http://www.craftbeer.com/brewers_banter/is-brewing-beer-the-next-extreme-sport
I (Dayna) was an assistant brewer at Witch’s Hat Brewery in
South Lyon for over a year. (If you haven’t been there yet, please make the
trip!) I have done everything this article talks about – and while mashing in
the grain to start the brew day off is important, that is only a small percent
of the work that it takes to produce a good beer.
Many people are in awe when they hear I worked as an
assistant brewer. Even my chiropractor who asked me, “You can lift a full
keg?!” To which my response was, “only a few inches, but yeah.” (I am 5’2” and
110lb.) (Yeah, I know most ladies wouldn’t disclose that information, but I
find it amusing.)
In the industry we always joke about the fact that we are
really just glorified janitors. Everything has to be clean and sanitized to
produce the best beer possible. There is a lot of lifting of hoses and parts, a
lot of cleaning chemicals in use, and a lot of documentation of the process
each batch undergoes. I don’t know if all of this means that brewing beer is an
extreme sport, but the flip side is that beer seems to be necessary for many
extreme sports to exist. I mean, what is a marathon run if you can’t run into
the beer tent at the end?!
