Barons Brewers and Bootleggers Archives

October 3, 2024October 3, 2024

Now Available: The New Territory, Issue 16

Order the latest issue #16 of The New Territory or better yet, sign up for a subscription! This issue contains my Literary Landscapes essay about Miriam Davis Colt and the Vegetarian Settlement Company. The failed settlement of Octagon City once existed in Allen County, Kansas. Based on Colt’s travels and my own immigrant mother’s journey, I reflected on what we choose to carry and what to leave behind.

September 8, 2024September 8, 2024

Summer Book Research in the Ozarks and Springfield

Pete Dulin Brian and Joleen Durham Piney River Brewing

Summer book research in the Ozarks and Springfield invested life into the long quiet hours of writing a book once I returned home. Don’t get me wrong. I love being a research nerd, poking my nose into city records, biographical accounts, and newspaper articles more than a century old. Diving into the past shifts my perspective when I consider the present. Then and now, I observe how human nature resurrects its best aspirations and worst impulses.

September 8, 2024September 8, 2024

The Big Rip Brewing Company, United and Welcomed

The Big Rip Brewing Bri Burrows head brewer

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.

July 29, 2024September 8, 2024

Catching the Spirit, Wrangling Intent

Gullywasher at Stockyards Brewing leads to a conversation about creative intent.

Wrangling creative intent: How does preparation not get in the way of inspiration, instinct, and improvisation?

Talented and versatile musician Marco Pascolini observed how he and I have been working as creatives for quite some time. We only had a few minutes to chat between sips of beer. This afternoon Marco sat in and played steel guitar with the band Gullywasher at Stockyards Brewing’s Sunday Service. We spoke about the nature of producing and performing creative work so it feels fresh and inspired.

July 28, 2024July 28, 2024

Bob Fitzpatrick Shares Brewery History About Goetz Brewing and a Murder in St. Joseph

Pete Dulin and Bob Fitzpatrick at River Bluff Brewing in St Joseph. Goetz Brewing Country Club Beer sign hangs behind us.

St. Joseph brewery historian Bob Fitzpatrick and I met in May of 2024 to chat about Goetz Brewing, brewery history, and a murder. While savoring beers at River Bluff Brewing, Bob shared a wealth of knowledge about the city’s brewery history. His notes, newspaper clippings, and insight guided me as I shaped the focus of several chapters in Barons, Brewers, and Bootleggers: A Social History of Beer in Missouri (University of Missouri Press, Fall 2025).