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.
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.
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Then I end up taking gloves off as I can't open things,,,,, and If I add a vapour mask
