Average Salary for Brewery Lab Tech / Microbiologist?

Just a guess, but around $40k?

 

$50-$100. Depends heavily on the size of the brewery.

 

That seems quite high, not arguing since I know your in the industry but what do head brewers make respectively on the high and low end.

 

'Looking to get into this field'?
You'll be lucky with 35K without experience, and that's at a larger regional.

 

Definitely accurate. I work for a medium sized brewery distributing to 14 states, and that salary’s about the median between the newer guys and the more tenured techs.

 

Are we talking microbiology masters/phds or kids with a bachelors or associate’s majoring in a related field?
I’ve not heard of the former making less than $50k. Not sure about the latter; it’s uncommon around here. Usually the brewers will do their own ‘lab’ work at that point.
Often lab techs make more than the head brewers. Hell, often bartenders make more than the head brewers!

 

You should try and find out what a lab-tech/microbiologists earn in other fields.

 

Tough to say what head brewers make. The scale is massive. Tiny, young brewpubs were the head brewer is also the owner/floor manager/payroll/hr etc.? A lot of their personal earnings are tied up in the business. I’d say 15-20k on the low end. Over 150k on the high end.

 

I guess one thing this thread illustrates is how much geography affects average pay.

 

$150k would be extreme high end and would be mostly national breweries. When I last interviewed about a year and a half ago, most of the offers were around $40k. Since then I’ve acted as a consultant and when people ask me to help them find a brewer, they tell me that is the upper end of their budget. I always encourage owners to be open minded about increasing that salary budget... rarely do they take the advice. Personally, I wouldn’t work at any sized brewery as a head brewer for less than $50k without incentives like profit sharing or ownership added in the deal. I would say that the majority of brewers I’ve talked to are working for less than that and are either underpaid (and will jump ship once offered a reasonable salary) or they are under qualified and it shows in the quality of the beers. If a brewery can’t afford $50k for a brewer, I would question their business plan, no matter the size unless their brewery is a glorified hobby business. I know a lot of brewers that work hourly for $12-$15 an hour.

For a lab tech it’s much harder to say. Most breweries don’t have full scale labs. I would guess that a $30-$40k salary would be normal.

 

Get a Brewers Associatiom account. They have studies that show wages for various sizes and brewery positions.

 

I’m not gonna refute you there. Cost of living, minimum wage, etc. are cheaper here than your typical metropolitan city.

 

Yup $100k-$150k is definitely on the very high end of the scale (BA top 50 breweries?). $40k for a head brewing position seems really low. 50+ seems to be the going rate around here unless the place is really tiny. (Non-head) brewers and cellarman at large breweries make up to $40k here. $12-$15 is packaging pay...

If op is serious about getting into this business, every lab guy I’ve know has a serious degree from a respected university and all of them worked another lab job before getting into beer. A couple did food and beverage labs (Coke, US Foods) the other worked for a PD lab. That seems like the best course.

 

Well that's disheartening. So some of these people are bachelors of science and making under $30K? I'm currently working retail and make more than that. I know brewery jobs don't pay great, but yikes. I sure hope the geography factor is real.

I say all this because I'm an aspiring tech as well. I'm thinking about taking classes with the American Brewers Guild, but I can't go and take out a $10K loan on top of my $35K in college loans (BS in biotech) for a job that's gonna pay under $40K. That's just asinine, especially when (as I said before) I already make over $30K working a job that technically doesn't even require a GED.

 

Look into medical lab. Healthcare still has a few more years till the bubble bursts.

 

But they make beer, and you sell shoes or cheeseburgers or some shit.

You could if you really want to work in a brewery lab.
You should just stick with biotech. I don't think your attitude would last long in the beer industry.

 

Attitude? Dude, being able to pay the bills is kind of important. I don't know how much things are down south, but rent alone is like a grand per month in Mass. I barely get by right now and don't plan on living with roommates when I'm 40. A passion for beer is no excuse to make bad life choices.

 

To say it's asinine is a little demeaning. Average rent in Asheville is upward of 1100/mo. Beer City USA. People do it. They do it because they want to be in the industry and don't have the attitude that anything is owed to them because of their level of education.
I'm agreeing with you about bad life choices--you should stay in biotech.

 

Working in a brewery, you’re gonna put out more than you get back. Lab tech, especially depending on the scale of the company, can wear many hats. You have a good chance of helping on the packaging line, in the cellar, hauling shit to-and-fro in your downtime, or the downtime of other parts of the brewery. A lot of working hours you didn’t sign up for.

Even on larger scales, the pay is probably nothing near what you want, or anything close to what you could be doing outside of the beer industry.

You gotta have the drive for it, throw your elbows out, and get greedy. The initial pay that you might want may not lie within the job of your field. But it puts you in a position to get higher up into a field that maybe you didn’t even think you’d get into.

But you gotta pay the rent. And you wanna have the extra change after that.