Trying to convince the wife

Well, I am 48 years old, married with 2 high school aged children, and yet I would love to convince my wife to let me quit the old job and go back to school for this:

Unfortunately now is the time to figure out how to send the kids to college, not myself. But oh, how sweet that would be to get that degree and go to work for a second career in brewing. My plan right now is to retire at 55’ish. But if I could work in this field I think I would not retire.

awesome plan
maybe a idea do some online beer brew courses

Honestly, college has changed a lot since you were 18 and would have gone to college. How can you send your kids to college without seeing what it’s like first? Did you warm their bottles and then just stick it in their mouths? Hell no! You tested it first to make sure you wouldn’t harm your precious children. Why should college be any different? I say you do it. For the children.

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Dude go for it, then open your own micro-brewery. You can’t put a price on a good education. Wish I had the opportunity to do the same thing.

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like me did work as a civil engineer not happy at all with my work
so i said forget it gonna do what i like, gonna be dive instructor and travel the world
came to a tropical island. work as a scuba instructor and now brew beer

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The old Scandinavian farm boy in me wouldn’t let me take a risk like that. I applaud you.

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@flars I’ve got the same thing. I blame it on my parents. I was “rich” growing up because I had “people who love” me. Those conservative values really ruined me! :stuck_out_tongue:

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Good luck, could be a good venture into retirement. I do chuckle at the colleges who are making money off brewing science. I think most home brewers do a good job of tinkering. Yes science helps, but you can learn most of it by doing research, reading books, and tinkering on your own brews. No need for a college education to learn this stuff.

I know a couple people that have taken similar courses. You get zero hands on experience, but you do get to try lots of beer. You learn the book side of things without having to do any actual fermentation, brewing, but you do get to visit breweries.

I don’t think working in brewery earns a lot of money, but if your retired who cares about money right? I think most brewers would agree you spend 0.5% of your time on science of brewing, 5% on brewing, and 94.5% on cleaning, sanitizing, etc. :smile:

Could you “kill two birds with one stone” by starting with a part time job with a brewery? and brew on your own on the weekends (or evenings)?

Maybe the college would be willing to offer a volume discount for multiple enrollees?

Maybe I’m just a wet blanket, but I gotta think that going to school for brewing might suck. I mean, I may spend hours online reading about differences in malt varieties, and hop varieties, but if you told me I had to write a 20-page paper in MLS format with citations and sources, it would suck all the joy out of it.

Doing yeast starters for HOMEWORK?!?!

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Save the money from going to college and buy more ingredients fer brewing! Also, up the equipment too! Sneezles61

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This. For most of us, it’s a hobby after all. Besides, cleaning the mash tun from even a 5bbl brewhouse gets old pretty quick. 18 hour days, or running the brewhouse on weekends or evenings while you hold another job, scrubbing, squeegeeing, washing, mopping, sanitizing… And trying to break even. It’s not all glory!

Kudos to the folks that are passionate enough about it to put in the time to run a small microbrewery. :beer:

WOW! What a wide variety of responses on this one! I cannot do this anyway. I am a few years away from retiring as a software engineer, and I cannot just stop and go back to school. Although I think it would be fun. I fondly remember the old college days and would go back to that in a second if I could afford to.

Volunteer to work in a brewery for a while and I’m 90% sure you’ll change your mind. When you discover the job involves cleaning kegs and not brewing, you have a different perspective!

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read on line and books find out your self on how to create the perfect brew me did learn lots now i am a member of this forum . its like the work i do lots of people say damm you got a cool job i want to do this turns out filing tanks cleaning boats gas blending and do some diving in not as cool . as a hobby
but any way have fun brewing a perfect beer

I agree with @porkchop and @denny. Hobbies as jobs can get old pretty quick. Not to mention you’re not a spring chicken. I volunteered in a brewpub around here for a day and was amazed at how hard of work it is.

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With all the complaining around here about brew day cleanup I’m surprised your surprised how much work brewing is.

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I beat you by three years on retirement :grinning:

I did my college while still working and have to agree that brewing is fun but having to write a paper on it would take the fun out of it.

One of the guys at a local micro brewery called himself “head mash tun scraper”. That took some of the glamour of working there out of it.

I guess I could actually go back and take some brewing courses but I’d rather spend the time brewing. I’m not very scientific about it anyway. It still comes out beer, pretty decent beer.

OK, you need to tell me how you were able to retire so early. I have not retired yet but plan to at 55. I am 48 and you already beat me? I am mocked for my desire to retire at 55. I would love to retire as early as possible since longevity has not been there for the men in my family. I don’t want to be like my father and my brother who made so many plans for their retirement and never made it to that time. So what is your magic formula? Or was it lucky lottery or something?