Career change - engineer to brewer

[vexedben]

So it’s been a while since I was last on this forum and thought I would share my story and experience of going from a Masters degree in mechanical engineering to becoming a brewer in Derby.

The story starts at the University of Sheffield, having completed my Masters in June 2014, I set about playing with GT3 racing cars which was a great laugh, and frequented many a bar sampling all types of beers from Europe to the Far East. This all ended in November 2014 following redundancy so I ended up joining an offshoot of the University researching manufacturing engineering techniques for all sorts of companies, mainly fast jet and airliner manufacturers. I was here for a good 7 years, having grown tired of being part of bloated business and hit an invisible ceiling I was looking for a way out.

Roll back the clock to 2019 and I had been dabbling on home brewing on a GEB BIAB kit that I got for Xmas in 2018. I thoroughly enjoyed taking raw ingredients through to an actual drinkable beer. Now it was during those more trying years of lockdowns and stay at home orders, that got me really into my home brewing. Using all that time to hand, and the cheap energy, to brew a couple of times each month, and emptying no end of corny kegs. No that I had my head in a happy place, and was learning every time I brewed I started to think that I could make a career from this either as a brewery owner (turns out not yet) or as a complete career change and learn to be a brewer in a commercial brewery.

I chose the latter, constantly scouring jobs boards looking for my way out of this miserable job I had grown to hate. I was in a bad way mentally from the lockdowns and the state I was in at my job so couldn’t find a job soon enough.

Then, just as I thought there would be no local jobs, I applied for a job at brewery in Derby as a brewer. A week later I was invited for an ‘interview’ where I basically brought the owner and brewery manager some home brew, had a chat about home brewing and enjoyed an hour walking round the brewery in awe of the shiny stainless vessels and sheer size of the kit I might be lucky enough to use at some point.

One day later, my soon to be boss rang me and offered me the job, which I needed an evening to think about. It turned out my wife was pregnant and it was quite a career change and pay decrease. The next day I rang back and accepted the job, starting in October 2021.

Once I had got through my indeterminately long notice period of 3 months, I started with such a buzz and excitement, that I hadn’t felt for a long time. Fast forward 15 months and that feel is still there. I was to work a month as a ‘trainee’ learning the cellaring ropes, cask washing and eventually learning to brew on the grown up kit which was the most daunting of all the jobs in the brewery.

My first brew day/guided brew was 12 hours long from start to finish, quite a long day but very fun. We brew on a 10bbl kit with square open top fermenters which is very manual compared to my 23l kit at home. There’s no CIP for the FVs, mash tun or kettle and everything is cleaned by hand with chlorinated caustic. Yea it would be nice to have CIP but there’s something quite enjoyable about hand cleaning an FV, testing it for ATP and getting a pass, knowing you’ve been involved fully from the start to finish of the brew process and not just pushed a button on a control panel.

I now have two fixed brew days a week which allows me to handle childcare and work the odd Saturday/Sunday duty brewing as we brew 6 times a week so need to keep on top of yeast cropping and chilling cycles.

In essence, I’m having a fantastic time brewing. Would I do it again, definitely and if you are in a similar situation I’d recommend following your passion. Any way, it feels like this has been more of a monologue than what I intended but if anyone has any questions on anything about this or working in a commercial brewery I’ll do my best to answer them.

Cheers, Fish.

 

[NormanHurst]

Loved reading this. Keep up the good work and all the best for the future.

 

[Pennine]

I have some questions,
Is it as fun to brew in a brewery as it is at home? Do you get excited to try your most recent batch?
Do you ever get to experiment?
Evertime I am in a brewery all I see is a lot of hard work and heavy chemicals, not too much different than most industry, is this not true?

 

[sifty]

Also an engineer (electrical) and I can see the attraction. To me brewing at home is a chance to get away from the desk, to learn and experiment, and to explore my creative side.

That said, I can do what I want being unconstrained by legislation / having to repeat the same process over and over. Not sure how I'd handle it as a full time job.

Look forward to hearing how you go...

 

[vexedben]

Loved reading this. Keep up the good work and all the best for the future.

Thank you. It’s certainly quite the career adventure

 

[vexedben]

I have some questions,
Is it as fun to brew in a brewery as it is at home? Do you get excited to try your most recent batch?
Do you ever get to experiment?
Evertime I am in a brewery all I see is a lot of hard work and heavy chemicals, not too much different than most industry, is this not true?

I would certainly say it’s just as fun to be honest, I’m yet to get bored of the smell of a warm mash aroma in the early morning hours. I still brew at home when I can squeeze it in, around the life of an 8 month old which is where I just brew what I personally want to.

I wouldn’t say I get too excited about trying each batch, as it’s part of an our QA work to try the beer when it goes to conditioning and before it goes into cask as well. So tasting is more of a routine. I do however enjoy brewing the seasonal beers a bit more as we do 1 or 2 brews of each seasonal each month and it’s always nice to try the new beers and see what they taste like.

I’m trying to push to get a 1bbl kit to have a play about with and see if we can do some more risky beers without having to brew 10bbls of the stuff.

I’d say your assessment of seeing a lot of hard work is pretty much bob on for all microbreweries. Without it you just don’t get the beer out and I enjoy the hard work and flexibility that the job gives me. There’s also a lot of cleaning with some chemicals but it’s just all part and parcel of working in a brewery. 90% of what I do is cleaning but if I mess that up I can spoil a 10bbl batch and watch a few thousand £ go down the drain. If I’m brewing I can start and finish when I like which suits me now for child care.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

What an amazing story! I hope you continue to enjoy what you're doing and I'm sure you'll become a valued member of our community!

