Getting into the Industry

It looks like a lot of good advice above, but if any comments remain to be made, perhaps this link to a search that I did in the Beer Talk forum might add more: https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...&t=post&o=date&g=1&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=39.

You can try other searches in that forum by using a key word that looks at thread titles only that is different from "industry" which was my search word.

You might also check out Probrewer.com. That site might be helpful.

 

I will just add my 2 more cents to this. I have about a billionty local "craft" breweries here. Of those billionty 1, thats right 1 has a "schooled and interned brewer". The real number is probably 75 within 50 miles but yea. So we will call it 1 out of 75. Probably 50 out of the 75 are homebrewers turned "pro". I would guess about 20 or so of 75 had a job in the brewing industry before (usually cellerman). Maybe 1 or 2 were brewers somewhere else.

So of those 75 breweries, about 70 make beers I would not think twice and dump if they were mine. They do ok around here because of the novelty, and the awe of having a local brewery. But due to saturation I don't see them being around long. We are already seeing breweries shut the doors.
However I really want to highlight the "1". I have become pretty close with them, they are on the flipside of this. Since he was schooled and professionally hands on trained (Europe for a year). He came back here and hit the ground running. They bought a 10 bbl brewhouse to start, with the future in mind, hoping that they would only brew once every 2 weeks or so. Since opening day (its been a few years now), they have been on an accelerated schedule, they literally can't keep up. They are currently prepping for the new 60bbl brewhouse to show up, but rumor has it they have already outgrown it. They are currently brewing 2 or 3 shifts on the 10BBL system daily.

I guess where I am going is, I am a firm believer in this method. Out the gate the beers were really great, and people instantly flocked to them because of it. It's no fluke, nothing else even really holds a candle to them locally, and because of that they make money hand over fist.

 

Very true! Combined with alcohol and pills, its unfortunately the way tons of folks cope with the stresses of restaurant work.

 

You’d think so, but amazingly I’ve seen some people manage to pull it off in the skilled labor fields. I think the alcohol and party atmosphere of brewing really tips the scale of sustainability for most people.

Utepils?

Yup. And brewing has a lot of interaction with the restaurant/bar industries. There are shared vices.
Throw in the minimally managed third shift brewing that many begin their brewing careers in and it’s exasperated.

 

Some, for sure, but I've known others who got injured or had to go to rehab, some permenantly damaged. Just not a good idea, I stick to beer.