Any brewery owner will tell you that no one went to school to become a brewer. No one.”
John Oliver isn’t completely correct about that. There are schools devoted to brewing education, such as the World Brewing Academy in Chicago. But realistically, he’s right — nobody comes straight out of high school and heads off to brewing school. They usually head to places like WBA to sharpen their skills after taking up the profession.
More likely, their original move into the business is more circuitous. Maybe it’s prompted by a mid-life crisis or just discovering a talent they didn’t previously realize they had.
“They have degrees in engineering, teaching, music,” says Oliver, the head brewer and co-owner at Bandera Brewery. “There are all these things that happen in someone’s life that sort of brings you into this industry. And then you fall in love with it. You immerse yourself in the science behind the beer.”
That definitely describes Oliver.
“In 2016, unfortunately, my first wife passed away from breast cancer at a young age,” he says. “We lived just down the road in Mico. So from 2016 to 2017, I was in a state of mind where I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So I resigned from my good job as a network engineer and became a hermit crab for a few months. I guess I was grieving in my own way.”
Thankfully, he finally got pulled out of his shell by a friend.
“She said, ‘Hey, there’s this guy. He’s interested in opening a brewery. Do you like breweries?’
“I’m like, ‘I know of them. I don’t know much about them.’ She said, ‘Well, let’s get you out of the house.’”
Even among the varied stories of how people become brewers, Oliver’s was unlikely. Usually, the pros start as homebrewers. But Oliver got into it because he hit it off with a Colorado psychologist and would-be beer entrepreneur named James Baroffio, who needed someone who understood software and engineering.
Baroffio showed him the complicated technology involved in turning water, malt, hops and yeast into a delicious beer and Oliver took to it quickly, despite starting from zero.
“I didn’t know anything about brewing. I learned the machines, the fermenters, what they do, how does glycol work? What is a proper temperature? How does yeast ferment? What type of yeast strains do you use? So you start immersing yourself.”
It still seems like an improbable path to creating a successful brewery, but Oliver had two things going for him: He was open to mentorship, and Baroffio allowed him to start slowly. Baroffio provided him with recipes and introduced him to his brewer friends in Colorado, particularly Jim Winters at Long Tree Brewing.
“He took me under his wing and said, ‘Come brew with these guys, just learn from them.’ Usually that costs a lot of money. They took me in and showed me their techniques.
“So the brewery started in 2017 with a little three-barrel brew system. It was sort of a hobby — we weren’t open every day. I think we were only open, like, Friday, Saturday, maybe sometimes Sundays but it quickly became apparent with Dr. Jim and myself, like, ‘Hey, I think there’s potential here.’ I thought, ‘I can stick around maybe get this to the next level somehow.’”
It worked. Eight years later, the brewery with the distinctive cowboy hat logo, operating in the Cowboy Capital Capital of the World, is still rolling along — even through the pandemic, even through the market changes that have wreaked havoc in the microbrewing industry.
It came through a balanced approach of figuring out what will sell on the outskirts of a tiny Hill Country town (pop. 891), creating a welcoming, relaxing environment (check out the smartly designed beer garden out back) and taking on a role in the community beyond just selling beer.
The beer is impressive. We sampled a bright, crisp Kölsch that Baroffio developed from visits to Köln (Cologne), Germany; a hoppy IPA; and a honey jalapeño lager — no, seriously. Try it.
“That’s pretty famous out here,” Oliver says of the jalapeño brew. “My wife Elizabeth grows the jalapeños right here in the beer garden.” The honey comes from Doyle’s Honey Company in Medina.
It’s not what you’re thinking. The emphasis is on taste, not heat.
“She puts jalapeños on her breakfast cereal,” Oliver laughs. “She knows how to take the heat away, but I go grab that smoke, that hot flavor. I think that’s why this one has found success here and we’ve had it for years now. [Customers taste it] and they’re like, ‘Oh, wow. I did not imagine it would be this drinkable.’”
He’s also adjusted to a market that has moved away from beer. If members of your party prefer other drinks, he offers a delicious hard lemonade; there are also THC beverages, a couple of different ciders, several sangrias, and wine. The brewery itself doesn’t have food, but Jimmy’s Burgers next door is delicious and you’re welcome to take your meal back to the bar.
“Every brewery owner goes through the same journey — brewing what we want, but then we have to learn what sells. What’s going to get people to drive here? We don’t get walk-in traffic at this location.”
This winter, craft beer fans may be craving something heavier and darker. Oliver is excited about his porter series, which is available this winter. From a base porter, Oliver crafts a S’mores Porter, Baltic Caramel Porter and Honey Roasted Pumpkin Porter. He also planned a fourth one but was undecided at the time of this interview what it would be — either dark chocolate or cherry pie.
Elizabeth was the inspiration for the porter series.
“It’s funny because she doesn’t really drink a lot of beer, but she loves the dark beer, the porters.”
And finally, Bandera Brewery is succeeding because, although they’re located just outside of town, they’re firmly embedded in the community.
“The whole reason why we started the brewery and why we are doing this is because we are heavily involved with the community,” Oliver says with pride. “This county, this town has taken us in.”
After the tragic 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Oliver and his partners pulled together a beer festival that raised $52,000 for Robb Elementary School.
Bandera Brewery also gives out two scholarships every year to students from Bandera High School that are going off to college. The scholarships are not to get kids out of Bandera, but to bring them back. Applicants must write an essay about their future plans.
“We ask, ‘What do you want to do for Bandera once you finish college? Do you want to come back and help here?”
“We’ve had a lot of fundraisers. We’ve utilized the space, the brewery, the beer garden, accordingly to help the town. We hope that we can do more, because that’s always been our goal.”
Bandera Brewery
3540 TX-16, Bandera, TX 78003
830.522.4226
banderabrewery.com
Tues 2-10pm / Wed-Thu 2-9pm / Fri 2 -10pm
Sat noon-10pm / Sun noon-5pm (Food Trucks)