What did you do before you...

[Jephro]

another techie turned brewer

I was as a Internet Tech until i started to loose my mind. I toured with phish for a while, where i discovered "real beer", started homebrewing and went back to school. I was in school and bartending for some local businessmen who were using the bar to fund the opening of a microbrewery above the pub. I did construction on the brewery and was offered a brewing position when we opened. I quit school to pursue a career in brewing and here i am 4 years and 4 brewhouses later.

thats my story and i'm sticking to it...
Jeff

[pbutlert]

Add ski bum to the list

I was living in Breckenridge, CO snowboarding 100+ days a year, when the brewery there opened in 1990. I was hired as a bottler soon after, became head bottler, and then in Dec. of that year one of the brewers left. They offered me a full time brewer position. Learned a lot from the Brewmaster, who had worked his way up at Strohs' in a similar fashion before leaving Coors to start said brewery. 17 years later, 4 breweries, and here we are. Oh, and I still manage 30+ days a year on the slopes!

Paul

[fearless1]

I was raised on a corn farm in Elm Creek, Nebraska. When Jimmy Carter ended family farming I was coming out of college with a degree in Automotive. Crazy to drag race, I became an engine builder and drag racer. I grew a small machine shop out of my garage into a distribution company shipping engine kits all over the west coast. Sold that company, but while I was there, my wife thought I needed a hobby to distract me from business. For Christmas 1994, she gave me a homebrew kit. Now unemployed, I wanted to work in a brewery. Nobody wanted to hire a 35 year old ex-corporation president. I built my own! Wish I would have written a book while building this company. What a ride! More work that I have ever done before. But, I am very happy doing what I am doing. Still have the need for speed. Gotta get onto a drag strip a couple times a year. Making beer is my ultimate destiny. I have no formal training. I had never even worked in a restaurant before. I have always been convinced I would do well, if I worked hard at it. So far I have never been wrong. I got the money to build a brewpub by saving it. Amazing how much money you can save if you have a burning desire to own your own business. I did most of the construction work myself. All I ever wanted was to own my own business. I thank God I live in a country that allows a fella like me to succeed! And also to work in an industry with so many interesting and intelligent people.

Drink more beer,

Ken Johnson,
Fearless Brewing Company

[Rob Creighton]

Wow, introspection.
Fatal moment: getting job as student in high school in big brewery (lied about my age) while getting ready for Urban Planning degree in order to get a 'real' job. Didn't have drivers licence so I'm forced to take job in brewhouse (oh darn). Brewery job pays well so I'm in good shape going to school. Start thinking about what a 'small' brewery could be (they didn't exist at the time). Continue to do temporary spells at big brewery while getting degree. Realize upon graduation that I couldn't care-a-less whether you have a blue roof or green. Micro movement starting in early '80's. Force myself upon brewery pioneer in Canada. Still in game 30 years later. Seen many wild things upon the road (the brew kettle hot tub saga is common) - still want to write the book of crazed horror stories related to one too many start-ups. I think I need a beer.

[Tony]

Yeah Brothers... (and Sisters...?)...

This is cool the way the truly personal tales are being told. Thank you for that. We all want our thang to appear to the consumer world as a complete and perfectly conceived organism, but the path to that was sorta messy in my case and it seems that that is a common theme... It may be a cool thing someday to have these all here. I wonder how many will accumulate. There are, what, around 1500 breweries in N.A. with an average od maybe 2.5 brewers... this could go on for a while... I'll keep prodding it along...

I am 13 lucky years down the road at my brewery and sometimes forget how/why it all started in the first place... We all may be the rebirth of the old regional breweries in North America, but we are also something new under the sun on planet Earth...

I can remember thinking that starting one's own business was going to be a large adventure but the fact that it was a brewery could somehow inject a nuance of Royalty into the result if it worked out...

I am digging these stories and hope there are more posted...

re-Inspirational, it is...

Step up to the mic and say the words... "My name is XXXX and I was a XXXX with a brewing problem..."

Can I get a witness!?

[Beer Guy]

Was a high school drop out that got a job in a bar when my dad said "Son you are the first in to the bar and the last to leave, so maybe tending bar is your calling in life". After spending time at night school to finish high school and then some technical colledge training in training and coaching others I found muyself as a beer ambassador in Australia's first brew pub. Then to make a short story long I hung out with the brewers and ended up getting an assistant brewers gig and the rest is history.

if it wasn't for making homebrew with my Grandma, some hard work following a passion and a documentary on belgian monks I wouldn't be where I am today.

As a side note if the world economy collapes and we go back in pace a thousand years we won't need senators, home loan consultant's, I.T. dudes or interior decorator's. BUT WE WILL NEED BREWERS!!!!!!!

Beer is a tangible link to the fabric of mankind and the passion for one of natures miricles will never be lost as long as I and other like minded Beer-o-philes draw breath.

[Tony]

Beer is a tangible link to the fabric of mankind and the...

...for one of natures miricles will never be lost as long as I and other like minded Beer-o-philes draw breath.

You speak with the tongue of truth.

So far.... 700+ viewers... Add your story...!

[Rosie]

My name is Jeff and I was a management consultant with a brewing problem...

After a degree in Computer Science (cause it was easy to me) I started as a software engineer doing some highly automated warehousing systems, leading eventually to project management.

