Brewmaster Shortcut

[ModernLover]

Look up Brewlab Ltd. it's a brewing school in England, it's a full yeast lab, it's a brewery, and they send you to work in breweries.

[nickfl]

Siebel absolutely has merit, but in my opinion only if you are going to start your own brewery or if your employer is paying for it. I would never recommend it or any of the other schools as a path into the industry. I agree with everyone else who said they would sooner hire someone with a year or two of keg washing and cellar work under their belt than a new Siebel grad with nothing else on their resume.

I did the full course at Seibel 9 years ago planning to open my own brewery, and I am glad I did. However, it took me another 6 years of experience working at breweries, homebrewing a LOT, and even starting someone elses brewpub for them before I was really ready to open my brewery. I was a long road, but I don't regret a bit of it because the years of work and experience I have pay me back every day now and it has been pretty apparent that we are a vastly better brewery than we would have been if I tried to start it right out of siebel.

There are a lot of people with minimal competence starting breweries these days. You don't want to be one of them, and you probably don't want to work for them either. Don't take a job from anyone willing to make you their "Brewmaster" straight out of brewing school because that is a sure sign you would both be in way over your heads.

[indyGold]

There are no Shortcuts

Brewing is hard work. I run the beer program at my brewery. which means I brew, cellar, package, sweep, squeegee, hump kegs, whatever it takes. Brewmaster is a nice sounding title. I've met a few from Germany, Belgium, the UK and a rare U.S.A. citizen that went through the journeyman and schooling. I'd never refer to myself as a "brewmaster". It's cliche and I don't have the PhD from one of those institutions. I took a challenging correspondence course from the Institute of Brewing & Distilling when I got very serious about transferring my skills full time to brewing. It's a craft; it takes years to master. I learned that by working 22 years as a Process Engineer in various industries including Brewing. I consulted breweries and brewpubs for 5 years before hanging my own shingle and starting Daredevil Brewing Co. 3 years ago with my brother and best friend. Even with experience this is a TOUGH business.

I hire people with the right skills and attitude to learn how to be a successful brewer. I like to mix experienced brewers with newer guys/gals to make them both stretch. Training smart newbies forces the experienced crew to focus and think about their day-to-day quality focused responsibilities. At the end of the day, it's all about the beer and the people making the beer. Everyone works their asses off, but they love what they do. There are no shortcuts. It's long hours doing what needs to be done because we're all doing the 1 thing that we love - crafting great beer.

--
Michael Pearson
Owner, Brewer
Daredevil Brewing Co
Twitter: @IndyDaredevil | Cell: 765.602.1067 | Email: michael@DaredevilBeer.com

[gitchegumee]

Brewmaster?

Honestly, who out there actually says that about themselves with a straight face? Mechanical Engineering degree, Siebel graduate, 22 years of experience all over the world and I'm loathe to call myself a brewmaster. Stick with Head Brewer if you happen to run a place with minimal experience. Just try to make good beer. So many "brewmasters" don't.

[TGTimm]

I've always looked at "Master Brewer" as a guild or union title--where you put in your years as an Apprentice Brewer (at low to no pay), then work up to Journeyman Brewer, and, after years of experience and education, you may earn the title of Master Brewer. Much like a Master Carpenter, Master Electrician, etc.

Since few if any of us belong to a brewer's union or guild, I usually tell folks that the title doesn't really apply. Simply declaring yourself a Master seems awful pretentious, and, in a guild or union setting, would probably get you laughed off the job and/or beaten to a pulp.

[KFBass]

I've always looked at "Master Brewer" as a guild or union title--where you put in your years as an Apprentice Brewer (at low to no pay), then work up to Journeyman Brewer, and, after years of experience and education, you may earn the title of Master Brewer. Much like a Master Carpenter, Master Electrician, etc.

I agree with this. I've been brewing for 6 years, did the advanced brewing theory course from Siebel, Institute of Brewers and Distillers etc...I call myself the head brewer. I'd much rather earn the title of Master Brewer, vs just calling myself "Brewmaster". I can give myself literally any title that I want around here. Head Brewer seems to be a better approximation of what I do. Yesterday I brewed, today I labeled bottles while somebody else brewed. You just kinda get done what needs to be done.

[mashpaddled]

The economics of that career shift are likely not on your side.

Changing careers in which you enter a position that you have no experience performing is almost certainly going to result in going back to the bottom at a low salary even with educational background in that position.

