Monthly Archives: July 2016

My First Day

Posted on by Ed Sabato

July 16: I was carrying my water bottle, a bag with two beers from Massachusetts to drink with the brewers at the end of the day and all the excitement of a kid the night before Christmas. The 10-minute walk from my apartment to the brewery felt like a year.

I arrived five minutes early to find Head Brewer Eric already deep into the day’s tasks. Apprentice Brewer Matt started showing me the ropes immediately, and within 10 minutes, even in the cool morning breeze at 7 a.m., I could feel my brand new brewery hat becoming wet with sweat.

So what do you do on your first day as a volunteer at a brewpub in the tropics? Just about everything.

  • First, open up the bar and brewery sliding doors, put out all the chairs and unlock everything for the day.
  • Learn how to use a tri-clamp…and how hard it is…and what it sounds like when you drop it.
  • Start the caustic cleaning cycle in the fermenter that previously contained the jalapeno beer.
  • Repeat said caustic cycle, because the fermenter stills smells like jalapenos. (Note to self: chili pepper oils tend to stick around, so use a designated fermenter).
  • Hot-water rinse the fermenter.
  • Sanitize the fermenter, three times.
  • Build the keg-filling rigs and the yeast rigs.
  • Move kegs, fill kegs, deliver keg (that’s right – I delivered a keg to a bar around the corner – after all, I did say I wanted to learn everything).
  • Get grain (50 or 55 lb bags), mill grain, learn how to open and how not to open up a grain bag.
  • Clean out mashtun, putting the spent grains in giant rolling trashcans for the local farmers to pick up. Nothing gets wasted, the spent grains are either fed to livestock or made into slider buns by a local bakery.
  • Eat…and realize that I am beginning to get really sore (already, or just, five hours in to the workday).
  • Measure out hops additions…twice, because someone spilled some (someone other than me, thankfully).
  • Squeegee everything, always keeping the water moving toward the drain.
  • “Pack the heat exchanger with caustic” fresh water rinse, sanitize the heat exchanger before transferring beer to the fermenter.
  • Polish three 7-barrel fermenters. Yep, that sucked, but – like a good field day in the Navy –  it has to be done.
  • Split a ½ barrel (15 gallons) into three 1/6 barrels (obviously 5 gallons each)
  • Move hoses and pumps (all day).
  • Clean the grain mill – twice, because I didn’t do it right the first time.
  • Learn that a 7-barrel pitch of Cal Ale costs almost $300, which is why they go five generations with yeast harvested from the fermenters.
  • Clean up after the boil process while transferring the hot wort through the sanitized heat exchanger (boil temp to 70F) and then into the fermenter. (This step is called “knock out”)
  • Get sent home 90 minutes early, because the professionals are pretty sure they almost killed the “volunteer” on his first day.
  • Shower and go back for beers.
  • Revel in surviving the first day

At the end of that first day I had some pretty big takeaways.

  1. Standing on concrete all day is hard on your body, and ridiculously hard on mine. Take Aleve before starting the work day and wear good work boots.
  2. Working in a brewery is hot, damp work. If you are not completely soaked with sweat, you will be with brewery water. Make sure you have good, waterproof work boots.
  3. Even after having my ass kicked all day, you couldn’t tell by the smile on my face. The adrenaline thrill can pretty much get you through anything.

Over our next beer, we will discuss all things grain.

From garage to real working brewery

Posted on by Ed Sabato

Like most people who brew for fun, or a living, I think my journey was unique. I was a late bloomer in the home-brewing sense and then went crazy about four batches in. All-grain, stainless, temp-controlled everything, kegerators, brew clubs, competitions, blah, blah blah. I basically became completely obsessed and turned my garage, dining room and basement into everything beer related. I have enjoyed some success in competitions, and numerous friends who drink my free beer have told me my beer is great (not the best litmus test based on the word free, mind you).

The shortest distance between two points is: the willingness to work hard.At this point in the homebrew infatuation, who hasn’t thought of quitting their day job and going pro? After five or more beers, just about every serious beer drinker (let alone brewer) with whom I’ve ever had a conversation mutters something along the lines of: “Wouldn’t it be effing cool to own your own brewery?” Well, I’ve asked myself, and my adorable wife, that question many, many times.

So just how do you go from brewing beer in your kitchen or garage to working in a real brewery? I found that two factors affect the outcome here.

  1. You need to have the extra time available to put in a few shifts a week at a brewery.
  2. The Latin adage: Audentes Fortuna Iuvat – “Fortune helps those daring.”

Save the younger among us, there are very few chances to take on a second job for fun. Most of us have family or job commitments that make this impractical or impossible. And those who do need a second job, usually take one that suits their needs, not their dreams. As a guy with life-long “shit for luck,” I lucked out for once. I was afforded the opportunity to take a one-year assignment in Hawaii. I know, tough life for sure, right? There were a few catches to this assignment. I was going to be working on all new projects that I knew nothing about, could not take a workday off for 51 weeks, and had to leave my aforementioned adorable wife behind. This meant that I would be living the bachelor life for a year, surviving on ramen and beer, but with plenty of spare time for a second job….so extra time available to put in a few shifts a week at a brewery? – check.

Now for finding that brewery.

A week-long business trip to Hawaii about three months before my new job started meant I could scout out the potential breweries in advance. This is how I approached it:

  • At the time I was looking, there were five breweries open or in planning. One was still on paper, so that left four to pursue. (By the way, four months later, there are seven breweries in Hawaii)
  • I contacted the four breweries via email, Facebook, and Twitter to start a discussion, gave my background and discussed my passion for both learning and beer, and offered to work for FREE (which we will discuss later). I thought the internship approach (since I already had a paycheck coming in) would take the pressure off the “hiring process.”
  • Two breweries responded and I started putting together some possible dates to interview.
  • By the time I flew to Hawaii, one brewery owner had not confirmed our appointment, so I was now down to one.
  • I met with the Brewmaster and didn’t give him any BS about what a great a brewer I was. I dropped off three of my own beers and three more he would never see in Hawaii (Double IPAs of course). I think we hit it off immediately.
  • During my five-minute “interview,” I reiterated that I wanted to learn ALL the aspects of working in a brewpub — from cleaning kegs and tap lines, to dumping spent grains, to cleaning the kettles, etc.
  • My new boss agreed to take me on as a “volunteer” on the spot. I was to be the brewery’s first volunteer brewer, and so my journey started to reveal itself.

I am starting with one weekend shift each week, which should be about 10-12 hours in duration. I will start at the very bottom, doing the mundane and the dirty, just like everyone else. Although I will be “earning my stripes,” I have still set goals. The first is to put together one beer that I can say I brewed, conditioned, kegged, and served all by myself in 50 weeks. My loftier goal is to brew a collaboration recipe with the pro brewers to be entered into the Great American Beer Festival in the “PRO-AM” category. I have one year to make it all happen.

I will be documenting the journey along the way. It won’t always be pretty, or very fun, but I intend to share how it goes. So lift your glass and wish me luck.