Does your job/career help with your brewing?

[FirstAidBrewing]

Inspired by ajdelange...

Taking a shot in the dark, ajdelange is/was maybe possibly a chemist of sorts. Clearly a very smart guy whose experience in life has given him quite an edge in brewing. There are many others members of HBT whose careers/ daily lives benefit their brewing. And thank you to each one for your wisdom.

Me personally, I am a network engineer (routers, switches and firewalls) and I feel that my daily life does very little to help my second life as a brewer. An analytical mind, perhaps, but nothing tangible such as a chemist, microbiologist, or botanist.

How about everyone else? What do you do, and does it help with your brewing?

Cheers!

 

[Yooper]

I was a drunk, and that has really helped me in drinking beer.

In my former working life, I was in the medical field. I still work a bit, filling in, but not on any regular basis.

I was always sort of a geek, though, and loved biochemistry and chemistry and science, so brewing brings out that part of my personality, but it wasn't really part of my day-to-day career.

 

[BrerRabbitBrew]

I'm a low voltage electrician and it doesn't really cross over to brewing. I do listen to brewing podcasts at work which is nice and I dream of wiring up a HERMS someday but that's a long way out.

 

[nasty_rabbit]

I have worked in chemical manufacturing as a production operator for over 27 years. Just about everything that I do at work crosses over into brewing. I have gained a fairly good working knowledge of liquid transfers and piping, pump systems,blending, "cooking", chemical extraction, sanitation, record keeping and I am sure that I am missing a few categories. Our facility houses about 50 production/lab employees and there are 7 Brewers, 3 wine makers and 3 or 4 distillers, close to 30% isn't too shabby. You can only guess what the conversations are about in the break room.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

I'm a chef so I'm very comfortable with large volumes of boiling liquid and already have a better than basic understanding of sanitation, cross contamination and food spoilage bugs...

 

[Oginme]

I am (1) a research & development engineer in chemical technologies. The discipline from my job helps in the importance of note taking, understanding process control, and development of recipes. I also have access to UV/Vis Spectrophotometer, which I have used at times.

I am also (2) a dairy farmer (goat dairy), and this has helped with disposal of grains. For which, my girls (milking does) give me milk in return. Win-win!

 

[Beernik]

You'd be surprised how much wastewater treatment and alcohol fermentation have in common.

 

[1977Brewer]

I'm a Facilities Manager currently, which only helps in that I can borrow equipment, but I did spend about 20 years off and in in a pizza kitchen. I'm not afraid of boiling and handling large volumes of hot liquid, I know how finicky yeast can be, and I can measure and convert large volumes.

 

[Ridire]

My job helps my brewing tremendously, in that it pays for equipment and ingredients. Beyond that, not at all...except that I guess I'm good with numbers, which helps to some extent.

 

[estricklin]

I work in the oilfields, specifically with environmental and water issues, there are some tie ins for sure. The first 5 years I spent on a roustabout crew, so pluming things comes pretty easy to me. For instance, I'm building an electric brewery and I won't have any quick connects because there will be no hooking/unhooking ANYTHING ever, I will build a manifold valve system to direct the flow of wort instead.

I think everyone brings something from their job, realize it or not.

 

[cthulu1975]

i am a chef now, but went to school for biochemical pharmacology. Both definately help in the brewing process in different ways.

 

[Gerhard]

Yes, I'm lucky enough to have a career in the industry and started as a homebrewer in the 1980's....

 

[JohnSand]

I have the best job for a homebrewer: I'm retired!

 

[Brauer]

Law enforcement and brewing don't really cross paths

 

[The_General]

I'm a biochemist so yes there is quite a bit in common between my career and home brewing.

 

[EJay]

I'm an analyst for a wine company, and that experience with tasting, palate development, etc, has helped me a lot. In fact, I first got into homebrewing because I wanted to develop my palate and understanding of fermentation more, and I didn't have the patience for waiting for wine to finish, while I can turn beer over much quicker.

 

[lightjt]

I am a ground equipment maintenance officer in Army Special Operations for the last 27+ years, we love beer, not much of a cross over, other then I have 90+ motor pools with an endless bit of supplies, welding shops, and fabrication capability for building my brewery! actually I dumpster dive for freebies!

 

[gtmaus]

Being a union electrician made the switch of going to an all electric system a breeze but that's about it.

 

[DrunkleJon]

You'd be surprised how much wastewater treatment and alcohol fermentation have in common.

Ewww.. I know that brewing helps sanitize the wort, but that is not how you are supposed to treat wastewater.

As for me, I am a computer geek. If anything it has taught me patience because scans, backup, restores, installations, reboots, and pretty much anything else computer related takes its dear old time and will rush for no man or woman. It also seems to have encouraged strange ways of thinking up solutions to problems and processes.

 

[Yoseff]

Botanist, chef, baker, farmer. All things that have helped me with brewing to one degree or another.

 

[swmalone]

I was a chemist at a beet sugar factory for several years. That was very helpful in just in the general day to day work of being familiar with sugar conversion, also had access to refractometers, tubing, glassware, acid carboys, etc. I also had a good in with the welders, plumbers, and electronics specialists. I had a pretty sweet thing going before they shut down the factory.

Since then I have been in the food safety industry. So the main benefit of that is familiarity with sanitation practices.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

How about everyone else? What do you do, and does it help with your brewing?

Cheers!

Code Monkey. It gives me a reason to drink. Each and every day.

 

[Beernik]

Ewww.. I know that brewing helps sanitize the wort, but that is not how you are supposed to treat wastewater.

It's different bugs and different food sources, but they are both biochemical digestion. You make the bugs happy, they do what you want them to do.

Similarities:
Activated sludge = yeast population
Return activated sludge = repitching yeast
Flocculation
Sampling
Process control

 

[johngaltsmotor]

I'm a mechanical engineer (high temperature furnaces) so I can borrow temp controllers and weld up Stainless doo-dad's and plumbing at work. Off the clock of course ;-)
Plus I don't have internet at home so they're my hookup for getting on HBT. Again, off the clock during lunch of course.
I haven't had the guts yet to borrow the fancy pH meter from the lab to dial in my mash chemistry.

 

[Mexibilly]

I'm an Environmental Technician. I test water samples several times weekly (ph, conductivity, hardness, chemical levels...), monitor storm water runoff, monitor dust collectors, blah blah. My work doesn't apply much, except 15 years in troubleshooting and fixing things helps when I have to make something work.
The fact that my manager is a highly experienced award winning brewer who likes nothing better than to stop and share his experience and advice is my #1 work/brew benefit.

 

[Natdavis777]

My job accelerates the consumption of the end product of homebrewing.

 

[joshesmusica]

i'm a social worker. i have a couple of classes about alcohol and drug addiction counseling. some would say that my career contradicts my homebrewing. i just started a new job, and don't know how long before i mention that i brew beer at home. all of the workers seem a bit crazy, but in a good way. who knows how they'll take it, or if it's even looked down upon to drink alcohol in my field. no telling when my coworkers will find out.

p.s. norway is one of the best countries to work as a social worker!

 

[Onkel_Udo]

I started brewing when I was still waiting tables and bar tending. Lots of cross-over.

Now I make order from chaos...I provide reporting solutions to "broken" ERP system for DoD and Heavy Industry. It is amazing how many multi-million (and billion) dollar projects are managed with Excel. No crossover.