Typical Day
When the rest of the world is eating its buttered toast or stuck in traffic, Bruno Brewster is already stationed at the masher. Nothing like a bit of 7:30AM mashing-in to get your day started. Bruno stands atop the ladder, surveys the gigantic gleaming silver vats all over the brewery's main floor, and puffs out his chest in satisfaction. For him, every day is a good day to be a brewer.
Once the mashing is done, Bruno and the other brewers get together to mix the crushed malted barley with the boiling water. The other brewers start to drift off to other things, but Bruno stays right by the mixture, keeping a close eye on the temp. Four years ago, in his first week on the job, Bruno took his eyes off the thermometer for a half-hour, and when he came back he had ruined the malt. The guys have never let him live that down.
After a little more boiling time, Bruno lowers the temperature, sits back, and lets the enzymes do their thing. Turning complex starches into sugars is just about the only job that Bruno doesn't have to do in the beer creation process.
While he waits, Bruno fills out brew sheets and catalogues the exact type of beer he's making, which means consulting the recipes in order to record the precise amounts of yeast, malts, hops, and sugars he's using.
When he first started his job, he hated the paperwork parts. In fact, he'd hated most parts; he'd been hoping to be able to drink all day. That clearly wasn't going to happen, but if he couldn't drink all day, then, well, he had at least wanted there to be some action.
But four years of lifting and carrying and straining his body has taught Bruno to look forward to these moments in the day when he can just sit still. If he has to do paperwork while he sits, so be it.
By 8:30AM, though, Bruno has re-fastened the straps of his industrial overalls, put his clunky, waterproof boots back on, and is back at the mash tun, ready to transport the mixture into the kettle. Once that's all done, Bruno uses the next couple hours to check up on the other brewers, send a couple emails, and check the pH levels of the cleaning solutions they use.
Cleaning the cleaning supplies might sound excessive to any non-brewer, but bacteria is a brewery's worst enemy. At best, it'll diminish the shelf life of your product; at worst, it'll ruins the entire batch. Ten years ago, the brewery added an acid cycle to its routine cleaning cycle in order to more effectively remove inorganic material and residues left in the equipment.
At 1:00PM, it's Bruno's half-hour break for lunch. The brewers take staggered lunch breaks so that someone can always be monitoring the beer. Bruno heads into the break room.
"Just about to go get a sandwich, who wants one?" Jim, one of the other brewers, asks.
A sandwich...mmm. That sounds good. But before Bruno can put in his request, Jim's already out the door. Bruno tries not to notice that he took everyone's order but his. Instead, he flops face down, exhausted, onto the sofa in the break room. He listens for a minute to the conversations the other brewers are having.
"...and then I was like, 'That's a Kolsch, you idiot!'"
Bruno looks up from the sofa. One chubby, smiling brewer is wrapping up a story. He's surrounded by a group of the "Beer Brotherhood." Two years ago, a senior brewer declared the existence of an exclusive club. All the brewers were in it, except for Bruno (who was ridiculed ever since the ruined malt batch) and the brewery's only female brewer.
Bruno tries not to feel left out, but the insult stings. When he first took this job, the best part of his job was the close friendships he formed with the other brewers. They went out for drinks. They got each other sandwiches. Now they won't even talk to him.
At 1:30PM, after eating a soggy mayonnaise-bologna sandwich he brought from home, Bruno is ready to hit the brew house again. He washes down the last bites of his bag lunch with a few sips of beer that they get for free, then heads back out.
Checking on the morning's batch, Bruno can tell it's about done. He directs some of the other brewers in cooling and transporting it to the fermentation vessel, where the brew will sit for another couple weeks.
At 4:00PM, with nothing left to do (for now) with the morning's batch, Bruno goes to help with the capping of a batch from last week. Technically, as a brewer, the capping and bottling isn't part of his job. But XYZ is a small company and Bruno's a team player (even if he isn't always included in the break room camaraderie).
Anyway, he kind of likes seeing the finished product as it's packaged up to leave. Bruno can sometimes forget that what he's actually making is beer—not an out-of-control fourth grade science fair project.
At 5:00PM, Bruno helps with some of the end-of-day cleaning. Technically, his work ends at 5:00PM, but almost invariably he winds up working an extra hour or so, even on quiet days like this one. Having mopped and scrubbed and sanitized the equipment (in 1,500-degree Fahrenheit water, mind you), Bruno's finally able to go home. Straight home.
On his way to fetch his coat from the break room, one of the brewers pops his head into the room.
"Hey, Brewster, you're still here? A group of us are going to play some cards at Jim's place tonight. You wanna come?"
Bruno tries to hide his surprise and excitement at the invitation—maybe the "Beer Brotherhood" has finally forgiven him. Eagerly, Bruno nods, grabs his stuff, and joins the other brewers waiting by the street lamp outside the brewery.