WOW! Time does fly!!

Time sure does fly… I have not made a posting to this blog in over 2 years!!  So, what the hell have I been doing??  Well… back in 2017, I lost my job that I had worked at for 17 years, just so my company could go off and buy another company.  Lived most of 2017 off my severance and unemployment and finally landed a new job in 2018.  It was a completely different industry, since the one I was previously in, well… those prospective employers considered me ‘overqualified’.  In this new job, I rose quickly through the ranks and was doing well, just to be let go again here in 2020.  

Ugh… 2020… the year the world went to crap.  A BS virus called COVID-19, which somehow has the survival rate of 98% but has put the whole world on lockdown, tyrannical authoritarian ‘mask mandates’ and small businesses across America shutting their doors forever… so finding a job has been difficult.  I have had some friends help me out with some part-time stuff and for that I am eternally grateful, but I want to work… always have.  And do not get me started on the decline of America and the corrupt political BS… just don’t!!

As such, I started to look at a new profession…. And NO it is not coding, as many people tend to tell those unemployed to learn.  In this blog of mine, I have written a few posts about breweries… and I like breweries.  I like trying new beers and talking to people about beer… meeting the brew masters, touring the grounds… stuff like that.  

WHAAAA-LA!!  BEER!  Wouldn’t it be great to get a job in beer!?  Well… I think it would be.  This led to me making the decision to learn more about the brewing process and the brewing industry.  I have always liked school, so I decided to enroll in the “Beer Brewer Professional Certificate” course offered by Virginia Tech University and the University of Richmond.  I have also become a certified Cicerone Beer Server and continuing my Cicerone beer education.  If you are asking yourself, “what the hell is Cicerone?” then you can think of it as similar to the wine world equivalent of a “Sommelier”.  If you want to learn more about the Cicerone program, you can always check it out here… https://www.cicerone.org/ .

However, even though I am learning about all the aspects of brewing as well as running a brewery, I have yet to make my own beer.  That is next.  Buying some equipment and coming up with my own recipes and brew my own beer.  Alas, that does take money and I must look at priorities at home since… well… see the end of paragraph one for a reminder. (donations accepted! 😊)

I am fortunate in doing some work at a local brewery which is helping me learn more with actual hands-on experience and some money in my pocket.  It is not actual brewing that I am doing, but the cleaning and sanitizing of tanks, brewhouse, kegs and other equipment.  Now… if you think I am just a ‘janitor’ you are very mistaken.  It does not matter if you have the world’s best ingredients and the worlds best water as well as the worlds best beer recipe… if your equipment is not thoroughly clean, that world’s greatest beer is going to taste like shit.  As I progress, I hope to be more involved in the actual brewing process, so keep your fingers crossed.

There you have it… I am moving on.  It has been tough, it’s still tough, but so is life.  I plan on trying to do more here on my blog as well.  More brewery reviews and updates… and there are a lot.  Expect updates on Ornery, Waters End, Sinistral and MORE!  So, check back from time to time and see what is going on!!

Oh yeah… a shout out to my buddy Doug for finding an error on my site… lol... and it is now fixed!