Kinney Baughman is an American homebrew entrepreneur, nationally awarded craft brewer, and former head craft brewer at the Tumbleweed Grille in Boone North Carolina who is best known for helping pioneer the craft beer revolution of the 1980s - 1990s. In 1995 Mr. Baughman won a bronze medal at the Great American Beer Festival in the Belgian-Style Specialty Ales category with an Amber Framboise, well before there was a GABF category for sour beers.
Within the past few years Baughman has become known in Boone as "Bubbleman" because he often brings a bubble gun to events he is participating in and blows bubbles for everyone there, especially at the High Country Beer Festival. Baughman does not brew frequently anymore, but he is still considered by many to be the grandfather of craft brewing in Boone.
Baughman's substantial contributions to the development of the beer brewing industries in North Carolina and in the United States pioneered the way for others like him to continue the tradition of cultivating quality craft beer into the present day.