Why Brigadoon?

Brigadoon Brewery & Brew School is a unique brewpub and teaching facility located on the grounds of the Texas Renaissance Festival in Todd Mission (Plantersville), Texas. Brigadoon Brewery and Brew School was born from a desire to bring our love of brewing beer and our love of the Texas Renaissance Festival together. The most common question asked is where the name Brigadoon came from?

Brigadoon is a musical which was written in 1947, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The musical centers around an enchanted village in Scotland, and it features an array of traditional Scottish music and dance. 

According to the story, Brigadoon is a Scottish village which appears every hundred years for one day, as part of a deal with God which protects the village from harm. For the citizens of the village, the century passes as though it is only a single night. The enchantment on the village of Brigadoon will only last as long as no citizen leaves. If the enchantment is broken, the village will disappear forever into the Highland mists.

The story behind the name of Brigadoonis a bit complex. Some people believe that the musical was named for Brigid, a Celtic goddess. Others suggest that it is named for Brig o' Doon, a famous Scottish landmark which is referenced in a Robert Burns poem. It may also be a compound of the Celtic words briga, for “town” and dun, for “fortifications,” suggesting a fortified or sheltered town.

The plot of the musical centers around the chaos which unfolds when a pair of traveling Americans stumble upon the village right before a wedding is going to be celebrated. As luck would have it one of the Americans falls in love with a village woman but cannot commit to staying only having known the woman for but a day and he leaves to return to America. After returning home he struggles and realizes that he should have stayed. His love so great he returns to the spot where the village was knowing that it would not be there but to his amazement from the mist the town appears with the village leader holding a lantern and waiting for him on the bridge. When asked how the town had returned the village leader responses that Brigadoon would always return for love.

In 2008, as we planned to open our brewery on the grounds of the Texas Renaissance Festival we knew that we would open as a seasonal operation that would be open to the public every year for the run of the show only to vanish back into the mist of time at the conclusion of each season. We also knew that the only way we could return each season from the mist of time would be if the love of our patrons was strong enough. The correlation was just too strong and Brigadoon Brewery was born.