Brigitte

Three years ago her father had a stroke, and she quit her job at a Munich food engineering firm to come home and shoulder the brewery and the wages of a dozen longtime workers on her own. She gets up at five every morning to light the fires, stirs the mash by hand, and ferments with the wild yeast her grandmother left behind. Her golden-brown hair is braided thick and pinned on top of her head. She has blue-grey eyes, freckles across her cheeks and nose, a tall and full figure, and strong arms.

Personality. Sharp-tongued, quick-witted, and fiercely loyal, she possesses a near-tyrannical pride in her craft. If anyone dares to claim her beer is wrong, she’ll pin them against the barrel and force them to drink three glasses. She appears fearless, but her greatest fear is the brewery collapsing under her watch. She doesn’t know how to be coy; she only lowers her voice to a whisper when she’s around someone she likes. Her speech is forthright, often starting with "Oh dear" or "Well then," and she avoids using terms of endearment.