Wow dude I had to go back and read through all that. What an awesome story.
I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere in a steady and pretty well paid office job which was rapidly driving me insane. I managed to get a minimum wage job as a brewery assistant in a local brewery based on talking about my home brewing experience. They were really wary of me because generally home brewers do some pretty weird stuff and ... you don't need to really know how to brew to clean and package ... there is a bit of "come work in a brewery, come live the dream" when really they just need somebody to do the heavy lifting and the horrible jobs that everybody else is sick of doing. I felt I knew the score. They don't want you to be too bright sometimes because you'll get bored. Staff turn over was very high there, it felt like you'll do it or you'll go just like the previous 10 guys this year. My home brewing was at the yeast prop, microscope, pH testing, temperature control, water treatment, all grain, keg bar stage so I knew I was at a standard above the average beer kit in a bucket. I was ANNOYINGLY ambitious.
I did two trial days and got freaked out about getting paid. Everybody thought I was insane because my boss was super elusive about money. Had to make it clear that while I enjoyed the experience, if I'm working I'm getting paid and hopefully he can already see the value. I told him he wouldn't work for free, I was doing a job that needed doing and I'm sure he expects his customers to pay him and just take a calculated risk. If he felt he made a mistake and I was full of **** he can always get rid of me anyway (he liked that). It was tense for a while. I am very lucky to have a small mortgage! People thought I was mad leaving my job.
I did a lot of cleaning in all weathers. Like months of nothing but cleaning. I also tackled anything that I could and worked really hard, process improvements even building maintenance. I think some of the other guys were like ... **** our new keg washer just cut and laid new drains and knows how to brew ... A lot of the guys were quite happy to have me do their jobs which went badly for them because my boss was not a very reasonable man and quickly realised he didn't need as many staff he just needed the right staff. Again, a few tense moments where I had to stand my ground, make it clear that I'd do things, but if I said I couldn't or wouldn't then I wasn't being unreasonable I had good reasons. Not everybody could say the same. I had to basically justify why I wasn't taking **** and why I wasn't going to be treated like that. I had management experience, understood systems, processes, health and safety had quite a few qualifications including a degree. It didn't help that I had no formal brewing qualifications though because I wanted to do a lot of things? House yeast, mixed cultures, barrel ageing, very particular water treatment, different ways of working out efficiencies and recipes to maximise output, different fermentation profiles and I was trying to explain this stuff to people who didn't always understand it, so they were looking to my credentials rather than my arguments.
What helped was always explaining it and being consistent, a lot of the other guys couldn't deal with being questioned and just tried to fudge their way through stuff and it always got found out in the end. A lot of it at the start was also just not standing around when I was done, always looking for a new task, I've finished this one, give me something else to do, nothing to do? I'm going to write standard operating procedures, paint the building, implement pest control, monthly checks, sign off sheets and scrub the damn slime off the ceiling telling the people who laughed at me saying slow down and sit on my ass to show some respect for what they are doing or get out of my way.
Like I said I was pretty (REALLY) annoying. Alongside that I was always bringing in home brewed beer. People really liked it. Never compromised on it, if you want this then this is what we need to be doing. The proof is in the beer.
ANYWAY. After 6 months I was brewing. After a year I was pretty much doing whatever I wanted. After two I'm head brewer/lead brewer/brewery manager. A lot of this is because my boss is cheap and difficult and not many people can tolerate him, but also it is because I know what I'm doing and he has been forced to accept that I'm working at a level where he needs to just leave me alone. I work whatever hours are needed, typically 55 a week and get paid quite well and ALWAYS hold a high standard. It has been almost three years and we've gone from 4 staff producing 6,000L a week to 3 staff producing 14,500L a week and I'm really proud of the increases in production, efficiency, SAFETY, staff satisfaction, beer quality, ambition and range.
I have to set little goals, look at the bigger picture, delay gratification. It is a business after all. But I'm getting to do exactly what I want now. I have to be passionate about what I do otherwise I'd not sustain the hours and the pay doesn't make up for it otherwise. I left an easy well paid job because I want to do what I'm passionate about. This year will be laying down barrels, producing some canned sours, things I never would have dreamed the brewery would be doing when I started. Everything else I've wanted to do we are doing, winning quite a few awards, regional ones, collaborations with breweries I respect, bit of travel and events ...
When I started we produced a core range of average quality average price quite traditional ale, 2g/L was a big dry hop. I've a can run (cans!) on monday for a big hazy IPA and a pale with bergamot, cornflower, sunflower, saffron and rose petal. Last december we did a triple IPA. The december I started our 'special' was a ginger best bitter, our best bitter with dried ginger in the boil. I did a bruxellensis IPA on 280kg of peaches. Like if I think back it is amazing how far things have come on.
It is hard work though and the pay isn't very good! There are a lot of easier jobs which will pay the same or more.
