Hidden Gems: Meet Bri Burrows of The Big Rip Brewing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bri Burrows.

Hi Bri, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Several years ago, at a family gathering for Thanksgiving, my mom, dad, brothers, and I decided to all bring a different mixed 6-pack of beer to share. At first, this was simply a way for us all to bond with each other without getting into politics or sitting in silence because we didn’t really have a lot in common, other than being family. We would pour each other samples and discuss what we did or didn’t like about each beer.

Eventually, my older brother, Mike, decided that he could start making beers at home, so he bought some homebrew equipment and got to it! Soon after, my dad purchased his own equipment. Not long after that, Mike decided to upgrade and passed down his original brewing stuff to me. With the help of both of them, I learned how to brew and poured my first beer, a Strawberry Saison, at Nanobrew Fest 2016. Needless to say, I continued brewing, dialing in my process, and making better beer with each batch.

I started bartending once a week at The Big Rip Brewing Company in November of 2016, started working on the brew floor in 2017, became an official professional Brewer in 2018, Head Brewer in 2019, and co-owner in 2020. Thinking back, it was quite a lot that happened in a fairly short amount of time!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I would say there have been some potholes in the road, for sure. In 2017, I started working at iTap, a craft beer-focused bar in the Crossroads neighborhood of KC. The amount of folks that will simply ignore female bartenders or just not believe we know anything about beer was quite astounding.

Telling myself that this was their problem and not a reflection of myself was difficult at first, but I was lucky to have great managers and co-workers that kept my spirits up. The beer industry is also dominated by straight-cis-white males, and to this day it isn’t always easy to navigate as a queer woman. I have attended many beer events, and it’s still a bit disheartening, though not surprising, every time a big bearded guy steps in front of me or talks over me.

Overall, I know I am still more privileged than a lot of my friends in this industry. Feminine women, people of color, non-cisgender folx, and more are often shut out of conversations and even the history of craft beer even more so than a masculine-presenting queer woman such as myself.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Big Rip Brewing Co?
I am the head brewer (technically the only brewer) and co-owner at The Big Rip Brewing Company. I have worked here since 2016, though the business opened in May of 2013. We are a smaller brewery with a 4-barrel system and a taproom that is open to the public 7 days a week. Along with beer, we also offer wine, liquor, hard seltzer, and non-alcoholic options such as Kombucha and house-made sodas.

The Big Rip is named after a hypothetical cosmological model depicting the ultimate fate of the universe, in which dark (or phantom) energy expands without limit and overcomes all matter that holds the universe together (and that’s just the short version). We name a lot of our beers after other universe-related things such as Drake Equation and Gravity Well. We are also movie-lovers so we like to name many of our beers after Sci-Fi and Horror films. Our most popular beer is Zelda’s Vanilla Cream Ale.

This is a lighter style of beer that we brew with lactose for a touch of sweetness and add in quite a bit of vanilla just before packaging. We started distributing Zelda’s, both cans and kegs, at the beginning of 2021, so you should be able to find this at many bars and liquor stores around KCMO. Since becoming a co-owner of The Big Rip, I have focused on making the taproom a more inclusive and welcoming place for everyone. I have a Pride flag hanging in the brewery in hopes that it will help make people feel more welcome and safe.

When we work with charities, vendors, etc., we make sure they are also completely inclusive businesses that treat their employees and customers well. I do my best to work with and highlight businesses that are queer-owned, female-owned, POC-owned, and/or allies that also do what they can to make the world a more equitable and inclusive, safe place.

I plan to continue to do this, even as the business grows, by hiring like-minded individuals and making sure we continue to work with awesome people.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I have learned along my journey is that not everyone or everything is as it seems. I have put my trust in a lot of people, both in the beer industry and not, and have learned the hard way that people tend to be after much more than what they lead on.

From sharing beer recipes and business ideas to folks that turn around and implement them as their own, to learning that regular customers and co-workers are just here for the beer and secretly don’t agree with my “way of life,” it’s a very difficult road to navigate. I have also learned that I don’t need to “just shut up and make beer” like many people tend to think, and like I also used to think.

I would rather sell beer to like-minded folx instead of profit off of people that don’t care about others.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: http://bigripbrewing.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigripbrewingco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigripbrewing
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BigRipBeer?s=20

Image Credits
Cassie Taylor- Fountain City & Co