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Craft brewing production
Brewer
Mostly cleaning, and everyone is surprised by that.
Typical pay
$34k-$70k
How you get in
Brewing program or work up from cellar
Outlook
Flat; the craft boom has plateaued
Brewers produce beer — mashing, fermentation, packaging and quality control. The romantic image is recipe development; the actual job is roughly 70 percent sanitation and heavy physical work.
A day in the life
- 6:00aMash in and start the brew day
- 8:00aTransfer, then clean the mash tun
- 10:00aCheck fermentation, take gravity readings and samples
- 12:00pLunch
- 1:00pKeg and can packaging
- 4:00pClean everything again, because that is the job
How to get in
Cellar to brewer
Duration
1-3 years
Cost
$0 — paid
Credential
None; Cicerone or brewing certificates help
- Get hired as a cellar hand or packaging assistant
- Learn sanitation, transfers and fermentation management
- Move to brewer as you prove reliability
- Homebrewing seriously first is what gets you the interview
Brewing science program
Duration
3-12 months
Cost
$5,000-$25,000
Credential
Certificate from a brewing science program
- Complete a brewing program such as Siebel, UC Davis or American Brewers Guild
- Learn microbiology, quality control and process
- Enter at a higher level than a cellar hand
- Quality control roles pay better than production brewing
Open a brewery or taproom
Duration
3-8 years
Cost
$250,000-$2,000,000
Credential
Federal TTB permit, state licensing, business financing
- Work in production and learn the operations and economics
- Understand that taproom sales, not distribution, is where the margin is
- Navigate federal and state alcohol licensing, which is lengthy
- Undercapitalization is the most common cause of failure
What people love
- · You make something people genuinely love
- · Craft brewing culture is collaborative
- · Path to head brewer or your own brewery
- · Science and craft combined
What wears people down
- · Cleaning is the majority of the work
- · Heavy lifting of grain and kegs, constantly
- · Pay is low relative to the passion required
- · Industry consolidation has slowed growth