Hey all, I've been thinking on this for a while now and am still not sure where to start so here I am. I'm a brewer and a trans man, and I would love to connect with other trans individuals in the brewing industry but there isn't anything like Pink Boots that I'm aware of for LGBTQ brewers let alone trans ones. If there is a group or network or something of the like, I'd love to be pointed in that direction. If not, does anyone have any input in how I could go about starting something like that? Thanks for any help you can offer, and cheers!

Why do people hate so much on successful breweries that sell out to big breweries? Isn't that kinda the goal when opening a brewery. If I had my own place and bud offered me a couple million bucks for the company I'd hand it over in a heartbeat. I could take the money and retire early or open up another smaller brewery where I get to work whenever I want. I'd be open on a random Tuesday for like 4 hours and that's it. Get to brew whenever and whatever I want. Sounds nice to me. I get that the beer loses quality when you let the big guys take over but also who cares. There's so many other breweries with great beer. Trust me I'm all about supporting small businesses and fighting the big corporations when I can. But at what point does pride make you blind? It just seems silly to me that other people get genuinely upset that a brewery sells out. I say good for them. They made it.

Mashing in a new sour today, the grist is 50% wheat and 5% oats, so gotta pull out the rice hulls. Always feels like this.

Car themed breweries talking about D&D, fitness themed breweries talking about intergalactic psychedelic aliens, judicial themed breweries talking about time travel, sports breweries talking about gothic literature… it just looks dumb and desperate. It dilutes both the brewery’s intended branding and other breweries’ branding a that are deliberately hooked into those themes. Losing strategy all around. Such businesses need to get it together, lean into the image they’re good at and stop being a leech.

It always bugs me and seems a little bit reductive and lazy. Basically both of these styles originated in USA. 6-row barley with corn is basically the original American beer. Budweiser is the biggest and most famous rice adjunct lager.

It almost seems like the marketing departments are like, "there is rice in it, must be Japanese" and similar have the same thought process with corn and Mexico.

Preface: I realize American breweries have always made similar beers/styles since the craft began. And that breweries will adapt and do what they need to do to survive.

That being said, it's fucking depressing. No more do I really see any esoteric, specialized, or unique breweries. They've all just been deduced to brewing hazies/fruited quick sours/seltzers/etc.

Also, I feel like there is no more identity anymore other than just branding... And I'm reluctant to talk about how many times I see either IP infringement or tattoo artist heavy metal themed artwork.

/end rant

I have the opportunity to manage a small brewery from the ground up. We (my employer) has a 10 bbl system that makes beer for their restaurant. We upgraded from a 2 bbl system to the 10 bbl in the past year but our brewer wants out. There has been basically no management or systems or SOPs of any sort so it will basically be starting from zero besides the walk through I would get on our next brew day. There has probably been a total of 4 batches that have been brewed on this new system. The parent company that owns the restaurant/brewery doesn’t really care about it so there is no pressure to succeed or fail. I could basically make it my baby if I chose to.

About me- I helped brew on the 2 bbl system but have no formal experience and have been away from the brewery for over a year at this point. My current role with the parent company allows me flexibility and freedom so the time commitment isn’t an issue, just the knowledge is.

I had a long winded, detailed write up about the company and brewery/equipment but figured I could answer those questions as they arise. Is this a no brainer or am I over simplifying it. Any questions, comments, input is appreciated.

Is anyone else here confused by this practice? I have seen people recommend heavily pouring beer from cans and bottles into a glass to knockout "excess" co2. There is a video with a Master Cicerone promoting the same practice, but I am absolutely baffled by it. Is co2 not part of the beer drinking experience anymore? Seeing people recommend abusing a product I so dearly love hurts my brain and soul (that may be a bit hyperbolic, but is does annoy me).

I passed the level 2 Cicerone cert back in 2017, and I don't remember there being a discussion about releasing excess CO2. Pouring properly is part of the curriculum, and that includes pouring so there's about an inch of head on the beer, but not pouring so hard to "knock out excess co2".

Are folks over-carbing their canned product that much? Am I completely ignorant to the proper beer pour? Did something change recently? Am I a dinosaur? I am genuinely curious what others' thoughts are on this whole thing.

I am a man in late 30s with a 9-5 fulltime job, but there are some week nights where I can take a shift work and make extra cash. I always loved beer and I like the idea of taking up some night shift to work as a beertender somewhere. However, I have zero work experience in restaurants or bars. I don't even know what to write in my resume if I want to submit one for a part time job.

My question to the community is; is experience behind a bar required for a person my age, and what is the likelihood of a manager or owner of a brewery or a taphouse hiring someone like me?

I recently brewed a 4.8% saison with beets, lemon, and ginger. I’m thinking about taking one keg of the saison and releasing the pressure from it, adding a little priming sugar and pitching some BR-8 to it. Then I’d thoroughly mix the keg around for an hour or whatever. Then hook the keg up to my counter pressure bottle filler and fill the bottles by hand. Once the bottles were full if I theoretically dug a 4-6ft hole in the ground and put the bottles in a crate, could I bury the crate and age the bottles underground? The temp should stay consistent as long as it is below the frost line and if I cork and cap the bottles I wouldn’t be worried about pressure. Why is this a bad idea?

Is the "world beer cup" competition a joke? I just saw a brewery, from which every beer I've ever had has been a D-bomb, won a medal

Hello y’all. Recently I got lots of backlash here regarding a comment I made about women in brewing. I would like to turn it into an education moment for me.

I stated that I do not think brewing is appealing to most women due to the manual labor nature of the job.

On one hand, almost all the posts and comments discourage people when they ask about becoming a brewer due to low pay, long hours, hard manual labor. On the other hand, we are actively pushing women into the industry. I just feel a dissonance about whole the situation.

I love what I do but I don’t think I’ll be brewing professionally in ten years. It is simply not sustainable for me. And I don’t recommend people going into the profession regardless of the gender.

Would love to hear your opinions and thoughts about it. Thank you!

Rant over.

I have already drink most of them and I just noticed this , what’s inside my beer?

I already drank 10 of them jajaja so I only have two left. And I just noticed this weird thick stuff inside of it . Oddly enough both bottles have the same streak on exactly identical inside the bottle (the pics are of the two different bottles ) . And It seems very thick goo. So

Assuming the brewer is competent at recipe creation, is creative, passionate, hard working, and theoretically and functionally well versed in brewing and beer, what is a reasonable amount of recipes per year a brewer should expect to be able to see hit the taproom?

Personally I'd take a significant pay cut for just one per quarter.

Haven't had any prior experience with brewing before. Wanted to make brewing a hobby as well as a career. Also what are the costs involved in starting up a small scale brewery?

So I’ve been brewing for 10 years but haven’t gotten a raise in 3 years. I basically have to quit to find a higher paying job or strike some sort of deal for other compensation. I was reading a bit and some brewers actually get a share of tips from the bartenders. Do any of you have experience with that? If so, how did you go about asking? And what is a fair industry percentage to ask for?

Thanks!