In this new series, TCU Magazine visits with alumni in the food and beverage industry. Send recommendations to tcumagazine@tcu.edu.

After earning a degree in TV, radio and film at TCU, Dean Weaver ’89 worked in the film industry for 33 years; a few years into his career, he began homebrewing beer. While Weaver did not originally aspire to brew professionally, after he retired, his hobby inspired a business plan. In 2022, with the support of his wife, Weaver opened Autonomous Society, a brewpub in the Cedars area of Dallas. There, he serves two dozen varieties of Deanitude Crafted Beer.

What inspired you to begin homebrewing?

When I graduated from TCU, I had an aunt and uncle who gave me a subscription to Beer Across America; I would get a six-pack from two different microbreweries every month. Well, my aunt and uncle lived in Arkansas, so it looked like it was going to Arkansas, but then when I re-upped it, it was coming to Texas, and it’s not legal to send malt beverages into Texas. So, they canceled my subscription, and my rebellious act was to get a homebrew kit. I went down the rabbit hole, and here we are 30-something years later.

Dean Weaver is the mastermind behind Autonomous Society’s two dozen styles of Deanitude Crafted Beer. Courtesy of Joey Stewart

Where did you come up with the name for your beer brand and brewpub?

Deanitude Crafted Beer was derived from a movie that we were working on down in Waxahachie, Texas. It was cold, wet and muddy, and I used to bring my homebrew to the set. At the end of the day, we’d sit on the back of the truck and just lament about how awful the day was. One of the guys said, “I need a change of attitude; we should have a Deanitude,” and so that stuck.

The name of the company originally was Cedars Brewpub, but my attorney told me that we cannot trademark a location. I was really fascinated with autonomous vehicles and how a lot of things were being automated, and I was relating it all to brewing, and finally my attorney just said, “What about [Autonomous] Society?”

How do you describe Deanitude Crafted Beer, and which is your favorite?

If you opened up a book of beer styles, we brew as true to style as we can. We have a wide variety: pilsner, rice lager, Munich hellis, IPAs, Vienna lager; we even have a Belgium quadruple. We have 24 taps — a library of styles. They’re all my favorite, but I think the one that I like the most is called English Biscuit. It’s an English pub ale, also known as an English strong bitter. It’s very smooth and it’s got a sweet biscuit flavor.

What do you see for the future of Autonomous Society and Deanitude Crafted Beer?

The Cedars area is a developing area; we’re in an emerging market. There’s a lot of developers building residential buildings down there, but there’s not a lot of service areas. So, we created a neighborhood brewpub. Our goal is to be an anchor so when somebody thinks of the Cedars, they think of Autonomous Society.

In the future I’d like to see our production grow. In September 2024, we started distributing our beer to outside restaurants and bars. It’s currently on draft, but I hope to put it into cans and get it into some grocery stores.

Editor’s Note: The questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.