Getting into the Industry

I can only speak regarding the U.S. although I have talked with brewers in Germany, Italy, and Spain. I thought that it would be important to go to brewing school, and to a certain extent I'll back that up because #1) you will have a solid education, and #2) it did help me get my second brewing job. You'll also make connections, and the school that you go to can probably help you find a position.

With that said, I am now in the minority across the U.S. as most brewers here do not have professional brewing educations. They simply start with their homebrewing knowledge and work their way up in a small brewery until they get the chance to brew. There are also lots of start-ups that are willing to take a chance on a homebrewer because #1) they work for cheap, and #2) there aren't that many professionally trained brewers available, and those who have experience are usually seeking more money.

Unfortunately for you the scene is different in Europe, but there are still opportunities.

You noted that the Brewlab course gives you experience working in a brewery, and I'd hope that you could find that just by volunteering at a local brewery. Of course, I understand that's not as easy in Europe as it in in the U.S., but again, it is a possibility. Networking and meeting people in the industry is the number one thing I'd recommend you try to do, and then when you meet other brewers ask them this same question. I think you'll be surprised at the number of doors that might open. Brewers are generally friendly, open minded, and creative people - even in Germany although they have their rules. Don't be shy, simply call a brewery and ask if you can set up a time to meet with the brewer and ask him questions. Good luck!

 

Weedy (@honkey) is a professional brewer who has studied in Germany. He recently discussed:

“…having spent 6 weeks studying brewing in Germany and 2 weeks touring breweries with my class as part of our diploma program,…”

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-a-particular-beer-style.594202/#post-6255056

Perhaps a ‘short course’ would be better suited to you?

https://www.doemens.org/en/school/world-brewing-academy.html

Cheers!

 

You're in your mid-40s I'm assuming? Why do you want to start over in a young man's job where you'll be making a pittance?

As someone who works in what could be described as a "passion" industry (cooking), and now deals with a fairly ruined body, is jaded on current trends and views everything in an academic and economic sense, I'd say make the money where you can and do what you love in your free time. Save up, invest wisely, and you can retire early and pursue your passion then.

IT is very different from brewing. You won't escape long hours, and you'll spend the majority of the day working in a hot, humid environment doing physical labor. If anything, it'll be even more thankless, as the peanut gallery on forums such like this will be telling the whole world how you could do something better. The homebrewers will likely be a bit more constructive and more gentle, as they at least somewhat know what they're talking about, but won't understand the business decisions that have to be made with each batch.

In the meantime, maybe invest in a system like @TheBeerery has, make the best beers you can, and enter tons of competitions. At the least, you'll learn how to improve. If you're good, it'll be verification that you're proficient at what you do.

 

A parallel thought, and maybe this takes us too far from beer. It certainly doesn’t provide any advice towards your question.... since money is not the issue could you work less (like 3/4 time) and loathe less, and put that 1/4 of your time into something that you find more rewarding?

 

Get your schooling and then much like in the IT field ( which is my field as well, well more fiber optic related, but close enough) consult.
I love beer, I love schooling, I love brewing and I love the process. But there is no way in hell you will catch me in the trenches brewing day to day. Well not unless I became the brewmaster of a Macro German brewery, but lets be honest they are not brewing anyways.
I sidelight doing brewing consulting and IMO its the best of both worlds.

 

Brewmaster = brewery manager, in all but the smallest of breweries.

 

Guy in his upper mid 40s here who is done working in the brewing industry, and managed to get to the ceiling of what is possible without the additional schooling, and who is not going to recommend it. It's hard on the body. The hours suck, and if you have any wear and tear on you going in. Humping full kegs around, and waddling spent grain from some weirdly shaped hot as f&^k container into a dumpster is an easy way to find out what old injuries you have forgotten about, and for mostly shit pay. Those under 15 bbl manual systems certainly look romantic, but that work is mostly a young mans sport.
Use the knowledge you have earned the roof over your head with and mix it with your love for beer and use that as a way to get involved with the industry instead. There's quite enough bodies interested in brewery work. Let them destroy themselves.

 

Looks like a lot of the older heads around here are in agreement. My advice would be to buckle down, maybe move up to make even more money, get some financial backers, and open up your own brewery where you get to call the shots, and make some young asshole that went to brewing school create your vision and do the heavy lifting, while you reap the rewards. It's the capitalist way!

 

I hear you. I don’t think it would fly with my job either, but I do want to figure it out or burnout is inevitable

 

I'm going to chime in but slightly differently then the others. I would say give it a long hard thought. You might have already, but do it again. Think do you want to open a brewery or work for one? Either way, think of what you need for either and plan it out. I would say go for it in the long run. Your first few years, yes few, will basically be you doing two full time jobs. The one you have now to keep things going and the one you are working towards. It would be easy, and you might not succeed, but you will still have what you do now to fall back on.

I say this from my point of view and choice to jump into hops. Went in know it would be work, and actually trying to think things through as much as I could. I realize now that I am still in a very set back stage of starting up and working towards get further along to being officially started is about a year off yet. All the while still working the job that I went to college for and have come to no longer be infatuated with. This fall went poorly for the hops, they were not nearly as prepared for the cold and snow that we already have gotten, but that is on me and a lesson learned. If I flop on the hops I still have my engineering degree, I see my work place moving out of the state in the next 10 years, so if the hops flop will be up a creek. Hopfully (see what I did there and sorry for the pun...), the hops will take off. No matter what I was doing this last year, I never came in from working on/in the hop yard saying "that sucked" and usually felt more relaxed even if it was running fertilizer around for an hour after a 12 hour work day. If you feel you will be happier, go for it, but don't cut your self off from other options just yet.