 

[vexedben]

Also an engineer (electrical) and I can see the attraction. To me brewing at home is a chance to get away from the desk, to learn and experiment, and to explore my creative side.
That said, I can do what I want being unconstrained by legislation / having to repeat the same process over and over. Not sure how I'd handle it as a full time job.
Look forward to hearing how you go...

For me it’s a voyage of learning. I recently sat my GCB and passed it which was a nice Xmas present and that kinda where I’m at. Looking to do my diploma later in the year/early next year to build upon this.

I’d say our only real constraint is what our customers are willing to buy and the duty threshold. We’re a cask led brewery so we have to be able to package whatever beer into cask and especially with our setup we’re not too able to do much dry hopping although we do have the most backwards hop rocket ever haha. In terms of repeating the process, I’d say it’s no different to brewing at home. The process really is the same, just some stuff is a lot bigger and takes longer to clean, but thankfully it’s all broken up for me throughout the week. Some days when I’m not brewing I’ll be cask washing, which is relaxing as hell, then others I’ll be in the cold room racking out or doing small pack which is equally as relaxing. Unless it’s Xmas and then it’s just bonkers busy.

 

[The Baron]

Well done that man I hope it stays as much fun for you in later years and what a brave move of taking a wage cut not many would do that.
I did the same in 1993 I took a massive wage cut to become a car salesman so that I could progress to management which I did in less than 2 years and never looked back but the enjoyment did wane in later years as the financial pressure of hitting targets and budgets raised its head BUT WEll Done that Man

 

[Druncan]

Great decision and what an interesting read.
Keep your notes and write a book?

I always regret not chronicling our move from mainland UK life to our current mad world (including the brewery expansion) Life is not meant to be boring.

{As he crawls back up in the loft to find the barrier pipe (put somewhere 'safe') so we can plumb my brewery hand wash required by EHO,,,,,,} :tinhat:

 

[Pennine]

Thanks for the thoughtful answers it's great you are willing to share. Having a flexible job that you enjoy is an amazing achievement

A 1bbl system would be great for pilot batches and for brewing quirky things that don't move as fast.

So I did have another question, I often hear from brewers that homebrew recipes don't always translate to larger scale production, do you actively brew anything you developed at home in the brewery?

 

[vexedben]

Thanks for the thoughtful answers it's great you are willing to share. Having a flexible job that you enjoy is an amazing achievement

A 1bbl system would be great for pilot batches and for brewing quirky things that don't move as fast.

So I did have another question, I often hear from brewers that homebrew recipes don't always translate to larger scale production, do you actively brew anything you developed at home in the brewery?

I’ve heard similar with the recipe scaling. It’s mainly due to hop extraction from what I’ve heard but not fully sure. I’d love to try brewing one of my recipes from home though. Half the battle is making sure it’s something that our customers would like.

 

[White Rose Al]

A brilliant insight into your career change, well done

 

[Jim Brewster]

The same career change I've been considering for the past 18 months.
Just very hard to accept something close to a halving of salary, but it's a move I'm sure I will make eventually as it's where my interest lies. With time and experience salary will rise also.
Cask washing looks like one of the less pleasant jobs if you ask me, each to their own although I can sort of see why as it's good to do something that doesn't take much thought where you can switch off a bit.

Have you got a vapour mask for the chemicals? I can't remember the standard of filter but basically it filters almost everything, smells and all. Worth it to protect your lungs even if you have to provide your own PPE.

 

[Druncan]

Cask washing? Just get the choons on when keg/growler washing (streaming NZ Brian FM, brilliant!) That is my brainless happy time

Sometimes I think PPE can be a bit OTT, an irritating necessity. I use prescription PPE goggles after an eyeball caustic wash. Gauntlets, ear defenders (occasionally) sailing deck booties and a matching apron. My goggles steam up all the time. Then I end up taking gloves off as I can't open things,,,,, and If I add a vapour mask

I'll just keep the windows and doors open as much as I can

Best move I ever made working for ourselves. 16 years and still going strong(ish)

 

[Deadhead]

This is all pretty cool! I too am an engineer (Chartered Mechanical), so I spend some days dreaming

 

[hoppyscotty]

This is a great story. I too am an engineer in derby who loves the idea of turning pro…but my plan, at my age, is more around waiting for an early retirement opportunity and doing it more as a small scale retirement project. However my local pub has offered to have a keg off me whenever I can produce one so just working out of its worth all the paperwork and bureaucracy just for the thrill of having a beer on at my local. There doesn’t seem to be any loophole I can exploit that doesn’t avoid the gaze of hmrc. Might have to remain a pipe dream.

I’m just trying to guess which derby based brewery you’re at!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

However my local pub has offered to have a keg off me whenever I can produce one so just working out of its worth all the paperwork and bureaucracy just for the thrill of having a beer on at my local. There doesn’t seem to be any loophole I can exploit that doesn’t avoid the gaze of hmrc. Might have to remain a pipe dream.

The only sensible way to do it legally is to piggyback on someone else's paperwork, and do some kind of collaboration/cuckoo at someone else's brewery.

 

[Cwrw666]

It's a shame that small scale brewing isn't treated the same as small scale cider production by HMRC

 

[MashBag]

Smashing read. Well done Fish. Brave and beautiful your wife and child will also be better off for it. Well do you and thankyou for sharing.

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