Discovered 'real beer' out of University at Import Night at Milwaukee's Landmark Lanes. Friend's brother was a keen homebrewer and I couldn't believe the beer he was brewing. Bought a kit and Charlie's book and its just gotten more and more out of control since, to a point that I finally convinced myself that, genetically, I am somehow meant to do this.

I have always been good at problem solving...joined a management consultancy and the problems just got more and more insane and very rarely my problems to begin with. Packed it in and am currently trying to make my hobby a viable business...that's the story so far.

[GeorgeJ]

I was a home brewer, studying humanities at Brighton University, untill i got my place as a brewer at Dark Star Brewing Co.

all worked out pretty ace for me

[jbarnaby]

still dreaming

...I still work in IT as a Technology Director....homebrewing as much as I possiblly can. I can't help but wonder how long it's going to stay this way ;-)

[Todd]

Born to brew

My name is Todd. I have always been a brewer with a brewing problem. My interest in beer and brewing began when I was about ten. Now some of you will think of this as a problem or just a complete joke. It wasn’t. It never has been, or will be.

You see, my uncle was the son of a well respected brewmaster. My mother, the sister of this said uncle, and father went to great lengths to provide a wonderful meal each and every night. They would drink one beer with dinner. This beer was constantly different each time we sat to the table. The beer was never consumed from a can or a bottle and was always in wonderful glassware.

I had a mind of my own. My imagination was quite wondrous. I was inquisitive about the beer. I stared into the beer. I wondered about the beer. I thought about the foam, I thought about the color. I was aware of the flavor. It was an adult flavor and I was after all, “an adult,” in my own little world. One night when my uncle came for dinner he brought a very special beer. It was rootbeer which had been developed by his father and it was for my dear brother and me. We were very thankful; we could join in with the consumption of the entire brew.

After gulping it down I asked my uncle about the biggest difference between the beer they were all drinking and the beer my brother and I were drinking. He said something that may have changed my life. “Well,” he said. “You and your brother will have to find out just like your great uncle did.”

Shortly thereafter Santa Claus brought me a homebrew kit. Some of you are thinking this is made up. I don’t believe in Santa Claus if you get my drift. I was in charge of brewing the beer on my mothers wonderful stove top. I was also in charge of fermentation and my brother was in charge of secondary and racking. While I was supposed to be reading my school books I was immersed in Zymurgy and The Joy of Homebrewing.

Nineteen years later, with a degree in business and brewing, and seven years of professional brewing experience I am still in my twenties. I am still looking into studying more and still wondering about; beer, the color of beer, the foam on a beer and breweries, fermentation vessels which seem to be getting larger and larger, and anything beer related.

I did, however find out what the biggest difference was between my beer and the beer my folks were drinking.

Cheers to barley, malt, hops, water, yeast, great parents, great brewers, great engineers, and fermentation scientists!!

[Dave Suds]

From LA to Stockholm to brewing

I grew up in LA and was a rock guitar player in tons of bands, then I met my wife playing at some god forsaken joint in North Hollywoood. She is from Sweden. Got married and moved to Stockholm. This was back in the 80s right around when I started homebrewing with kits. Graduated to all grain brewing in the early 90s and have since won every major homebrewing competition in Sweden. I have also worked as a software support technician. I finally got sick and tired of making major bucks for someone else and opened my own brewpub (there are only a few in Sweden) together with a few buddies from our homebrew club. We brew 15HL a week and specialize in mostly german style beers (our Christmas beer is a belgian strong ale with yeast from Moinette). I hold a degree in brewhouse technology
and am the head brewer together with a guy named Håkan Lundgren who is the "Papazian" of Sweden and a former brewery owner, already with one major brand on the market called "Lundgrens lager" which is now brewed by a brewery in Sweden called Nils Oscar (very good imperial stout). We just recently opened and are still working hard to get the operation structurized.
Hows that for personal?
Cheers
David "Suds" Meadows
Sigtuna Brewhouse

https://www.sigtunabrygghus.se

[GeorgeJ]

i never realised so many brewers worked with computers before. its bizare!

[ChristianSA]

I have noticed that the world of Brewers and of Brewery Founders is populated by some unusual suspects... I wondered if it might be interesting to start a thread dedicated to where we all came from. Every brewery started somewhere in a time and space mostly unseen.

I also wondered if it would be interesting to have a more personal thread going than the usual fermentation temp and break-even point questions...

I don't mean to try to tell my story, but to reveal those of you among us who don't do a whole lot of self promotion. If this resonates and gets any traction, I'll throw in my bit.

So... Where where you raised; what did you do to start out; was there a diploma involved; did it matter; what was your calling; what was the first significant job; what did you love to do then; what radicalized you into 'entrepenuting' and/or brewing; where'd the dough come from; what do you do now to stay sane..? Whatever you think matters or mattered...

Any takers...?

I was doing C++ software for 10 years before I got tired and started Ølfabrikken.

Now, after a few years of brewing, I have actually started occasionally to program for fun again :-)

-Christian

[choicejohn]

Hey Everyone,

I know its been a long time since the last post on this thread but I was reading over it again tonight and enjoying all the background stories. So, I just felt like putting a post up and revive it on the board to see if there are any other takers. It's really true though, amazing how many IT and software people turned to brewing

In the words of Tony...Can I get a witness?!?!