Brewing as a career or hobby

[petep1980]

Get a job outside of brewing first. As a chemical engineer you could find yourself doing stuff like designing processes or equipment full of heat exchangers, pumps, skids, piping valves, etc. You'll do things like diagram process and instrumentation diagrams, size heat exchagers, pick pumps, calculate head loss, heat loads etc. All the while you'll be doing mass and thermal balances.

Do this for a while, then think about becoming a professional brewer. You'll make waaaaay more money designing the brewing rigs and building them than you probably will as a brewer.

Even as a mediocre chemical engineering student you'll probably start at $65k or so.

EDIT: I'm a simple mechanical engineer now doing the above. I went to school because I wanted to brew. It just so happened I found a better job and I get to work on all the stuff I'd throw on a killer brewing rig.

 

[Zamial]

I have been working in a brewery for the past 5 months as a brewer. The work is hard and the hours are long. It is filled with heavy lifting, (can you lift 180lbs and walk with it?) hot/cold environments and dangerous chemicals.

I wear my knee high, steel toed rubber boots between 10-15 hours straight and average 13 hours. I seldom get to sit and take no real breaks to speak of even for eating.

In the time I have been a brewer I have been covered in caustic acid that was 70C twice. Both times due to mechanical failures. and that does not even count the hundreds of cuts on my hands and zwikle gashes.

I have no real brewery training and almost every brewery requires some sort of official brewery training n9ot something close like "chem engineer" to get in the door to flip kegs. I am the exception and am stuck where I am for a good time.

Speaking of stuck, the head brewer is younger than me so I am at my glass ceiling.

Think you get "free beer"? if you get hurt on the job one of the 1st things they do is take a breathalyzer and if you have alcohol in you, guess who isn't getting workman's comp? Sure I get to sample beer some if it is unfiltered/uncarbed and warm, some of it hot from the microwave and some is just not carbed up yet. yummy.

I make less than a fast food manager for wages. I like my job for different reasons but most people are not cut out for this line of work.

 

[Weezy]

I've been contemplating going semi-pro....think "monetized hobby." I have commercial space, which I own ourtright. I could charge myself $50/month rent to cover the taxes and insurance. ~2 bbl system, brew 1-2 nights a week, distribute kegs to one or two select local pubs, perhaps a tap room two nights a week eventually. do nothing I can't pay for out of pocket. keep it simple. keep it fun...and keep the original career job which actually pays the bills and keeps the family afloat.

go be the chemE, make a good living, and keep the hobby. Maybe with time an opportunity will arise but it's not an especially lucrative business for most brewers.

 

[petep1980]

I forgot to mention chemE's get to work with reactors. Think of a gigantic mash tun.

I'd also be tempted to say brewery pay probably isn't half what a chemE makes, or even ME, but probably one-third.

EDIT: You'll also get hotter chicks making more money. Your house will be nicer, your kids will go to better schools, your car will be nicer.

 

[jdib444]

Get a job outside of brewing first. As a chemical engineer you could find yourself doing stuff like designing processes or equipment full of heat exchangers, pumps, skids, piping valves, etc. You'll do things like diagram process and instrumentation diagrams, size heat exchagers, pick pumps, calculate head loss, heat loads etc. All the while you'll be doing mass and thermal balances.

Do this for a while, then think about becoming a professional brewer. You'll make waaaaay more money designing the brewing rigs and building them than you probably will as a brewer.

Even as a mediocre chemical engineering student you'll probably start at $65k or so.

EDIT: I'm a simple mechanical engineer now doing the above. I went to school because I wanted to brew. It just so happened I found a better job and I get to work on all the stuff I'd throw on a killer brewing rig.

Very good point, I'm going to look into brewery related fields and see what comes up. I still may go into a brewing program just for the fun of it because hey even if I don't end up working in a brewery ill be able to make some damn good beer. :$