Update on possible job at a brewery

Digging this thread up for an UPDATE!

I accepted the position and start on Monday!!!! And it worked out even better than expected. My lab job graciously let me go to part time, so four days a week for the first month, then I'll phase out of the lab and into the brewery as I get more hours and eventually go full time. They also said that if I ever want my full time position with benefits back, it's there waiting for me. So all the risk has been eliminated. If I hate the brewery work (unlikely), then I get my chemist gig back. And I don't have that scary financially pinched period when I'm just working part time at the brewery. I'll still be getting a full work week, just two paychecks. And surprisingly, I'm not taking much of a pay cut at all, the brewery is offering me a very legitimate wage. Definitely not minimum wage.

I'll be doing one day a week for the first month. Cleaning kegs. But within the month I'll be going to 25-30 hours/week. Within 6-12 months, the brewmaster guaranteed it will be a full time benefited position, and there will probably be people hired after me. They're just starting to seriously distribute around the state, have plans to start distributing out of the state, their canning line will be here in 6 weeks, they have new fermentation tanks ordered, and they continually exceed their goals. I'm the third in line in the brewhouse, the brewmaster, another guy, and then me. So I feel like I'm getting in at the right time.

The brewer also acknowledged that my science and agriculture background (I have a BS in agriculture science with a minor in molecular biology) will be useful. So it's promising that he sees the value in that. I know I'll be starting from the bottom up, and I'm thrilled to do it, but I think I'll have a lot of room for growth.

 

Well, it's one day a week at first just because they're kind of in a bind with needing kegs cleaned. Then part time in four weeks, 25-30 hours. Then full time. It's a guaranteed full time position by next Spring, but he anticipates it being full time significantly sooner than that at the rate that they're growing with new fermentation tanks and such. It's not like I'm permanently going to be cleaning kegs one day a week; I wouldn't have even considered the position if that were the case.

Also, I live in northern Wyoming and I have no desire to leave here. I would rather stay here than work in a brewery if had to decide. Mountains, prairie, horses, hunting, fishing, wilderness, etc. But it's also a small town, this is our one and only brewery. It's not like I'm in Colorado or Oregon or something where there are tons of breweries popping up all over the place. This is our one brewery, lol.

The company is still small enough, with the brew master and exactly two brewer employees, myself and another guy, where no QC chemist position currently exists. There isn't a lab or anything else. BUT, the head brewer has acknowledged my science degree and lab experience and its usefulness.

 

Aww, thanks for the interest, you guys!!! It's been such a busy summer...we bought a house, I've been fencing my country property, I got a puppy, camping, traveling, entertaining, etc. All wonderful things. Lots of delicious beers involved, just less time for the beer forum.

I LOVE my job at the brewery!!! It's way better than I could have expected. Within a month, I got a raise that made my pay equal to the environmental-science-job-that-requires-a-chemistry-related-bachelor-degree job. Pretty piss poor pay for a job as a scientist and pretty awesome for the opportunity to get incredible experience at the brewery. There are a lot of breweries that offer unpaid internships to do work half as cool as what I'm doing because there are so many people trying to get in the industry.

I'll try to sum it up a bit without bragging too much...or for those who are familiar with my posts, get too wordy.

First of all, my job at the brewery is just unbelievably fun. I love the head brewer, I love the other assistant brewer, I love the taproom bartenders, I love the environment. Every morning starts off with arguing over tunes to play and playing mini-basketball while talking about orders to fill, brews for the week, etc, and then discussing the latest and greatest beers we've tried. I'm always genuinely enthusiastic for 6:30am Monday morning. I don't know how else to describe it...just fun. A lot of it is hard work...bitch work. Mopping floors, shoveling spent grain, cleaning kegs, milling grain, more cleaning. It's physical work, I'm always exhausted at the end of the day. But we just hang out. We goof off, listen to great music, occasional quality checks...this last week we all received battery-powered fly zappers...hilarity ensued.

Second, I'm learning a huge amount. About beer, about engineering and mechanics (an area of skills, as an only child daughter of a single mother, I was severely stunted on...I did not know what an allen wrench was), operating heavy machinery, client relations, etc etc. And I've been taught everything with an incredible amount of patience, and it's always relaxed and fun. I am fairly ignorant and inexperienced, but the master brewer still brags that I'm the biochemical control department of the brewery. And I'm never worried about messing up. When I was nervous about hauling three pallets of bouncy empty kegs with the forklift, the brew master got on the lift, purposefully knocked them all over, and said "Who cares if you drop a keg!? Just get on and move 'em!" Now I fly around with kegs on the forklift and I still haven't dropped one.

Everything is going great. I'm soooo glad that I grew a pair and took the risk. Eff the environmental lab job. Right now I'm still doing 40+ hours of work/week between the two, same pay, but I'm slowly phasing out the labratory. The brewery is going to be undergoing some major work that will pretty much allow them to double their production. Being the third in line in the brewhouse, this means good things for me. Just since I've started we've grown. Whole new distribution region, started the canning line...with the current facilities, we just can't keep up, even with double brew days almost every day. I'll be going full time pretty soon, and I can't wait to make a glorious exit from the lab.

Well, as always, I got too wordy. I'm super happy with how it all turned out