Working in a Brewery

[Ushman92]

Hello,

First sorry if this is not the correct place to post questions like this, but I figure I would give it a try! I looking for some advice...

I am 26 and I have been home brewing for about 7 years now. I work in IT right now and even though there is good money in it, I dont know if I want to do this for the rest of my life. I guess my question is how to get started in commercial brewing...

more specifically...

1. I was planning on just going to a bunch of local breweries and simply asking if they need help in the brewery on the weekends or evenings, would you recommend this or just look for a formal job opening? What kind of skills should I have? Is a formal education needed or could I see about working my way up?

I have been reading books, and doing alot of research but I figure I just need to get out there.

Ideally I want to open up my own nano-brewery very small scale and work up from there, but I want to get more familiar with the commercial brewing industry.

Thanks...

[BOB357]

Skills? Pretty much you need the ability to work for little or nothing and to do a lot of cleaning. That pretty much covers getting started.

[voltage]

I made the switch from IT work to commercial brewer about 4 years ago with even less home brewing experience. I emailed a few local breweries and offered to volunteer doing anything required. Pay went from $40k to $28k, some lifestyle changes, some health concerns (lungs, knees), but now I have proper respiration equipment for milling and have taken up yoga haha.

I guess the moral of the story is I had to volunteer to get my foot in the door. I kind of lucked in. Eventually they started paying me and then offered me full time so I quit my IT job. Best decision ever. I am still struggling to balance my books some months but I spend so much time at the brewery I don't see the need for any pocket change. I spend 70% of my time cleaning, 30% brewing, such is the norm. I love it. Best of luck.

[kongebryg]

lol same here , yoga and filterair for the milling.
my first brewery job i got, just coz i needed some malt milled.
we brewed a beer og a 20 liters setup in the brewery og i got a job,
i did not really want it, i come from the sound industri as a roadie. but there was free beer. lol
10 years later, i have my own brewery and a hoard for good people working for me.
just show up, say hi,  ask if you can help, and if you can really clean stuff. the job is yours.
but its really hard,

[BOB357]

Special skills? At a minimum, you need to understand chemistry and engineering.

Surely you jest !

[brewfun]

Surely you jest !

I wouldn't totally discount that. There are plenty of process jobs that require little more skill than hooking up hoses, flipping some switches and making sure it all "sounds right." A full brewing science degree is certainly helpful in advancing through that industrial scene.

OTOH, if someone is going to be in a smaller facility where they would need to multitask, there is some importance to understanding the underlying science of an awful lot of things. Once someone is tasked with a barrel program, canning or even just propagating their own yeast, there's a lot more success with background understanding, don't you think?

[BOB357]

I agree, but, "at a minimum" ?