If you are fifteen years into a career there is a fair chance you earn more than what many head brewers earn, at least in smaller breweries.

[WWSean]

I completely agree with KFBass. I'm the head brewer where I work and I would rather earn the title of brewmaster then to just label myself that. People ask me a lot if I'm the brewmaster and I just tell the no I'm the head brewer here. Once you've been brewing 20+ years and have been brewing things right maybe then but just maybe

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

[beerguy1]

A great speech several years ago at CBC was talking about the explosion of the industry and one of the issues that will give us a bad rap is "making shitty beer". Breweries are grabbing people with little to no experience just so they can have beer flowing out of the taps and the end result can often be shitty beer. If you dont start as a grunt you cant teach or be expected to trouble shoot problems. I was talking with a Seibel grad and he said yes they taught me about yeast,fermentation and so forth but it in no way taught me how to fix a pump,trouble shoot a electrical problem and so forth without these skills you will struggle for a long time. My opinion forget the school start as a grunt learn form a great teacher work your way up and then you will be successful.

[BrewinLou]

Another issue with not having worked in a production environment would be safety. If you never work a day in a brewery, would you really trust yourself dealing with chemicals you have never used, operating equipment you have never used? There are many ways to die, or be severely injured in a brewery.

[barleyfreak]

I have customers who continually ask me if I am the brewmaster. Have stopped giving them the explanation of why I'm not called that. Instead, a quick, "I'm the Brewer" in response seems to work for both parties. I also had a late career change into professional brewing. Over 50, and with no experience working in one before. From a financial standpoint, I don't think it would have been practical if I had not also been one the owners of the brewpub to boot.

[Larry Horwitz]

Title Schmitle

Ignoring the always debated issue of titles…there is something else to consider. I totally agree that off the street, into a very small brewery or brewpub no brewery owner or manager would or should hire a ‘Brewermaster/Headbrewer/Leadbrewer’ who has never worked at the entry level jobs in a small brewery. The smallest breweries don’t usually need high level planning, strategic thinking, HR skills, safety management experience or engineering skills from their employees. Up to even three or four thousand barrels per year, craft brewers can mostly show up, brew up, and clean up. Once the brewery gets bigger, the job can change significantly.

An ‘off the street’ laborer with two years of experience may be a great hire for keg cleaning, or even shift brewing but they probably won’t have the training to advance into brewery management if the business grows. It is far more unlikely that this person will advance in his or her career to the level of Brewmaster or even production manager of a 100K barrel per year brewery than someone who has brewery engineering and general business management training. Someone who has attended any reputable brewing education program has put time and money into learning about the business of manufacturing beer. That will always get my attention. This person can be taught the basics of brewery manual labor pretty quickly, and it won’t take long to find out if he/she has what it takes to grind out this type of work.

So I guess the question is this: Where do you want your career to go ultimately? A two year turn on the back end of the bottling long at Tinyforeverbrewing working for no money will show you most of the tasks required to run a small brewery but I would suggest that this alone is NOT the best path if you want a full and fulfilling career producing beer. A combination approach would be best. I’d focus my practical training in a brewery that is the size and style that you ultimately want to run.

…and that will still take years.

[casey_r]

Maestro Cervecero

Its funny, most of these threads are written from the American or Canadian perspective with that market in mind (SATURATED & LEGALLY BURDENED). Keep in mind, there are plenty of places in the world severely lacking good craft beer and where the dollar goes a lot farther...Life as a brewer or brewmaster in the US or Canada certainly requires you do it for the love of the game (low pay)...But where we are in Argentina, there is excellent water, maltsters from LaPampa, and hops in Patagonia. After 17 years of being an Industrial Engineer in the US, I found these past 2 years brewing on a two barrel system more educational than any schooling could...Sure I attended Oregon State's Fermentation Sciences courses on brewing quality and it helped...But you don't encounter issues in a book...rising inflation, breaking through the stone wall of importing anything here, consistency with maltsters, limited varieties of yeasts and needing to propagate your own. In the meantime giving instructions in a foreign language. There are craft brewers here that need coaching and that has been a large part of my role here in Argentina. A start-up down here costs a fraction than in the states and if you have the right partners for sales and distribution, you can succeed. And forget about many of the legalities you see in the US. (More laws = More Lawyers) It really helps if you put up the money for the brewery and are a partner in the company's success and not just relying on a brewer's salary. Opportunity abounds if you look a little further from home.

Casey R.
Portlander Fermentation Lab
Buenos Aires, Argentina