Ron Jeffries doesn’t care that his craft brew beers aren’t to everyone’s taste.

Jeffries is owner and founder of Jolly Pumpkin breweries in Dexter, Ann Arbor and Traverse City, and he uses unique “sour” bacteria that impart a distinct flavor to his brew.

He said this means he’s had a hard time selling enough beer in southeast Michigan to make a living, and the Michigan brewery is actually better known — and more highly acclaimed — outside of the state.

“Sour beer is always difficult to sell,” he said. “But it’s easier to sell it as people become more aware of it. We’re getting more local fans. We always had a small group that was loyal and appreciative and supportive. But early on, I figured out that I couldn’t sell enough in southeast Michigan, so I sent my beer to other markets where it was appreciated a little bit.”

Jeffries said that many brewery owners start in other industries and switch to making beer, but aside from a few jobs as a musician and in the natural foods industry in college and shortly afterward, he’s been brewing his whole life.

“A lot of people in craft brewing started out as home brewers at home and really enjoyed it, then decided they might enjoy it as a career,” he said. “But that’s not how I started. I started making beer because I wanted to be a professional beer brewer.”

Jeffries said he enjoys running small breweries and doesn’t have any interest in running a large one. That’s because, he said, small breweries allow him to get physical and hands-on in the crafting of the beer.

“We don’t have a computer controlling our brew houses— opening and closing the valves is done manually ourselves,” Jeffries said. “There’s an art to brewing at a small brewery. You’re constantly defining and refining recipes, looking for things you can’t quantify scientifically, the subtleties and nuances. In a small brewery, you have one or two people, or a small group, influencing and controlling the process from start to finish. Really touching and impacting the beer at every step is what I enjoy and what’s very satisfying to me.”

Jeffries said that he’s been getting noticed for his beers nationally and internationally for years, but Jolly Pumpkin, originally headquartered in Dexter, has only been embraced locally with the opening of brew pubs in Ann Arbor and Traverse City.

“We’ve had to find markets where the craft beer segment has grown to the point where people are aware of sour beer,” he said. Jeffries credits the “age of the Internet” with spreading the word about Jolly Pumpkin beer.

“Without that word of mouth, our beer would not have spread as quickly as it has,” he said. “We do make great beer. We’ve been getting awards virtually from the beginning.”

On one hand, he said, getting awards feels wonderful. “Everybody likes to win awards, accolades, recognition from their peers. It can also help convince people who are unfamiliar with our style of beer that they really are good.”

On the other hand, though, Jeffries said awards aren’t everything.

“I don’t brew beers for awards and don’t ever intend to,” Jeffries said. He added he finds the freedom to be “artistic in my pursuit of perfection in what I’m trying to create” more satisfying than winning awards.

“I really feel driven to create beer,” he said. “It’s great to win awards, and I hope we continue to win, but I make beer because I have to make beer. I make interesting, good beers because of whatever creative glitch in my brain makes me do it.”

Background

Age: Just a number.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in English Lit, some grad work toward a master’s degree.

Family: I’ve got some.

Residence: Ann Arbor.

Business Insights

Best business decision: The initiative to start my own company.

Worst business decision: Starting up undercapitalized.

Best way to keep a competitive edge: I don’t have a competitive edge. We don’t compete; we just strive to be constantly improving everything, our beer, our company, ourselves. It's just about us; no one else really figures into it.

Personal hero: Hmmm. Too many to list. I have what I call category or character heroes, like Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” as my “how to be a boss” role model.

How do you motivate people? I try to lead by example, and ask folks to join in my impossible quest for perfection. Those that get it stick around, those that don’t, well, they don’t.

What advice would you give to yourself in college? Sort of irrelevant: I wouldn’t have listened or followed it.

Words that best describe you: Melancholy, pensive.

First Web site you check in the morning: Weather channel. I’m obsessed with knowing the weather everywhere. Why? It might be important. And it helps when you talk to folks and you know what the weather is like where they are. Then I check the surf reports, then NPR.

Confessions

What keeps you up at night? The highway and thinking. Riddles and conundrums. Kobayashi Moru situations.

Pet peeve: Mean people with bad attitudes, who bring everyone down. And people who are incompetent or who spread dissension and confusion.

Guilty pleasure: Beer.

First job: Musician.

First choice for a new career: Brewer/own my own brewery. Oh wait, that’s what I do already. Hmmm. I have a whole host of new business projects I’m working on — maybe one of them. I won’t really know until I try.

Treasures

Favorite cause: Health and fitness, superior artisan food and beer.

Favorite book: Generally whatever I am reading.

Favorite movie: “Casablanca” or “To Have and Have Not” or “Hero.”

Favorite hobby: Shaping surfboards.

Favorite restaurant: Jolly Pumpkin Café and Brewery!

LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter? No, no, nope.

Typical Saturday: Shopping, laundry, groceries, some house cleaning, maybe a nap. Oh please, a nap!

What team do you root for? Generally none.

Wheels: Ford truck. Handy for moving kegs and other bulky stuff you wouldn’t want in your car.

Who would play you in a movie? Chow Yun-Fat, or Johnny Depp. Maybe Jet Li, but he might be too short.

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at sarahrigg@yahoo.com.