Brewery perks.

A buddy of mine is a tour guide at Sam Adams, and I think they get an official case per month (at least that often, maybe every week or two), plus a bottle of Utopias whenever it's released, plus there's a cooler full of extra beer that employees are free to take home - within reason.

 

There was a TV SERIES about DFH. They gave a case of beer with each paycheck.

 

According to the the guys that do the brewery tour at Sweetwater, you can take home all you can carry at the end of the month...and you can have as much beer as you want while you're at work as long as you don't appear drunk. No lie, straight from the tour guides mouth when I went there this spring.

 

Bell's has employee cases, not sure the frequency however. They can also save their cases up and get a keg I do believe.

In a recent job posting from Arcadia they mention brewers receive two beers and a square meal per shift.

 

As far as drinking at work, yeah - that seems pretty standard. My friend (Sam Adams tour guide) justified cracking a beer first thing in the morning by saying "Hey, I'd be drinking if I were at work right now."

 

Its a hard job but someone got to do it. No idea what the big boys do, but the local breweries sure seem to to drink as much as the customers.....

 

Free beer during working hours was long a tradition in the US brewing industry. In the late 19th century the United Brewery Workmen labor union felt that some employers encouraged it to the extreme, to relieve the stress of 12-14 hour shifts and make workers more subservient. Eventually, once the industry became unionized, the free beer was written into contracts (examples here) - which lasted into the 1970's in some cases. Given stricter DUI laws (most workers no longer walked or took public transportation to work), OSHA and insurance concerns, etc., drinking at work gave way to free or discounted cases of beer to take home at most breweries.

 

I know from a friend that the big boys at AB give 2 cases a month and have happy hours at work fairly regularly.

 

I am not an employee of Three Floyds, but I know some of their perks. They get to take home any over/underfilled bottles, and are capped at 2 sixers or 2 bombers every day they work. Also they get first dibs on Dark Lord and BA DL, though I believe there is a cap to what they can buy (1 BA, 4 regular I heard it was last year). 50% discount on all normal beer & merchandise as well. Health insurance!

 

Nice perks....I wonder if they have health insurance?. lol

 

The first thing people say is "Free beer !", but my healthcare, dental plan, life insurance, and 401k is what keeps me a happy employee.

 

I have an acquaintance (we have a lot of mutual friends) who is a brewer at North American Breweries (Genesee). He's always bringing cases of mislabeled/underfilled bottles to parties. He said they can take pretty much all he can carry. Not sure if that's true for everyone there though. I drive by the brewery almost daily as one of the shifts gets out and don't see anyone carrying beer.

 

Rare thing to get now days, and your is fully paid by your employer? You must be high up in the co???

 

Again I do not work there, and no I believe it applies to everyone from servers to cooks to brewers. I believe it does not come out of the employee's checks, fully paid.

 

Well it has to be up north then, here in the south, they don't believe in paying for that stuff for us peons. I be really surprised a small (under 50 employes place) fully pays for all that, that stuff is VERY expensive, as you may know??

 

Yes it is rare anywhere nowadays unfortunately. However FFF really is fairly small, with huge demand. I imagine they have all the extra money they need for such things and more. The only thing stopping them from expanding is their lack of interest in doing so.

 

I wonder if there hiring? lol nah too cold up there for me, at least until about another 10 more years go by....

 

Oops. It is very affordable, actually some of the best plans in the state.

 

yep but 401k, and dental etc. must be nice.