Interesting Read on being a brewer

[cheesehed007]

http://digboston.com/boston-beer-br...er&utm_content=buffer909e0&utm_medium=twitter

Cheers!

 

[daksin]

A little cynical, but pretty spot on.

 

[TheJasonT]

I shared it like it was hot.

I agree with his assessment... We really are janitors who get free beer. Someone, on this forum I believe, once described brewing as 95% sanitation technician and 5% liquid movement technician. For what is the point of making beer if it gets infected by lax sanitation practices?

 

[unionrdr]

Down to earth,real world assesment. Manual labor def is not very glamorous. I did it for near 31 years & can barely walk with a cane at 57 after all I gave the job.

 

[Clonefan94]

I've always, even before I started homebrewing, considered brewing to be much like the restaurant business. It's a job you have to love to be able to do. It's doubtful you'll ever get rich and it's a lot of work. So, you've got to be one of those people who do it for the love of the business.

I love to cook, and get compliments all the time, "Oh my, your food is great, you should open up a restaurant!" To which I always reply, "You don't understand, I want to continue loving to cook."

Now that I have started homebrewing, I have gotten similar comments. It's not that I don't think I would enjoy brewing. I probably could do it before owning a restaurant, but it still amazes me how many people don't realize what kind of work it takes. I assume everyone thinks you are making money hand over fist and can just hire grunts to do all the work, when in actuality, you'll be lucky to pay yourself.

 

[cavalrymsh]

Down to earth,real world assesment. Manual labor def is not very glamorous. I did it for near 31 years & can barely walk with a cane at 57 after all I gave the job.

And roger...after twenty-six yrs as a soldier i'm pretty chewed up too. I have this same dream as the 30-somethings he mentioned but if I cant make it a family biz and tap into younger horses it will probably stay a dream that I continue to lament during a weekend brew session.

 

[Komocabo]

I live in Oregon...hey!

 

[grathan]

The guy that wants to volunteer doesn't really want to help. He wants an insider tour with very little commitment to see if he can open his own brewery one day. Probably as much liability as a minimum wage worker though. imho.

 

[grathan]

He talks about the low pay. I think it's fair to say in life the amount you are paid is a direct correlation to the amount of people willing to do your job. (unionized public employees aside). If that is the case I think beer brewing hasn't even seen the bottom yet. Minimum wage after 30k brewing school (and the rest of your brewing career as well).

 

[daksin]

I particularly liked "congratulations, now you can throw flowers into hot sugar water."

 

[cavalrymsh]

The guy that wants to volunteer doesn't really want to help. He wants an insider tour with very little commitment to see if he can open his own brewery one day. Probably as much liability as a minimum wage worker though. imho.

Tho a cynical view, I think there's a lot of truth in both of grathans posts. The market is changing and bottom up development is getting harder. There are probably many who would like to skip a 15-30k education and get a behind the scenes 'free ' primer on running a brewery. To add to that, the 'rugged individualism 'inherent with brewing often doesn't neccessitate a formal brewing education for many positions and it seems many States don't require it for operating. If an employer can choose between a trained but inexperienced brewer, a dude who just needs a paycheck, and a 30-something willing to trade time for knowledge there may not be a bottom for brewing apprentice. Entry level will be at investment level.

 

[unionrdr]

After having attended a business college,I think it must be understood first & foremost that it is a business first. You have to learn to run a business,not just be adept at brewing beer. Just like musicians that made it always say you have to understand the business side of music as well.

 

[drainbamage]

Thanks for sharing. A local brewery (at the time a one-man operation) keeps a blog of the trials of opening a craft brewery. He advertised a position for a brewery assistant a couple of months ago, and wrote a somewhat more tactful version of this article along with the job posting. His point was similar in that running a brewery isn't the glamorous job people might think it is. It's a lot of long hours of manual labor in hot, unpleasant conditions for not much pay. More time is spent cleaning and moving around equipment than actually making beer. Definitely gives you something to think about before taking it past a hobby.

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

I used to have dreams of opening my own place and my family members always tell me to start doing something but after brewing for only 2 years now i love what it is and i brew when i can, i don't make schedules or stress my self out and its a great hobby that relaxes me. If i had to do it 24/7 and worry about marketing, overhead, packaging, distribution, and sheer quality i dont think i would get as much satisfaction as i do now out if it.

I always said if i have enough to set up a 3bbl shop that opens during the weekend and brews inhouse only, i would love to, but commercially i dont think i could ever get into this business...and thats what i said about cars and look at me now!

Cheers! Great article

 

[Phunhog]

I think it is pretty much spot on...why would anyone choose to be a brewer unless they had some sort of equity in the brewery is beyond me. Even if you are a great brewer working for a great brewery you still don't make very much. In 20 years you will have a ton of experience/knowledge but little financial ability to actually start your own brewery. The current trend is also going to depress wages for the brewing industry...i.e. everyone wants to be a brewer.
I think the better way for most of us is to find a non brewing career that you love and pays well. Keep brewing and expanding your skills/knowledge as a hobby/passion. Make enough money so you can open a nano without draining your savings at some future date as a side business. If you like it THEN pursue a full fledged brewery.

 

[Zamial]

- What is the difference between a pro brewer and a large pizza?
The pizza can feed a family of four.

- What is the difference between a pro brewer and a picnic table?
The picnic table will support a family.

I am married, new father and leaving the thirties behind soon. I recently started working at a larger brew pub. I have not had ANY formal brewery education.

