafting their recipes (an impressive repertoire so far), brewing with Love Joys and Real Ale, and raising some funds. Lots of funds.

From the Horses Mouth

“This seems to change often,” said Jeff “but as of the moment we have sold 33 out of 38 shares putting us bout 87 percent of the way to reaching our goal of $500,000.”

That’a a lot of Ks.

The original plan (as spelled out in the video) was to begin brewing Summer 2010. At the rate the Stuffing bros have been raising capital, it may be sooner than that.

“Spring to Summer of 2010 is the projected launch date,” Jeff said. “It’s hard to say right now, but we might be able to break ground on the brewery at the ranch before the end of the fall. We project it will take six to nine months after that.”

Ranch?

“Jester King will be building the brewery on some ranch land in southwest Austin next to a future olive orchard and peach grove,” said Jeff.

I don’t know about olives and beer (martini wit?), but I do like peaches in it and the Jester King guys have been experimenting with a blonde peach recipe.

The Beers

As Jester King and Jeff and Mike have come up in conversation over the past few months, one question that has surfaced more than once is “What do they have to offer that Austin doesn’t already have?”

Ok. First, that’s a dumb question. If you’ve ever been to any of the better beer towns you know that local competition among brewers is a good thing. Why? Because it pushes them to make better beers. Also, there are so many possible subtle differences within the beer styles there is room enough for more than four IPAs, two brown ales, two wits, two hefeweizens, and a handful of similar seasonals. Just because Left Hand makes an Imperial Stout doesn’t mean Oscar Blues shouldn’t have the Ten Fidy.

Second, yes, they do have something to broaden the local palate. They are a business and are planing on making money, so they will be brewing the expected styles like IPA, Hefeweizen, and a red ale. Additionally, they have an exceptional Imperial Stout, a tasty rye ale, and, my favorite, an extremely drinkable, yet flavorful hopped wheat aptly named Das WUNDERKIND!
These were the ones I tried. On the website, Jester King lists seven different styles including a belgian beer made with blood oranges and aged in pinot noire barrels and a high alcohol brown that tastes of toffee pudding.
The beers I tried were mostly exceptional. A few needy tweaking here and there, but the brewers were the first to point that out.

In Closing

Since the Jester King backyard grilling/brewing/tasting last September, [the objective train is now derailing] we’ve spent more time and imbibed more beers with Jeff and Mike and like them more and more. Even if their beers were undrinkable, we’d still like these guys. A better beer couldn’t be made by nicer people.
Back to being objective (really? we’re a blog). Jester King plan to open a full production brewery and bottling or canning line in early to mid 2010. They’ve made the local rounds, and from what I can tell, have some good people in their corner.

Here’s to seeing some new local representation in the beer aisle and on taps around town,
Cheers, guys!

Brewing with Jester King

Jeff and Mike brewed a batch of their Masquerade Red while we were hanging out. We made a video.
It’s not an intensive “how-to-brew” vid (we were playing corn hole and missed the boil and hop additions!)
This video will only appeal to a certain demographic; if you’re in that demographic, enjoy.

[video by JIB, images by Shawn, words by Chris]