Conventional wisdom holds that brewing beer is a healthy blend of art and science. Ask enough industry professionals, and you’ll learn that good beer is the result of consistent, repetitive procedures. You have to “hit your numbers” and maintain a sanitary brewing environment.

But to the romantics in craft beer, the process is boundless creativity. A brewer is the ultimate experimenter, an alchemist crafting beautiful flavor combinations. The truth is somewhere in the middle—a marriage of curiosity and calculation. Few folks in the North Carolina craft beer scene embody that balance more than Whit Baker.

The co-founder of the Triangle-area Bond Brothers Beer Co., Ancillary Fermentation* and, most recently, Standard Beer + Food, Baker is deeply passionate about beer and tuned into that inner balance of science and art. Like many professional brewers, Baker discovered his love of brewing as an amateur homebrewer. His day job, at the time, was as a chemistry teacher at the Durham School of the Arts.

As he developed his skills as a homebrewer, he sought more knowledge, more certifications, and, importantly, more feedback.

“The only way you know how to make good beer is a lot of bad beer,” Baker says with a laugh. “Everybody who is good at something has messed things up prior to being good.”

Ultimately, Baker’s dedication to the craft led him to his first project. Though he had applied to several breweries, Baker hadn’t landed a job in the industry.

“I definitely didn’t know what I know now, but I knew what I was talking about,” he says. “I was credible.”

In fact, Baker improved his homebrewing skills alongside Jeremy Bond, one of the eponymous Bond brothers. That connection led to the founding team of Bond Brothers Beer Co. meeting at a homebrew party.

They stayed in touch, with Baker even judging a homebrew competition hosted by eventual co-founder Andy Schnitzer. As cliche as it might be, the question “should we start a brewery?” was thrown around. And the answer was an emphatic yes.

After launching Bond in the spring of 2016, Baker settled into his role as brewmaster, maintaining creative control of the beer lineup. Here, he progressed his brewing knowledge and earned an Advanced Cicerone certification. With a profound understanding for brewing science and an eye for experimentation, Baker built a traditional portfolio backed by unique, creative beers. On the well-known beer review site Untappd, Bond Brothers’ most popular beer is a straight-forward IPA with rotating hops. Its top rated beer? A pastry stout collaboration brewed with peanuts, cacao, vanilla, and salt.

Several years later, Baker sought a new challenge. It began with Ancillary* Fermentation, a rotating beer pop-up series where each beer complemented the event’s them. The project emphasizes experience over product, though the beer is pretty great, too.

Most recently, Baker launched Standard Beer + Food, a Raleigh brewpub that focuses on local, low-intervention products and creative food and beer pairings.

“Bond was the first venture and we were going to do a little bit of everything,” recalls Baker. “The other projects have been about creative restraints. What’s fun for me is working inside those boxes.”

At the center of each of these projects is quality beer. Within the first few sentences of talking with Baker, you’ll start hearing brewing jargon. Friends joke that drinking beer with Baker is kind of a pain. He’ll detect the off-flavors or defects in a mediocre beer. Or, he’ll be able to pinpoint the process that makes an excellent beer so special, like a magician revealing their own tricks.

“The most artistic beers you’ve had typically end up mind-blowingly scientific,” Baker explains. “And if you ask them how they made it, it’s like ‘I hit these numbers.’”

But Baker isn’t pedantic and he doesn’t talk down to anyone. Science just happens to be his first language.

“I definitely talk more about science in person because I’m really into beer and I’m fairly well certified in beer,” he says. “The base of it is science, you have to nail the science. Once you nail the science, you’re then able to move on to the art part.”

Even after launching three projects, Baker isn’t satisfied. There are always improvements to be made, new creative frontiers to cross. “My brewer’s philosophy is you’re only as good as your last beer that you made,” he says. “And your restraints are only what you can think of.”

The team at Bond Brothers is launching a new Cary location—Bond Brothers Eastside—which will incorporate live music, from open-nights to concerts, into the craft beer experience. Though Ancillary* Fermentation’s in-person events have been put on hold due to the pandemic, Baker and his team are seeking a taproom to find a permanent home for the creative project. Standard, which opened its doors in  late 2020, is still finalizing its food program.

“When our menu is nailed down, I’ll be modifying the beer recipes to match the kitchen more,” Baker says.

Like an executive chef who no longer works in the kitchen, Baker is rarely in the brewhouse anymore. Rather, he leads the creative direction and works with a talented brew staff to dial in recipes and construct consistent, quality beers. I was surprised, though, to learn he still homebrews regularly. How does he find the time?

I have no idea. But, if nothing else, Baker is a man obsessed with perfecting his craft.

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