Breaking into the Craft Industry

I got a job in a brewery by volunteering. Another guy who has been there for 5-6yrs started by volunteering also and is going to start getting trained on the 15bbl system to be the 2nd shift brewer.

Haha, we listen to Grateful Dead just about all day, so you are spot on with that...not sure about the World of War Craft thing though..??

 

But the beard is a requirement right? Never trust a skinny chef and never trust a brewer without a beard?

 

Actually..both the brewer and asst. brewer have beards, and pretty nice ones. I tried growing one and failed miserably, so maybe my career in the beer industry has already hit its high point

 

Lately it seems like some combination of goatee, black clothing, tattoos & piercings.

 

I'd just keep drinking beer and enjoying being able to buy it.

I love golf, hell, I'm a single digit handicap and pretty decent, and would love to play for a paycheck... but reality is.. I'd be broke as hell and hate golf in doing so..

Keep your day job, and be real.

 

Once upon a time I was a financial advisor, in the same boat as you. I had been home brewing for quite a while and enjoyed craft beer and wanted to leverage my sales experience to get into the industry. It didn't quite work out as smooth or as quickly as i I wanted but it did, finally work out. I ended up getting my Cicerone Certified Beer Server and applied to as many distributors and breweries as I could (I was lookin for sales rep jobs) and nobody was interested. I reached out to a bunch of sales managers and they all said the same thing, I needed retail experience. At that point I decided to take a MAJOR step down from my current job and take a wine and beer steward (buyer) position at a grocery store. Almost a year later I had made enough connections and finally got noticed by the distributor network and now have the job I wanted. It took more time and a big sacrifice (in pay) to grt this job but I wouldn't trade it for anything. If you want to make it happen then find a way to make it happen. Experience outside of the beer world really doesn't mean squat, find any opportunity to make as many beer connections as you can and feel free to make your beer career aspirations known to those matter & those that will listen (just don't come across as pushy!).

 

Of course all of this is moot if the guy wants to homebrew, get really damn good, take a plunge with no small amount of loans from the bank and get a space for a system and a tasting room and sell the shit out of his beer...I have interviewed people where this has literally been the case and it has been a success but let's be honest, the odds for any small business - let alone a craft brewpub - suceeding is like 1 in 500,000, there's a lot more factors that are out of the owner/operator's control guiding his or her success.

 

Same here... I came through retail and networked until I got noticed. I didn't even need a resume' for my curernt position, it was created. No one at my company cares where I got my college degrees or my experience before craft beer/fine wine retail.

Wouldn't trade it for the world