My typical work week:

Day one - Clean and fill kegs
Want to "go pro"? If you can not lift 180lbs 2 feet off the ground forget it. Why 180lbs? because that is an average-ish weight for a full 1/2 bbl. Sure we will team lift them but when you have to move over 20 full kegs in a day, you better be strong enough.

The article mentions "keg flipping" yep that is what I was hired in for. You take a dirty (not necessarily empty) keg, attach the coupler and flip it up side down on top of the keg washer. While the washer is running I have enough time to go over to the keg filling lines, disconnect full kegs and connect the newly clean ones. Move the filled kegs to cold storage, which for me is a trailer outside so I make "runs" of kegs when I am done filling as many as I need.

Day two - Finish off day one and clean the bright tanks
Hot you say? Heat is not the enemy for me, it is the cold. Today I keg off the last of what is in the tanks and get them serving off the kegs. This is all done inside the beer cooler. When I am all done emptying the bright tanks I get to clean them. Heavy big hoses, DIN connections with gaskets and little to no room. So let's pump dangerous chemicals around for a few hours. Do not forget to purge the tanks with CO2 before you can leave.

Day three - Filter day Yep it is now time to filter that beer that has been fermenting away into the tank that was just cleaned and purged. on a GREAT filter day 10 hours is a bust your butt and had a good run day. Have a problem? Start adding hours. The longest I have had was 15 hours. This also requires an almost constant attention as the dose tank will run low, you can blind the filter or some other thing starts to go wrong.

More heavy hoses, hot water, hot chemicals. Most breweries use a perlite filtration system. The perlite is like dust. That stuff SUCKS to breath in, it will make you cough pretty badly and it attacks your eyes.

After the 1st beer is filtered time to clean the fermenter while the next beer is going through the filter. After all the beer for the day is filtered time to clean the filter. Wet perlite is like mud that splatters onto everything including you.

Day four - Brew day
This is it the gem you all want so badly. Hot? hahahaha I typically will sweat through 2-3 t-shirts on a brew day. I change them when they will hold no more sweat. I get to brew my bosses/company recipes. Maybe one day I will get to brew one of my own recipes but I am not counting on it.

I stand on steps and stir the mash in by hand with a rake. Constantly checking PH and temps. Start to move the 1st runnings to the kettle and start the sparge. Add 1st wort hops. When gravity is correct per volume start the boil and add in hops per the recipe. Track/document everything. Time to take the mash out by hand. Normally we are talking about 800 - 1000+ lbs of wet grain. (Yes we have a farmer who picks them up.) Prep the fermenter, crop yeast, count yeast, get the correct pitch rate by weight ready, Knock out the beer through the heat exchanger and into the fermenter. Clean the mash tun and kettle.

Now let's talk about some other fun things.

-How long can you wear rubber boots and stand? I typically are in mine for 10-15 hours and mine are steeltoes. I wear cut off jeans that protect the top of my boots from getting "stuff" splashed in them. The brewery can get over 100F.

-Cuts on my hands? Yep all the time 1 bur on a keg will cut my wet hands and I will never even know it happened until I get some chemical in the cut or it is wicked deep. This is not even the bad stuff. Zwikels suck. I have scars on my legs and skin over where my kidneys would be from these little monsters.

-Emergencies. ANYTHING beer related that happens in my brewery when I working I have to deal with. Changing kegs, beer tastes funny, is not pouring correctly are common things I deal with.

-Brewery tours. At ANY point I can be asked to give a tour. I like to do it and try to give the people on the tour the best brewery tour I can, that I tailor to them on the fly. Thankfully I do not get many often but they will add hours to your day in a hurry.

-Patrons. Even when everything in the brewery has tried to kill you, you are way behind or just finished up a shift you have to be nice. I typically like to chat with people so this is not much of an issue for me. I even like the "former me" types. I realize that without these people I would not have a job.

-Free beer. Nothing is better than getting a cold beer after a long day. I live 45 minutes from the brewery so I get 1 beer and most days pass on that. Drinking on the job? BAD IDEA. If I get hurt the very 1st thing that the hospital is going to do is get my blood alcohol level and if I have been drinking no workmans comp for me. I do get to test small samples of hot, flat, microwaved beer or warm flat beer from a fermenter or to test carb levels. I do get to stock my kegerator at home for free but it is not like I get to drink a ton with a baby in the house or having to work 10-15 hours the next day.

Still want to apply? OK then do not drop off an application/resume and expect a call. Go in and talk the head brewer. I can not tell you how many resumes I have seen go straight to the trash without even a glance. People have NO IDEA what it is like in a brewery. The head brewer will be able to assess you, your qualifications in a few minutes. If you can not take a few hours to wait and speak with the head brewer when they have a chance flat out forget about applying.

MOST breweries will not take someone that does not have official brewery schooling behind them. Making it VERY difficult to hop from one brewery to another or bother with looking for a place with more pay. FWIW I feel like I would be "the exception" rather than "the rule" for how to get into a brewery.

I have had very little homebrew beer sessions but have been making meads and wines more. This is also due to my new son but working at the brewery does not help motivate me to want to brew at home. I have also gone from active to mostly lurking on HBT.

 

[Phunhog]

That's what I am talking about!! The job sucks! Let's face it if you had the same exact job details and you produced soda pop no one would want to do it.... Except maybe some recent immigrants. But since it is "beer" well that will make a college educated person give up everything to do it? Makes no sense.