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Bier-missgeburt

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Hello all,

I am 17 ( Don't worry I'm from Switzerland) and of course love home brewing. I would like some advice concerning the Brewing profession. I know this question has been ask 100 times but I have a few more things to add. Since I can plan so far down the road, how should I prepare to become a Brewer? What is an in demand profession at brewery's. I would like something where I could use my mind instead of a manual laborer. What degrees are the most beneficial? Should I go to the Davis brewing program or technische universität berlins program. I love both the business and science side of the trade so either would do. So as long as I get to work around people who LOVE BIER! In short what is the best way "in" brewing?

Prost!,
Lukas :rockin:
 
There is no such job in brewing where you just use your mind instead of manual labor. The entire process is labor intensive and there is no way around that... unless you don't want to really be a "brewer" but rather an accountant, or a marketing professional, or something like that who happens to work in the industry.

If you are suggesting you simply want to sit back and create recipes for others to execute... I'm not sure that sort of job exists in the industry unless you either own the brewery or have mountains of experience and are trusted so much that they simply lock you away and let you dream up new and exciting beers.

If you are really serious about getting into the industry though... my suggestion would be to find a local brewery who is willing to let you "intern" or do some low-level job for next to no money so you can at least get behind the scenes of a functional brewery and understand what it is truly like. I suggest this because I think people are very VERY surprised once they cross the line from recreational brewing into "professional brewing". The "making beer" part of the entire equation very quickly becomes a minority of what breweries spend their time doing. Most of the work is cleaning, paperwork, distribution, cleaning, more paperwork, sales, cleaning, marketing, cleaning, more paperwork, taxes, customer relations, cleaning... oh.. and once in a while you brew a batch if you have time.

If you have that experience and STILL want to work at a brewery at any level, or as a brewer, then yes... one of the programs probably makes a lot of sense. Apologies though, I don't know what I can really recommend one program over the other.

I'm not suggesting YOU are one of these people... but... a lot of times, people think being a brewer or working in a brewery is all dreaming up and making cool new beers and sitting around with a brewer's-beard and sipping samples all day. Yeah... it's not like that. At all. Having some sort of real experience with what it is truly like is probably a good idea before you commit to a secondary education in the field.
 
I have heard of contract brewing or tenant brewing but I think you need an established product so it can sell. I'm not 100% sure how it all works though
 
There is no such job in brewing where you just use your mind instead of manual labor. The entire process is labor intensive and there is no way around that... unless you don't want to really be a "brewer" but rather an accountant, or a marketing professional, or something like that who happens to work in the industry.

This!
working in a brewery is a lot of hours and manual labor. Most brewers I speak to and have read say things like "I'm a janitor who occasionally makes beer." A huge portion of a brewer's job is cleaning and moving heavy things.
I don't want to say don't go for it, but just know if you want to work as a brewer it's a lot of work.

I think you should ask local breweries if you can came work for them on a low level, I was brought on at a local place to help with the canning line (putting 6 pack rings on cans and palletizing them).

As far as the courses, the one that I hear nothing but good things about is Seibel. It's expensive but it seems to be the "gold standard" of brewing school.

Good luck
 
You could always go with chemistry or biological type degree and get into the quality control side of things. I know the bigger breweries (Stone, Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas, etc) have extensive science labs for quality control. You still get to work in the brewing field without having to lift things
 
Hello all,

I am 17 ( Don't worry I'm from Switzerland) and of course love home brewing. I would like some advice concerning the Brewing profession. I know this question has been ask 100 times but I have a few more things to add. Since I can plan so far down the road, how should I prepare to become a Brewer? What is an in demand profession at brewery's. I would like something where I could use my mind instead of a manual laborer. What degrees are the most beneficial? Should I go to the Davis brewing program or technische universität berlins program. I love both the business and science side of the trade so either would do. So as long as I get to work around people who LOVE BIER! In short what is the best way "in" brewing?

Prost!,
Lukas :rockin:

Look into the German brewing academies. If brewing is truly the career path you want to take, you're in a great location!

https://www.doemens.org/genussakademie/genussakademie.html
 
Deschutes employs 1 full time chemist and 2 part time chemists to work in their lab. I imagine that they will need another full time chemist when they open up their Asheville, NC plant.

Being part of a chemistry lab at a brewery is what I want to do, I'm studying fermentation science at Oregon State University. The focus of my coursework is food based chemistry but I also study topics like microbiology, physics, brewing science, brewing analysis, etc.
 

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