Mise en Place: Bri Burrows of Big Rip Brewing talks red, green, and Pride flags in the brewery world

Founders of Queer Dyke Night // Photo by Candace Bruce

After a couple years of home-brewing and working as a bartender at The Big Rip Brewing Company in North KC, Bri Burrows worked her way up to head brewer before buying in as co-owner in 2020. Now, in additon to her creativity with brewing science, she helps ensure that Big Rip is a hotspot for the queer community. 

Events like Nerd Night, Queer Dyke Night, Queer Craft Night, and more provide a welcoming space for drinkers and non-drinkers alike. In fact, whether you stop by Big Rip on a whim or attend an organized event, your hang can be supplemented by Hawg Jaw BBQ next door.  

Burrows has a sweet spot for lagers, but the menu has a wide variety of beers, meads, wine, seltzers, liquor, and n/a options. In this Q&A, she teases a summer brew that’s equal parts fresh and feisty.

The Pitch: What are some of the biggest differences between operating in 2025 versus 2016?

Bri Burrows: One of the big things that we notice is that it used to be a lot easier to predict people’s behavior. We would be like, Oh, it’s gonna rain. No one’s gonna come in, or, Oh, it’s a really nice day, it’s gonna be busy. But now, no one knows. Also, we’re a lot more intentional with cleanliness. We still fill glass growers of beer, but we don’t just take the customer’s glass and fill it back up for them. We have to wash it or run it through the dishwasher. Now it has to cool off. Some people don’t like that, but we’re very intentional about making sure stuff is a lot cleaner and not reused.

Big Rip Brewing // Photo by Lava Dreams

When you visit other breweries, do you have a repeat order that you like to compare/contrast, or do you order a flight to try a variety?

I typically just order a lager. Every now and then, I’ll get an IPA if I know that the brewery has a good reputation for IPAs. If they have a lot of lagers, maybe I’ll get a flight. It says a lot about the brewery. Like, if the lager is really clean and easy drinking, then you know that probably the rest of their beers are going to be good as well, because it’s one of the more difficult beers to make.

So that’s a green flag. What about red flags?

I will say one red flag for me is if I go to the bathroom and it’s dirty, then I start thinking about what else in the brewery might be dirty. Are they cleaning their lines? A bathroom is a really easy thing to take care of, and most of your customers are going to go into the bathroom. I mean, they’re drinking. A green flag is if the bartenders are really nice. It’s crazy, going to breweries who maybe know that they’re good, and they tend to have a lot of regulars, and maybe the bartenders are like, ‘I don’t know you are, so I’m not going to be nice to you.’ That doesn’t make me want to stick around. 

In my column a few months back, I included your Old Gregg-themed mead because I appreciated the obscure reference. Would you define your overall strategy as trying for broad appeal or nicheing down?

When it comes to naming and branding our beers and meads, it’s definitely more of a niche thing. We name the majority of our products after movies. The Old Gregg thing was funny because a few years ago, we acquired Black Labs Meadery from Olathe, and that mead in particular was always called Apri-caught My Eye, but the owner had a picture of his wife on the label. So I was like, let’s keep the name, change the label. And that’s what the artist came up with, and it was amazing. I love it when I can name something after some obscure one-off quote from a movie, and people get it–that makes me feel awesome. 

Tell us more about your artists!

For our mead labels, we have always used Sabrina Schneider, a tattoo artist at Black Atlas Tattoos. It’s nice to have one person, especially with mead, where we want a nice, consistent label across all the brands. And for beer labels, it’s all over the place. I’ve had Mars and Joe, that own Commandeer brand. They’ve done several of our beer labels, like the Pennywise. And sometimes we get people who are just like, “Oh, I really want to design a label for this beer. Can I do it?”

Bri Burrows // Photo by Candace Bruce

What are some of your more popular brews in the summer?

Our kolsch is essentially an ale, but super similar to a lager. It’s a lot quicker to brew, but still tastes more like a lager: super light and easy. And then we have an Italian pils that’ll be regular. I’m gonna take a couple kegs of The Killer and put watermelon jalapeno in it. People love that one. It flew off the shelves.

One of my bartenders and I are going to be working on some session meads, which will be a lighter, lower ABV Mead that’s carbonated that we can put on tap instead of the 14% models. And I think one of the first ones we’re gonna do is a strawberry session mead. So that should be pretty good. We haven’t done any session meads yet, so I’m looking forward to that. 

You frequently host a variety of Queer-focused events. What can readers look forward to this summer?

June 20 is our first anniversary party for Queer Dyke Night/Pride night. We usually get between 500-600 people from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., with DJs, extra bars set up, food trucks, and this year we’ll have some Go-go dancers. It’s a really fun party for the more sapphic side of the LGBT community.

Nerd Night is the third Wednesday of every month, where you can sign up to talk for 15 minutes about whatever topic you know a lot about. It’s usually a big turnout. And the second Wednesday of every month, we do a queer craft night. So it’s just a chance for people to come and hang out with their community, bring their own craft, and get help if they need it. 

What is your perfect day of eating or drinking in Kansas City?

I would choose it to be a Sunday when Jarocho is having brunch because it’s cheap (as in price), maybe $30 for all you can eat small plates, and you get oysters and a whole fried fish for the table. It’s a good way to start your day. Then I’d say, probably just going to a couple breweries– seeing what places have out that’s new. I personally love going to Alma Mader or Vine Street to check out their new stuff. They both have good patios to sit on.

For drinks in the evening, I’d say Blue Palm Tiki in KCK. They do flights now, so you can get three different Tiki cocktails, and Roxy, the owner, is amazing. Dinner would be at Lula Southern Cookhouse. I love that place–they do amazing fried chicken.

The Big Rip Brewing Company is located at 216 E 9th Ave, North Kansas City, MO 64116.