10 of the best jobs in beer

Thought you couldn’t make a career out of drinking beer? Think again!

The beer industry holds many a career path for the sud-loving job hunter with roles not limited to that of brewer.

For those dedicated to the cause, why not get your taste buds around a career in beer sommellerie? Or perhaps the lofty heights of a beer brand owner is where your talents lie?

But remember there is no role more important that that of the loyal consumer.

Scroll through to see our pick of some of the best beer-related jobs…

Click here for our 10 of the best jobs in wine feature.

Have we missed any? Leave a comment below.

10. Beer sommelier

More commonly associated with the world of wine, the role of the beer sommelier is one which is quickly growing in prominence. While still a fairly new concept, the beer sommelier, much like that of its wine counterpart, is someone professionally trained in the service and knowledge of beer.

Typical roles could include hosting tastings, judging competitions and working as a beer writer, or advising restaurants on food pairing, curating their beer lists and educating their service staff. One notable UK example is Sophie Atherton, who was the first woman in the UK to be officially accredited as a beer sommelier. Courses to train as a beer sommelier are available in London and Australia from the Beer Academy, run by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling.

9. Beer brand owner

Undoubtedly the most lucrative position in the industry, and likely to be the most difficult to come by, is that of the brand owner. A clutch of brand owners dominate the beer industry controlling global brands such as Budweiser, Brahma, Tsingtao and Heineken. The richest of which, according to Forbes most recent rich list, is Jorge Paulo Lemann, a Swiss-Brazilian banker who owns a share of the world’s largest brewer AB InBev.

With an estimated wealth of US $19.7billion he is the 34th richest person in the world. Along side his interests in the beer industry, Lemann has numerous interests in the financial markets having co-founded the Brazilian investment banking firm Banco Garantia 1971 with Marcel Herrmann Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira, and once played at Wimbledon as a professional tennis player.

8. Beer brand ambassador

7. Hop farmer

The most crucial yet largely unsung position in the world of beer is perhaps that of the hop farmer, without which the world of beer would be fairly lacking. Hops are the female flowers of the hop plant used as a flavouring and stability agent in beer imparting a bitter, tangy flavour. 

With the increasing popularity of the hoppy craft beers in the US, their production is perhaps even more vital than ever to the industry with fears that demand could soon outstrip supply in the US. Major hop growing regions include the US, UK, China and Germany. Their use in the production of beer is the sole commercial use of hops with 50 growers currently in Britain producing 20 different varieties.

6. Beer bike operator

If you have been on a stag or hen do to Amsterdam, chances are you will have seen these beer-bike contraptions winding through the streets, or perhaps even been one of its  10 passengers.The pedibus, or beer bike if a brew is on board, is powered by its passengers but steered by a driver, giving punters the chance to not only get in a workout but enjoy a beverage or two while taking in the sights. The “pubs on wheels” have become a popular pastime for tourists visiting parts of the United States, as well as Germany and other European countries.

In many European countries it is legal to consume alcohol while pedalling, provided the driver is not imbibing, a restriction which perhaps dents the appeal of this fun, but otherwise risky occupation in our top 10.

5. Beer writer / Blogger / Journalist

What better way to turn your love of beer into a career than by writing about it, some might say. Admittedly the drinks business team are fairly biased given our chosen career paths, but earning your living writing about beer certainly isn’t a bad way to spend your 9 to 5.

One UK example is Pete Brown, who has carved a rather lovely niche for himself writing about beer, cider, ale, craft beer and everything in between. Brown was named the British Guild of Beer Writers’ Beer Writer of the Year in 2009 and 2012 with journalist Will Hawkes, who frequently contributes to The Independent and The Washington Post, taking the top spot in 2013.

4. Barrel apprentice / Cooper

One of the more unusual yet most traditional roles within the beer industry is that of the barrel apprentice – perhaps now one of the rarest jobs in the trade. The age-old brewery skill of crafting and repairing a brewery’s wooden casked goes back centuries with positions now increasingly scarce. However one position for a barrel apprentice has recently emerged with British ale-makers Theakston’s.

The chosen apprentice will undergo a three to four year training period learning from the barrel master, Jonathan Manby – who joined Theakston’s as an apprentice himself in 1995 and is the country’s last remaining brewery-employed craft cooper. Mr Manby, 39, makes hundreds of oak casks each year for licensees that insist on having their ales delivered in this traditional manner.

The craft of making barrels is said to date back to the Roman age when it was considered one of the most important medieval crafts, evidenced by the use of ‘cooper’ as a surname into a number of different languages.

3. Beer pong champion

For the uninitiated, beer pong is a ‘sport’ in which players attempt to throw a ping pong ball across a table with the aim of landing the ball in one of their opponents’ cups of beer. Should one team successfully land a ping pong ball in said cup, the other team must down its contents with the first to clear their opponents’ cups crowned the winner. You may be thinking how can this possibly be termed a ‘job’, and you would be right. However the World Series of Beer Pong (WSOBP), the largest beer pong tournament in the world, offers cash prizes of up to $65,000, making its a fairly lucrative bet. The WSOBP has been held in Las Vegas every January since 2006 with 2013’s event attracting 480 teams from 48 US states and 14 countries along with thousands of spectators. The next event, set to be held in 2015 at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, carries a grand prize pool of $65,000.

So popular is the game, that an entrepreneur recently launched a crowdfunding initiative to raise funds to launch a beer pong ball cleaner. The Clean Cup is a battery operated, table top unit that seeks to replace the “wash cup” — a cup of still water used to dunk a dropped ball in an attempt to clean it before a successful shot is thrown into a beer cup.

2. Brewery owner

For many home brewers throwing in a 9 to 5 job and opening their own brewery is the ultimate dream, however few successfully take the leap to become a commercial success.

That is not the case for one home brewing husband and wife team Fiona and Euan MacEachern, who in 2011 founded the Loch Lomond Brewery in Scotland. The couple decided to go professional after spotting a gap in the market for cask ale in Scotland. Today, the brewery produces between 1,500 and 3,000 litres of beer a week using locally sourced grains and the hops from around the world.

1. Brewmaster / Head Brewer

Perhaps the ultimate and most respected role within the world of beer is that of the Brewmaster, also known as the Head Brewer in the UK. Similar to a winemaker, a brewmaster is at the heart of the beer brewing process with the success or failure of a brew often resting on their shoulders. Responsible for the production of beer, many brewmasters are formally educated with qualifications in brewing awarded by institutions such as the American Brewers Guild and the University of California at Davis. Most brewmasters, depending on the size of the brewery they are in charge of, would be expected to have anything from five to 15 years experience before becoming a brewmaster.

One commercially successful brewmaster is Garret Oliver, who oversees the Brooklyn Brewery’s range of craft beers, and is also an accomplished author having penned The Brewmaster’s Table and served as the editor-in-chief of The Oxford Companion to Beer. He started out as a brewing apprentice at the Manhattan Brewing Company in 1989 where he was eventually appointed brewmaster in 1993. He joined the Brooklyn Brewery as brewmaster in 1994.