Diary of a Brewer: Preface

Less than a week ago I sat my very last exam at the University of St. Andrews. An exam whose simple title of 'Stars' was anything but appropriate to describe the complexity of the course content. since I received no communication from the university to arrange a re-sit I can only assume that the marks were of passing quality and I must now only wait until the graduation ceremony on the 20th of June to receive my BSc in Astrophysics.

Naturally one would assume that once gaining such a degree that I would seek work in a relevant industry. For some reason everyone thinks I want to work at NASA or CERN, or that I will pursue a Masters degree. Yet to everyone's surprise (including my own to a certain degree) I applied for a job at BrewDog, a Scottish brewery located 118 miles north of Edinburgh in Fraserburgh Scotland. This decision may seem strange for someone who has just finished my degree, but my interest in beer and its production is not a new fascination.

In the summer in-between my second and third year of university I became interested in beer production and so had a friend of mine (Pete McKale) order me a home brewing kit through his paypal, for which he was reimbursed. At first I started like nearly every home brewer does and made several brews using kits of pre-mashed ingredients that simply needed to be diluted with water and pitched with yeast. Needless to say the results were anything but amazing. These kits often contain ingredients of questionable quality and the yeast is almost never fresh; tending  to produce brews that are very light in colour and flavour. I carried on in this manner for several months until I received a phone call from another friend (Susan McCulloch) in December of 2010 who told me a pub in town that had recently closed down needed some help with renovation before they reopened. I spent nearly every waking moment helping get the pub ready to open over the course of 3 weeks and at the end I was offered my first bar shift as a thank you on New Years Eve 2010. The pub was 'Aikmans' where I have work 2 shifts a week ever since. A pub that specialised in German and Belgian beers as well as the owners love for real ale. Through this job I became more and more familiar with the techniques of beer production. So during the summer of 2011 I researched how to brew using a method called extract brewing, this is where the cereal grains are ordered pre-kilned and I would prepare the mash myself using a combination of cereal grains, malt extract and actual hop cones. I ordered 140 litres worth of brewing tanks and started production of beer on a bigger and better scale.

It was once I reached this stage that I truly became fascinated with brewing. While researching this method of production it amazed me how many variables there were when it came to beer production and how much control (or sometimes lack of control) you can have on the taste of the final product. I continued on in this manner until the spring of 2012 when I heard about a brewery opening near St. Andrews by a local beer enthusiast named Bob Phaff. The Saint Andrews Brewing Company  opened in January of 2012 and Bob has turned his passion for beers into business based in Glenrothes with plans to move the brewery to St Andrews sometime in the near future. When I heard about the opening of a brewery I sent Bob an email asking him if he needed any help. And so in early April I spent a few days with Bob brewing and bottling a few thousand beers at his brewery. At this point I was hooked.

After my visit to the St Andrews Brewing Company I searched frantically on-line for brewing positions and saw a job offering for an Assistant Brewer on BrewDogs website. And 36 hours after my second application I received an email inviting me for a trial week and interview. I asked Jenny to search the Internet and find me a beer brewing textbook and she managed to find me 'Brewing Science and Practice' a book considered in the industry to be the bible of brewing and I began my learning. Yesterday Jenny drove me to Fraserburgh where I stopped in the brewery and had a very nice chat with the head brewer Stewart Bowman and arranged all details for today's starting shift. My plan is to document this week in diary form for anyones interest and my own pleasure.

And so here I am, writing from Fraserburgh about to start my first shift at BrewDog in less than 2 hours. Less than a week after finishing my degree, and taking a job in a seemingly unrelated field I could not be happier