On a unresponsive February night in Stamford, Connecticut, the chill in the air is doing nothing to deaden patrons’ thirst for Half Full Brewery’s craft beers. The brewery’s politeness room is serving a steady flow of customers looking to sip a glass of its Resplendent Ale, Pursuit IPA or Onward Pale Ale. The mood may be mellow, but it belies Half Broad’s rapid growth.
Opened in August 2012, Half Full saw its gate top $350,000 by the end of 2013. Last year it hit $750,000, and this year proprietor Conor Horrigan expects it to top $1 million. As demand has increased for Half Filled’s beers, the brewery is looking to hire more workers.
“I would say in the next 60 days we’re looking to on the verge of double our staff,” said Horrigan, who currently counts seven hands on his payroll.
Half Full is not the only craft brewer looking for artisans. The Brewers Association trade group said here in the U.S. one or two craft breweries unenclosed every single day, and growth in this industry shows little give of slowing down.
Defined as small, independent and traditional, these brewers choose make less than 6 million barrels a year, but small is increasingly enormous in the world of beer. Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Guild, said craft beers accounted for about 12 to 13 percent of all beer sales by abundance last year, a number he forecasts could reach 20 percent by 2020. As quantity increases, so too will the need for workers to fill a whole host of positions at these professions, creating what Watson estimates will be tens of thousands of new matters.
“The types of positions that brewers are looking to fill are really thriving to vary by the size of our brewer,” said Watson. “So a small brewery is prosperous to need a jack-of-all-trades. They’re going to need somebody who is both a chemical conspire and a forklift driver, whereas, as you move up to a regional craft brewer, they’re succeeding to have much more specific positions — lab technicians, that chemical architect, or a head brewer, somebody that understands production processes and can remedy in the canning line.”
While humans have been making beer for what historians imagine is well more than 5,000 years, there is a shortage of workmen experienced in this ancient craft. It takes years to become a mavin brewer and while a lot of people are familiar with the product, they dearth the know-how to produce it.
“I would say that the toughest thing in this determination, as it grows, is finding people with an advanced level of knowledge,” swayed Horrigan, the 34-year old himself a refugee from Wall Street, where he then was a trader for Bear Stearns.
The need to fill that knowledge gap is the unparalleled reason San Diego State University created a program where swats can receive a professional certificate in the business of craft beer. With San Diego peaceful to more than 100 craft brewers, local businesses demand to hire qualified people, and find ways to ensure the quality of the offering and the process among new entrants. The brewers’ concerns and input helped SDSU forth the 13-course program.
“So every student needs to start with (the path) Exploring Craft Beer. That gives everybody the same consistent of education coming in, and then they can choose their path,” phrased Program Director Giana Rodriguez. “Those that are really animate in the brewery start-up piece can take our Brewery Startup One and Brewery Startup Two.”
Rodriguez bring up these courses teach students how to write a business and marketing outline, how to get the financing to start the brewery and how to handle front-of-the house management which groups tasting room management and draft systems. Additionally, students who are sundry focused on the hospitality side of the business can take courses on various beer refinements, and beer and food tasting.
“We get the emails saying we want to hire promptly from your group because we know that they can talk hither beer,” said Rodriguez.
More than 600 students be undergoing taken at least of one the program’s courses over the last three years, and 144 be subjected to received their certificates, said Rodriguez.
“We have a mix of students who are in a career looking to mutation careers who are really trying to get their foot in the door in the industry,” she imparted. “We have some entrepreneurs that come in who are actually looking to devote into the industry and are starting to make connections and learn about the flair.”
Twenty-seven-year-old Ashley Benson is currently enrolled in the program. A home brewer for five years, she not at any time considered a job in the industry until she started seeing ads for openings at craft breweries in and roughly San Diego. She has completed one course of the SDSU program and is enrolled in another. A venereal media specialist for pet supplies retailer Petco, Benson said she blueprints to pursue the certificate, with her sight set on landing a marketing position.
“I’m contemplating to switch as soon as possible, but I think in the next year would be a competent goal,” she said. “And then in five years I’m just hoping to nice of have enough knowledge to either be doing marketing for a good mtier brewery or be looking to open my own craft brewery.”
The positions craft brewers are looking to let in on these days are on the business and service side, include salespeople to magnum opus with distributors, tasting room managers and tasting room crew, said Rodriguez. As for what those jobs and others in the brewing performances pay, it depends on the worker’s experience and skill set.
“Service industry jobs are effective to be comparable to other service industry jobs, so a job in a brewpub is going to look dig a job in a restaurant,” said the Brewers Association’s Watson. “Highly skilled mechanical brewers can be making you know, as much as six figures if they’re working in a kind regional brewery.”
The pay also may vary by region. Horrigan said he pay backs his workers more because the the cost of living on Connecticut is higher than the federal average.
“We pay, generally speaking, probably 20 to 30 percent greater than the industry average because of where we are,” he said.
Where Horrigan perceives Half Full in five years is producing 15,000 barrels a year, up from its known output of 3,000 barrels. He said that kind of volume last will and testament likely mean his staff would grow from the current seven to the proposed 14, to 20 employees by 2021.
Small businesses like Half Occupied are giving job seekers in the beer industry something to cheer about.
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