We sat down to chat with Big Country founder, Bill Gillies, and president, Ryan Shramek about Big Country's beginnings, why choosing organic is important, Fair Trade and upcoming projects for the Austin-based beer company.
Why did Big Country choose to go organic and how does it align with our brand values?Bill: It all started back in the 1990s, before organic was a big thing. We were bringing in organic sugar into the United States from Paraguay. The movement took off and we began selling quite a bit and decided let’s expand that and get into hard seltzer using that organic sugar. We formulated an organic hard seltzer and that did really well. From there, we became all organic with our beers and so forth. We feel it's healthier and a better way to go.
What are the steps involved to in getting organic certification?
Ryan: The steps involved to being an organic certified brewery fall under two categories. The first one is the ingredients that we use. Those are all organic-certified ingredients. So just like anything you'd buy at the grocery store, bell peppers and bananas, if they're going to carry that USDA organic symbol, throughout their process, they have to follow the same rules. That means crop rotation or regenerative farming, no pesticides, chemicals, things like that, only things on the approved list that you can use. Anything that goes into our beer is from producers who are following those guidelines.
Then the second side of it is our production facility. We're audited the same way that any other processing facility would be. We have to show that we don't have any cross-contamination with non-organic goods going into the system. From the grain through the mill into the fermentation vessels, through the brewhouse. We have to be able to show throughout that entire process we used only organic ingredients, there was no contamination with non-organics, and any of the chemicals used to clean are in compliance with the organic plan. They'll come and audit us every year. We've been acing them every year so far, and we intend to do it again this year.
Bill: By organic, we're certified organic. There's a lot of foods and beverages out there that claim organic, but they don't go through this certification process, which is very elaborate, very strict on their rules. We go through that and get certified. That's a big step for us. We are the only certified organic brewery in Texas which we are real proud of!
Ryan: Absolutely. Just because you see the word “organic” on a package does not mean that it has gone through that entire process. You look for that stamp.
How does organic brewing impact the taste of our product?
Ryan: I mean, we obviously think that we make great beer and the market has been telling us we make pretty dang good beer, too. Does being organic make it taste better? We're not going to say that. There's great beers out there, from all over the world that are not organic that are exceptional. I will say that one thing we hear very often as a descriptor when new people try our beer is that it tastes very clean. And I think that that is something that comes from using the organic ingredients. The control in our processes that we have to do to maintain these certifications means that we are very specific in everything that we do. Everything is highly controlled and being able to do that is reflected in the product.
Bill: One of the big reasons why it is cleaner is that there are no pesticides used in the growing of the raw ingredients. That's a huge deal because in a non-organic farm, the pesticides are just sprayed on and cover everything. And when they process whatever it is, that pesticide comes through and there's a taste to that. By eliminating those pesticides, we get a much cleaner, vibrant taste, so that's a big plus for what we have.
What challenges have we faced in maintaining our organic certification?
Ryan: From a fundamental process standpoint, we don't face a lot of challenges. We've got it down. We make sure we're following the letter of the law when it comes to the USDA and QAI.
The real challenges come in the supply chain. As a producer of organic beer, we are a bit limited on what we can use. There are things that we can't put in our beer. For example, there's a very popular product that helps to remove haze in beer, it's a clarifier. We're not allowed to use it because they don't manufacture that or anything like that in an organic variety. We have to clear our beers in different ways. Other than that, you know, you look at things like hops, for example. There are many very popular hop varieties that are used in a lot of very popular beers, that also not made in organic farming. So we can't use those hops, or some of them are available in limited quantities or are extremely cost-prohibitive. Our goal is to be able to provide a wonderful organic product that people can still afford to buy. The supply chain is where we find our challenges more than anything in the process of maintaining organic certification.
What are the benefits of choosing organic products?
Bill: The biggest one is the lack of pesticides. I just think that people don't understand what's going into their food or beverage. To not have those in a product, I think is huge, for me personally. There's other benefits as well. But for me that stands out.
Ryan: As a company, what we stand for is people and planet. Supporting our people, supporting our planet. That's a big part of what we do here. Organic farming is better for the planet, and it's better for the people. What Bill said about pesticides, but the entire process too whether it be pesticides, whether it be crop rotation, whether it be runoff into the drinking water, all these things compound. When it hurts our planet, then it hurts the people downstream as well. The control by which being organic certified on a farm means you have to do things a certain way helps prevent some of the problems that we see later on down the road and downstream, literally. I think that's a big reason why choosing organic is a smart choice.
Bill: Yeah, and interesting story, going down to see the farms [in South America] and getting to see how the non-organic and organic [farms] work, the organic farms are basically doing it, how they've done it forever. They haven't changed anything and they got certified organic pretty easily because their methods of farming were the same as they were 30 years ago. So it's kind of going back to the old way of farming, which I think is great.
Ryan: That's funny, that’s something I tell people a lot with organic. I say, we've got this backwards. We call how we farm today “conventional” farming and then organic is a qualifier. But the way it really should be said is that people who are farming organically, that's conventional, that was the way it was done for hundreds or thousands of years. What we're doing now is synthetic farming. More people are understanding now that organic is important. And other things beyond organic; regenerative organic farming, Fair Trade, which is another big thing for us. There's so many other things that people are paying attention to now that they didn't before, and we're happy to be part of the solution.
What is Fair Trade and why is it important?
Bill: When I was down in South America sourcing organic ingredients, I spoke with a lot of the farmers down there. The plants that hire these farmers to supply them with product take care of the farmers. When they take care of the farmers, they promote an industry that's sustainable. These farmers are able to send their kids to college. They're able to buy more acreage and plant more. It supports the local economy and supports their lifestyle, which is very important. We became involved in what's called Fair Trade, which is giving back to the farmers. Every can we sell goes back to the farmers, a certain percentage [of sales]. It helps them create a sustainable lifestyle. We think that's really important for now and for the future.
What does the future of Big Country look like?
Ryan: We're still growing, and we're pretty excited about it. We just got a new cold liquor tank, quite a bit bigger than what we had before. That was a bottleneck in our operation. It's going to allow us to increase our brewing capacity 15 to 20 percent, which is a big thing for us. Why do we need that? Well, we're growing not only here in Texas, but we've expanded in other states also. We're in Colorado now, statewide there. We've recently begun selling in Southern California. We have a couple more states that we're eyeballing. Spreading the organic love throughout the United States. We have a few new products both in the beer world and the seltzer world that will be rolling out in 2025. The future's bright and the future's big for Big Country!
Bill: Another exciting project we have going is a new concept for a taproom in Austin. It’s going to be pretty near downtown Austin. It'll be called Big Country Farms. It's going to be an organic garden where we grow some of the vegetables and herbs and so forth. But also, we'll have a small brewery there. We'll have a cocktail bar, a coffee place, and people can sit out in the gardens while they enjoy whatever beverage they have. We're excited about that, and it'll bring Big Country in closer to Austin.
Watch the interview here.
