I’m currently a student from the New England area with an appreciation for good beer and good design too. I was wondering if anyone had any advice for one who’s just starting out (having turned 21 two months ago), wanting to learn more about beer, how (and even what) to write about beer, and ways to go about finding an internship with a brewery, not only to work with the luscious liquid itself, but also to work with the design department designing labels. I’m unsure where to start as there’s so much on this website alone to read and go through! Does anyone have any recommendations for good books on beer? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Too many people geek out and try to be Mr Beer Expert too quickly. If you like beer, I mean really like it, you'll drink it til the day you die and that'll be (hopefully) decades and decades from now. So this is how you do it. You go to the local beer store and buy one beer at a time. You look up the beer and learn about it. You learn about one beer at a time. You slowly learn about the beers you like and what they have in common, and learn what style or general features you like in beer. You learn one day at a time, one beer at a time. It's a process, not a race. You'll know a lot, much sooner than you think. I do not think anyone who hasn't drank good beer for under 2 years can be an expert, no matter how much they read or how much they drank in 2 months. Part of being an expert is experiencing the evolution in your tastes that all drinkers inevitably experience. Part of being an expert is being around beer for a significant amount of time. Part of being an expert is watching the industry grow and change. Part of being an expert involves things that cannot be explained in an article or on a forum. Don't rush it.
so says the beer snob. Edit: OP, you just turned 21. When did the ambition of expertise take over the joy of drinking?! I quote someone from the forums, "I like to get drunk on good beer". So, drink good beer to your heart's content when you can *wink, wink*. I couldn't care less about expertise.
The best way to do this is go to local breweries. Take the tour, and soak it all in. Talk to the brewers about the process, different ingredients, and the equipment. Itll really help you get a better grasp for IPAs. And like someone above me said, youve got years and years. I can say I got caught in this problem. Ive had to turn down the machine from 3 every night to one or none on weekdays. Just enjoy the beer you drink. And the advice I give everyone is to form your own opinion about beers. Even if a beer gets mediocre reviews, you may find something you like (especially being new to craft beer). Dont be afraid to try a beer (unless you dont like the style or an ingredient).
If you are interested in designing labels and you are savvy with programs that would be useful for that, you can always mess around on fireworks or whatever program is used and experiment there. In the homebrew forum section there are some brewers who make labels that look very professional. And as far as the internship goes, I would find a local brewery and express your interest there. Free labor is fairly appealing, although there may be competition. You can do bitch work and establish rapport with the individuals there and continue learning about beer and someday land a job.
Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher is a great book to learn more about beer. I would echo what others have said, though. Falling in love with beer is all about the journey. There's no need to rush to attain expert level beer knowledge. Seek out beers and learn what you like. Use books and good online resources to learn more about different styles and breweries. As for the talk about designing labels and what not, are you in school for graphic design? I would imagine you will need a portfolio and some kind of training to get into that line of work. Some breweries will let you volunteer for them. Probrewer.com has some job openings, however there are no designer jobs on there. To be honest, I'm fairly certain that most brewers don't have designers as FTEs. In general, craft brewers tend to have very little overhead. My guess is that they either commission graphic design firms or have talented employees who hold other positions or even friends or local artists do label work. Some breweries essentially have a template that they just insert different text and pics into. I bet I could make Bruery labels after a few hours of training.
DL GEARY'S has a label contest every year for their summer ale. Work on a label for next yr and enter.
Depending on the brewery, they might want someone well rounded in graphic design & photography so they can also use their photos on websites, advertisements,etc. Keel an eye out on brewery websites advertising that they are hiring. Even if they have a brewpub apply to be a busser just to get your foot in the door, work hard and wait for another window of oportunity to open. You'd be surprised how many brewers are out there that started as dishwashers.
