A technical writer by day, David Hulama is a beer fanatic and brewery owner on nights and weekends, along with his wife, Clare.

After home-brewing beer for more than 20 years, the Hulamas opened Round Rock’s Bluebonnet Beer Co. in November 2014. The company brews four core beers—Cream Ale, Texan Pecan Brown Ale, American Amber Ale and the American IPA—all year.

“[The beers] come from my favorite homebrew recipes,” David said. “They’re a classic style. Beer doesn’t have to be crazy to be enjoyable.”

David said he gets more creative with the seasonal beers, such as the Summer Wit, spiced with bitter orange peel, coriander and camomile. The duo does everything involved in the brewing process themselves, from grinding grain to serving in the taproom.

“It’s a lot of work,” Clare said. “Learning to be small-business owners is exciting and scary at times.”

Round Rock residents for nearly two decades, David and Clare said prioritizing the community’s needs was important. The taproom has several games available for adults and children, and Clare said many children color with chalk on the sidewalk outside.

“We used to take our kids when we’d visit a new brewery,” Clare said. “We wanted to make [Bluebonnet Beer] more of a family-friendly experience.”

Bluebonnet Beer hosted its first Oktoberfest celebration in fall 2015, featuring music and food.

“We were so nervous only a few people would show up,” Clare said. “We ended up with about 500 people—it was packed.”

Bluebonnet’s beers are currently sold in 12 restaurants and bars, and the Hulamas have incorporated new tanks to help increase production. The new tanks will allow them to expand from producing about 100 gallons of beer a week to producing approximately 325 gallons.

Although David still works at his day job, Clare works full-time at Bluebonnet. As the only two employees at Bluebonnet, Clare said they are already busy, but they hope to grow even more—eventually bottling and selling the beers in stores.