Cheers to the Hard-Working Brewers on Labor Day

I often comment that there’s a lot of money in beer, and there is … for some owners. The folks who actually work in the breweries–not so much. Brewing is having its moment as a high-status job, but the work itself is blue-collar, lift-and-sweat labor. Even at small breweries, where new-recipe creation happens each week (the glamorous part), for the people who must put water to malt and make those beers, the days are long and hard. What can brewers expect to make?

According to PayScale and the American Brewers Guild, this is what you’re looking at:

• Assistant brewer. The range runs about $30-$40,000 for most breweries. If you happen to score a job brewing at a big company that makes more that 60,000 barrels, it might go as high as $60,000. Brewpub salaries might be even lower. Only half of workers have medical benefits (48%).
• Head brewer. The range runs from $35,000-47,000, and again only about half (52%) of head brewers get medical benefit

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