For Averie Swanson, beer is experiential—it’s about the senses and enjoying the now, of course, but it’s also about digging into memories and connecting with ourselves by remembering earlier (ideally pleasant) experiences. She’s built plenty of those memories over years, both as former head brewer for Austin’s Jester King and while earning her certification as a Master Cicerone. Today, she channels her experience and knowhow through her Keeping Together brand.
First of all, Swanson brews for balance and drinkability. “So many brewers say that’s what they like to drink,” she says, “but that’s not necessarily what they like to make. For me, all I make are saisons, and I like to think that all of the beers I make are fairly balanced and drinkable.”
She says she doesn’t need someone to taste every single ingredient in her beers. “I want to be able to use ingredients in a way that creates a whole that’s more than the sum of its parts and something that is evocative and elicits sense memories in people. I want to make it just sub-threshold enough that you have to search through your memory for something familiar to tie yourself to this beer.”