Brewery Jobs in the United States

Brewery Jobs Overview

Do you take pride in being an expert on beer flavor profiles, ingredients, and brewing processes? Consider earning a living using your skills as a brewery employee. Most brewery jobs can be broken into two categories where you either will be making or serving beer:

• production roles
• customer-facing roles

You will enjoy a production job if you want to be directly involved in fermenting, carbonating, and testing beer or supervising the production as a manager. Here are some more common jobs in beer production:

• Brew masters develop new beers and oversee beer production.
• Head brewers or cellar managers oversee the production of beer.
• Brewers operate and maintain brewing equipment in the cellar.
• Assistant brewers assist brewers with brewing beer and cleaning and maintaining the equipment.
• Maintenance technicians oversee, maintain, and repair the production equipment.

Many breweries also have a tasting room, brewpub, or taproom where you can get a job serving and selling beer. These positions are ideal if you are service-minded and want to share your knowledge about beer. In this capacity you might also work as: a

• beertender (or bartender), focusing on serving beer
• barback, who makes sure the bar is stocked and clean
• tasting room staff member, pouring beer, answering questions, and selling merchandise and beer

You can also find traditional corporate jobs at breweries, for example as an accountant, sales representative, or marketing manager. If you would like to explore other options in the food service industry instead, consider searching for:

• barista jobs
• wine jobs
• cocktail waitress jobs

Training and Skills for Brewery Jobs

If you are truly passionate about beer, you will have an advantage when you apply to a job at a brewery. This is especially important for a customer-facing job, where you will be advising visitors about different types of beer and answer questions. For these positions you also need excellent people skills and service-mindedness. Production jobs require great attention to detail and the ability to work on your feet for most of the day. Sometimes you will need to be able to lift a certain weight and operate a forklift as well.

Many brewery jobs are entry-level positions that do not require previous experience or education. However, senior production jobs require previous work experience and sometimes a university degree in brewing, food science or fermentation science. When it comes to customer-facing jobs, take the time to research local regulations since some states require staff who serve alcohol to have a license or permit. You will also need to meet the local age requirement for serving alcohol, which for most US locations is 18 or 21. Remember that states set the minimum age requirements, but local governments can set a higher age limit. There are also several optional certifications that some employers require, for example the Cicerone beer server certification. You can learn more about how to break into the industry in our article on how to turn love of beer into a career.

Update Your Brewery Resume

This may be the only time where an interest in beer can be legitimately included in your resume. Make the best of it by mentioning why you want to work at a brewery and what you know about brewing beer. You will also need to include the traditional elements for standard job applications. Read our resume writing tips and cover letter tips for the best suggestions.

Interviewing for a Brewery Job

Get ready for your interview by learning some basics about brewing beer, the brewery you are applying to, and their products. These are some examples of questions that your potential employer might ask:

• Why do you want to work at a brewery?
• What do you know about our products and what do you like about them?
• Do you have experience in checking IDs when serving alcohol?

Next, prepare for traditional interview questions as well by reading our interview articles.

How Much Do Jobs at Breweries Pay?

Since jobs at breweries range from entry-level positions to senior managers there is a wide range of potential salaries as well. Use Monster’s salary tools to compare median earnings for different jobs, both nationwide and for a specific location. A bartender, for example, makes an average of $11.46 hourly nationwide.

Learn More about Breweries in Our Company Profiles

Dig a bit deeper into the company’s beer vessels before your interview-figuratively of course. Find out what it specializes in and who its target audiences are. Researching the employer can help you answer the common interview question “why do you want to work for us?” as well as a response to “do you have any questions for us?” You can find many employers in our company profiles.

Brew Your Career with Help From Monster

Take the first step to finding brewery jobs by creating a Monster profile. This gives you access to our free resources for job seekers, including the ability to upload your resume, make it visible to recruiters, and send job applications on one platform.