One chapter in my work-in-progress, Barons, Brewers, and Bootleggers: A Social History of Beer in Missouri (Fall 2025), briefly recounts the history of The Big Rip Brewing Company. Opened in May 2013, The Big Rip was the first of the modern wave of craft breweries that opened in Kansas City in the early 2010s. The chapter also introduces head brewer Bri Burrows, the only owner of The Big Rip who is queer.
Burrows has not shied away from making her identity known in the craft beer community and among brewery customers. As co-owner, Burrows has led steps to make The Big Rip a visibly queer-friendly brewery.
“We are not a gay bar. We are a queer-friendly place,” said Burrows. “I want people to know what you are supporting when you come here. We create a welcoming inclusive environment.”
A welcome environment extends to every customer who walks in the door and treats others with respect. Like the ye olde public houses and taverns in Europe and colonial America, today’s brewery taprooms are social spaces for the public to gather, enjoy an ale or lager, and converse. However, those public houses and taverns in the 1800s primarily catered to men. Women and minorities were not patrons and certainly didn’t possess the same social standing, whether the tavern catered to commoners or rich privileged men in the community.
Historically in the U.S., women weren’t generally not welcome in these spaces unless they were present in a service role. Starting in the mid-1800s, the influx of tens of thousands of German immigrants to the U.S., including St. Louis, Missouri, began to change America’s culture. The popularity of family-friendly beer gardens and social events grew and expanded social acceptance by other Americans, apart from religious evangelicals, social conservatives, nativists, and Temperance advocates. That German influence on the beer industry and American society is thoroughly explored in other chapters of the book.
Overall, contemporary taprooms and bars represent how far we have come in terms of the diversity of patrons. Yet, progress moves at a slow pace even today. The Big Rip represents a step in the direction of historical change.
Compared to taprooms that opened in the 2010s and brewpubs that debuted in the 1990s in Kansas City, the fundamental difference is that a few venues like The Big Rip are open about fostering a safe and welcome space for LGTBQ patrons as well as craft beer fans who identify otherwise. How is this different? People who drink beer, wine, and spirits, and happen to be LGTBQ, have always patronized bars, restaurants, and brewery taprooms. However, they haven’t necessarily felt open and comfortable about fully being themselves in public settings. The need to declare a taproom as an openly queer-friendly space is worth noting against the historical backdrop of public settings where beer is the draw.
Led by Bri Burrows and her team, The Big Rip Brewing Company stands out in Kansas City’s craft beer community. The brewery and taproom openly acknowledges and celebrates being a welcoming space for LGTBQ patrons, but the business doesn’t cater specifically and only to that audience. Historically, this stance might seem less consequential in the 21st century, where more people and businesses have slowly but steadily supported LGTBQ people. Yet, resistance exists in 21st century American society, culture, and politics with active efforts to deny people rights and privileges in legal standing, social customs, and the privacy of their daily lives. That backlash overshadows how safe and open LGTBQ people may feel in public spaces like a taproom, where they simply want to grab a beer, catch up with friends and family, and relax like anyone else.
Certainly, dedicated venues exist that cater to a specific audience, i.e. LGTBQ, but are not discriminatory to the rest of the public. Still, gay- and queer-centric bars shouldn’t be the norm or expectation as a way to isolate them and, in turn, cater to the comfort level of everyone else in other bars and restaurants. That approach suggests a step backward to separate but equal spaces that legally existed in America only a few generations ago.
First and foremost, The Big Rip Brewing Company is a brewery and taproom. As a local business led by a talented woman head brewer, who happens to be queer, The Big Rip serves a tempting selection of fresh beer on tap. Operating for more than a decade since inception, The Big Rip welcomes all customers no matter who you may be.
Inclusivity matters. We live in dangerous and complicated times, where life is cut short on a near-daily basis. Safe spaces for all of us matter, where we have the freedom to live, relax, exchange ideas, dream, and put the day’s worries to bed. Inclusivity is part of our strength as Americans. United we stand, divided we fall. As President Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Existing as a space to brew beer, serve beer, and share beer with others should not seem like a revolutionary act. For many people, grabbing a beer with others doesn’t feel so consequential. Being a safe welcoming place for all should be the norm.
However, Burrows underscored a larger point about American society, “There’s no safe place for anyone in the United States, less so for queer people. Being welcoming and inclusive is important.”
As I wrote in the chapter: “The belief, the attitude, the willingness to stand up for herself and others, and run her business accordingly, felt distinctly American in spirit and deed.” I was surprised by our chat over beers, and where it led me to consider prevalent concerns in American public spaces in the distant past and now, and how thankful I was to have that conversation in a welcoming taproom with good beer.
My conversation with Bri Burrows, what The Big Rip Brewing Company accomplishes, and the implications for us all lingered long after the last sip of Umbrella Kölsch.
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