Brewing School

Check your local colleges. Out here, Central Washington University has a 4 year program: https://www.cwu.edu/craft-brewing/ .

And Skagit Community college has a two year program that has placed a lot of folks into breweries: https://www.skagit.edu/academics/areas-of-study/food-beverage-management/craft-brewing/

And, "I make a pretty comfortable living and I need to enter the industry at or near the wages I’m obtaining now to keep up with my household expenses." is gonna be an issue. Most brewers at small breweries aren't making big money. Sales reps for distributors can make nice coin. But, even if you open your own brewery, you're gonna be starting at the bottom. Look at the student testimonials in that SVC link for an idea of what you'd be getting into.

 

Another option is to just continue your job and learn to love a new hobby: homebrewing. I have been homebrewing for over 25 years (batch number 475 in the primary now).

Lot's of friends/family said to me over the decades: you should become a professional brewer. I never considered that since I enjoyed my existing profession and I really enjoyed my paychecks.

Cheers!

 

In Michigan there are prodrams at Schoolcraft, Eastern Michigan, Western, Central, and some community colleges.

Two of the oldest and highly recognized are Siebel Institute and UC Davis.

https://majoringinbeer.com/other-beer-programs/

Brewing can be hard work, sometimes dangerous. The pay isn't as high as you might think.

I homebrew, and my saying about going pro is "Why ruin a good hobby?"

 

Yup, I can personally relate.

Life's choices is all about compromise.

If you are willing to take a step back in pay then commercial brewing is an option for you.

Cheers!

 

For some reason I am reminded of an old conversation with an old girlfriend on the topic of choices for car tires. I did my best to detail that with a tire choice, some were better in the dry, some were better in wet conditions and that all season tires will only be OK in snow conditions. She consistently came back that she wanted tires that were excellent under all conditions (i.e., no compromises). I was not successful in this conversation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Cheers!

 

FWIW - I know of zero “head brewers” that are making big dollars. Also, I would be disinclined to hire a head brewer that only had the degree and little to no practical experience. It’s a position that you work to, not start with by virtue of a degree.

 

I love to cook. I will never be a chef as I can’t imagine cooking all day every day or running a kitchen. If you have never home brewed I would start there. You might not even enjoy it, it’s not all fun at all.

My suggestion is to reevaluate your work and maybe take a step back in your field. You might want to do a similar job that is less stressful and less travel, my guess is it’s out there.


Enjoy

 

I once took flying lessons. My instructor told me the secret to making a million dollars in aviation -- start with 2 million.

I'll bet it applies to brewing. However, there's a lot to be said about loving what you do.

 

I almost left teaching because of a few bad years once upon a time, I had family in brewing and almost started my career working QA in a brewery (chemistry degree) but it didn't work out, so thats where my brain went. When I was actively thinking about leaving I interviewed at one place and talked to lots of people at others. This is what I was told:

1) we could offer you an internship but you'd be working for free...
2) cellar person interview, your second interview you will work a full shift for free...
3) from people I knew in the industry, you basically make nothing

I just share since you mentioned the expenses part, which was a huge decision for me to stop pursuing it.

I'm not sure what your degree is in but I think the best pay in brewing, while really being involved in the process, may be working QA if you have a science degree. Maybe someone else can confirm that, based on position pay rates I've seen posted.

I also wanted to add, which I never thought about till interviews, etc. a lot of breweries operate on all three shifts so that’s another thing to think about.

 

Thank you for making this thread. I’ve been thinking about making a career turnaround the past year, as my current line of prospects hasn’t been working out.

I have an MA in History from a prestigious university in the national capital, which I had been hoping to leverage towards a career involving political research. However, I completed my studies during the pandemic and haven’t had much success networking, especially due to the migration to a virtual social life, meaning I haven’t been able to find a good “in” to get hired. My target industry, political non-profits (Think Tanks), is heavily reliant on having the right friends, which I currently don’t have and despite many phone calls and video interviews, I’m no closer to a breakthrough than I was in May 2020. It’s been discouraging, to say the least.

Plus, I always sort of felt “out of place” in my MA program. I wasn’t around the friendliest or happiest colleagues or professors, and I should’ve known my degree was going to be a problem when I kept getting asked as early as my first semester about whether I was planning on getting my PhD…

If I can’t make any progress in an intellectual trade, I was thinking of trying out a physical one. I’m not sure how I’d make the pivot from books to fermentation vats, but I’ve enjoyed the volunteering I’ve done so far at craft breweries. Most importantly though, I think I need some kind of clean slate where I can really focus on networking and job placement, as my university has been of dismal help for me in doing so this far.