"Real" advice on whether or not to be a pro brewer...

I saw this write up and thought it was supremely interesting. Sorry if this is a repost.

http://digboston.com/boston-beer-brewing/2013/07/on-beer-and-brewing-so-you-want-to-be-a-brewer-eh/

One really similar was posted about six weeks ago.

Owning a brewery is awesome! Working at one may or may not be up everyones alley. I personally love it.

It requires a strong healthy back like Keith has.

And a desire to spend most of your time as a janitor.

I want to work less, make more money and have nearly zero responsibility. Opening a commercial brewery sounds like the opposite of that.

THIS!!!^^^^^^

Retirement has given me 2 out of the 3!

When you’re a shift brewer, it’s shockingly dull. :-\

I finally have an answer to this tiring question, thanks.  ;D

And having those 2 is worth not having the third!  Jeff, we’re gonna have to get together in GR and go around rubbing people’s noses in it!  :wink:

I like owning yellowhammer. But I wouldn’t want to “work” for yellowhammer…,

I love self-awareness. I too would not want to work for me.

I worked for me for almost 30 years.  It sucked.

Exactly

I think the outlet for creativity unbound by customer expectations is what I enjoy about this hobby.  I make several simple lagers for those who won’t go outside their comfort zone (or who need a gateway to realize that there are great styles they haven’t experienced yet), but those are sometimes almost autopilot beers that I get satisfaction from incremental improvement by trying new malts, hops or yeast strains on.  If I had to brew the same beer over and over in a production facility, it would get old pretty quick, though I appreciate the efforts of the pro brewers to replicate so nearly identical beers in successive batches in that setting.  For that I give them credit.

As for working for myself - I have been a partner in a small group for years, pretty much doing my thing in an area that none of my partners do, so the lack of a safety net is sometimes disconcerting, but you can get used to it and seek outside resources…like this forum represents for my hobby!

I have to agree, although luckily my stint was only ~3 years.

It’s really awesome to be able to go on vacation now.

Hard to work for a boss who is stoned or drunk all the time… :wink:

so far in my experience the only thing worse than working for yourself is working for someone else. Either way, if you get to do something you enjoy it sucks a lot less.

don’t get hung up on the fact that it’s a ‘job’. even if you ‘have to’ be there, if you love what you are doing it’s easy to enjoy the work. if you hate what you are doing then it’s going to suck no matter who you’re working for.

Now now kids.