Working in the "Biz"

For all you people who are interested in working in the brewing business, read this and take heed. I got this from my brewing school's email job listing. This perfectly sums up why it is so hard to earn a living wage in the brewing industry, especially as a brewer.

As a professional brewer with 15 years of experience, this is offensive on so many levels. The sad thing is, they will probably find someone to do this "internship."

1. They expect someone to live salary-free for two months...in Chicago!
2. They only want someone full-time for a postion they're not paying for!
3. This person will be expected to do what a brewer does without getting paid.
4. I'd be willing to bet OSHA and their insurance company wouldn't be too pleased about having unpaid newbies lugging chemicals and climbing around in hot, confined spaces.
5. They've apparently never heard of CIP'ing.
6. They spelled wort wrong.
7. They think you'll love getting them lunch because brewers are such rock stars.

At least they're honest, though. I'll bet a lot of breweries would staff themselves this way if they could, because they know that there is an army of people who think brewing is so cool, that they'd be willing to earn nothing just for the privilege of being in the industry. What that means for anyone who has persevered in the industry for any length of time is that their skills, experience and, most importantly, earning potential are always being undercut by the eager throngs who just finished reading "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" and want to take their shot in the bigs.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, one of Chicago's newest craft breweries, is currently looking for a full-time unpaid intern that is interested in making a 2 month commitment to learn and work on a regular schedule. Preferably, the position would go to someone interested in beginning a career in the brewing industry. The selected candidate(s) will receive a comprehensive and hands-on brewing experience. She or he must be willing to:

• Work hard

• Lug around 55 lb bags of grain
• Crawl inside a blazing hot mash tun to scrub it
• Grain out
• Deconstruct an 18 head canning line and put it back together again
• Rinse filthy kegs
• Be subjected to accidental beer showers
• Handle caustics and other hazardous materials
• You get the idea.

We will train you on our 15 BBL brewhouse on the basics of production brewing, fermentation, yeast handling, wart analysis and testing, keg cleaning equipment, canning line equipment, forklift, milling, boiler maintenance, glycol function, tank sanitation, dry hopping, getting us lunch, being super cool.

If this is you then definitely let us know as soon as possible by email: XXXXXXXXXXXX. Include your resume as an attachment please. If you lack brewing education we prefer someone with a strong home brewing background. In the subject line of your email please write "Intern"

XXXXXXX is an equal opportunity employer we're pretty nice folks. Please don't reply unless you have the remarkable ability to put your life pretty much on hold for 2 months. Sadly, we can't use someone right now that is only available part-time, half days, weekends and secular holidays only, or if you're a chronic over-sleeper. The schedule will generally start at 9am every day and go until the job is done, sometime in the evening. Also please don't respond if you just want to get your hands dirty for a day or two. As much as we appreciate an offer for help, we are no longer using volunteers and the work we need done requires lengthy training.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX