As the title states, I am a homebrewer eager to learn brewing on a larger scale. Would like to be an assistant to learn the trade and work my way up to a head brewer position. Currently located in NE Ohio, but willing to relocate for the right position.
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Homebrewer, eager to learn brewing on a large scale
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Originally posted by HeavyHands View PostAs the title states, I am a homebrewer eager to learn brewing on a larger scale. Would like to be an assistant to learn the trade and work my way up to a head brewer position. Currently located in NE Ohio, but willing to relocate for the right position.
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Keep chipping away at it, if my nearly-middle-aged recovering techie ass could get into this industry, you can, too!
Be prepared to only be able to land a spot on the packaging line at first. A lot of the folks already on the packaging line are also applying to those cellarman/assistant brewer jobs, training somebody up is a big investment of time/pay, they're going to pick somebody who's time on the packaging line has proven they're gonna stick around in spite of the hard, dirty work and low pay. It sounds like dues-paying BS, but from the brewery's perspective, staff is one of the largest expenses, and any hire is big risk, especially for a smaller brewery; hiring somebody who's already thrown kegs/cases for a year and hasn't been scared off takes a big risk off the table.
The other thing I never tried, but have seen other folks succeed with, is picking up volunteer hours or super-part-time work at smaller breweries that don't have 40 hours a week of stuff to do, but may have 10 or 20. Go down to the taproom mid-afternoon, when the lunch rush has cleared out but the after-work crowd hasn't started to trickle in yet, and ask the beertender when the head brewer might be around. A lot of us were homebrewers before we were pro brewers, and will be happy to talk to you, at least as long as the yeast slurry's not hitting the fan back in the brewhouse (we have a lot of very long, very busy days, even when things are going well, don't take it personally if the response is "today is nuts, can you stop by Thursday?"). The guy who was the other assistant brewer where I work, and did an excellent job, started out as "some homebrewer out in the pub who wants to talk [head brewer]."
Good luck!Last edited by feinbera; 05-20-2019, 10:57 AM.
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