 

Lot of great responses.

In your 40s and I assume your fit, I'd work weekends in a brewery even if it's as a volunteer. Do that for 5-6 months so you get some feel for what it's like.

Unless your financially independent, make it a smaller brewery where you have to rake/ shovel out mash tuns , throw around 55 lb sacks of grain, bottle in cold bottleing rooms , unload and load trucks, and possibly deal with coustomers in a retai/ tasting room who will not always love the product. Also, you will be cleaning everything constantly and get ready to deal with lots of water.

If after that you still really love the idea then charge into researching a site to brew at and how much all your equiptment and supplies will cost, and include setup costs unless you are very hand and mechanically inclined.
I've been a laborer at a local brewery , very part time, and it's hard work in sometimes tough conditions, unless your used to laboring outside In all sorts of weather.

Good luck.

 

Consulting or an IT job for a large brewery in Bayern might be a compromise. At least it would be beer related.

 

I’m a realist, so I’m not going to claim it’s all daisies, but I’m also a pretty positive guys, so I don’t exhibit the nihilism most people do when asked this question.

Pro tip: Go on any forum for a “labor of love” profession and ask this question. You are going to get the same response - it’s hard, thankless work that pays poor and you’re better off doing something else. Doesn’t matter if it’s a cop, chef, painter, whatever. This doesn’t mean that these jobs aren’t worth doing. It just means it’s not all drinking, partying, and being a beer rock star. It’s hard work.
Still; we can’t all be bankers and lawyers. Someone has to make the art...

First thing you want to do is figure out where you want to live. If you want or brew in Germany, for example, a formal education is probably the best way to go. In the U.K. many start by bartending or serving in brewpubs and work their way into the back. In the US, it’s homebrewing and hard work, climbing the chain up from floor scrubber.

In this country, i am of the opinion that a formal education is unnecessary. I feel this way about more than just the beer industry...
This is the Internet age. All you need is a library card, time, and motivation, and you can access pretty much every bit of information you’d receive in a classroom setting. The rest is technical experience that a classroom wouldn’t provide anyway.

Next you have to decide what you want to do. ‘How do I get into the brewing industry?’ Is like saying, ‘How do I get into the car industry?’ You want to be a mechanic? A race car driver? A used car salesman?
There are many ways to get involved in a brewery - lab, sales, packaging, etc. Do you just want to be a part of the community, drink free beers and go to cool events? Like someone else has suggested, do IT for a large brewery, then. Do you really have what it takes to be a brewer? Is that really what you want? Be honest with yourself.

Ok, so you made it past all that and you STILL want to be a brewer! ‘Brewer’ can mean many different things. A head brewer in a large regional brewery is a largely administrative role. You will be responsible for scheduling, inventory management, supply flow, etc. You’ll interact with a whiteboard and email inbox 100 times more a day than with any raw ingredients. You’ll also get paid more than the guys actually doing the work, kinda like the military - grunts get slain, generals get paid...
If you want to open your own place, you are going to be tasked with all the physical work AND all the administrative work AND the poor pay. And if the thing fails, it’s your ass in the line. Want to see someone age 2 decades in 3 years? Watch them open their own brewery on a shoestring budget. It’s remarkable.

The last thing you have to come to terms with is that brewing is damned physical work. I’m not calling you a prissy or anything, just because you work a white collar job, but have you ever worked manual labor for any amount of time before? It takes a certain mindset to be able to do this work sustainably. I worked in construction before I got into brewing and it was still hard getting used to the amount of labor. Seriously; I was doing 50+hour weeks digging ditches and pulling cable in my teens and an average brewing day is comparable. Are you ready for that level of physicality?

Ultimately, the decision is entirely your own. I love what I do! And I have a sweet setup running the R&D brewpub for a large regional brewery, which really seems like the best of both worlds, but it took me quite a while to get here, and it’s still a TON of work.

My advice:
1. Have a plan. Don’t make it up as you go. Set goals and cut your losses if it doesn’t work out.

2. Have a backup plan. Who knows what the beer industry will look like in 5 years. Have usable skills in case things go south. I’ve got my modeling career to pursue if this brewing think doesn’t work out!

3. Stay in shape! A diet of beer, pub burgers, cigs, weed and blow, while staying up till 4 going to to beer fests and bars may sound like fun, but if you want to last in brewing, you need to take care of yourself. The brewers with the most longevity are in excellent physical condition, exercise regularly, with good diets, and take active steps to control their alcohol intake.

Good luck!

 

Cigs, weed and blow in any physical job = a short career!,!!

 

Find a team and start a small Brewery. A new one opened near me that's run by 2 couples. I got to go in the back and all they had was a brew in basket (https://www.cobrewingsystems.com/products/new-5bbl-micro-brewer-single) and (3) 3 barrel fermenters and some kegs.They saved up enough and have no loans and take turns running it so they're not there everyday.

 

Same here. I make a pittance as a brewer. It doesn't matter. I'd much rather do what I like than make money. And, I guess, a little like @SMCC73 I have built up enough money that I don't have to worry about things. It's funny how life takes you to different places - I originally wanted to be an ichthyologist. If brewing is your dream @SMCC73 then go for it. Maybe you could set something up like Isi-Bräu just north of Salzburg? Things are changing in Europe and there are other options than following the set course.