1. Clean as you go. Sounds simple but if you dirty it, clean it!
2. Make delicious beer. Above all else.
3. Early starts. The smaller the brewery, the longer the hours. On the plus side, you get to see kick ass sunrises. Who doesn’t like to see the sun rise, right?
4. Only the best ingredients will do.
5. Don’t buy foot gloves from China – they’re too small for our clown sized feet.
6. Don’t hover over an open tank with any of the following; phone, keys, biros, pens, screwdrivers, wrenches or any sort of nuts or bolts. What can fall in, will fall in.
7. Hydrometers. They break. Have spares.
8. Batteries. They run out. Have spares.
9. The taste test you set 30 minutes aside for usually takes two hours. Just sayin’.
10. Music. A constant battleground. Make sure you’re in charge and damn the nagging naysayers. Your musical tastes are absolutely friggin flawless.
11. You get A LOT of emails asking for beer labels from collectors on the other side of the world. Make somebody’s day.
12. Breweries are a combo of tedious record keeping, frustrating accounts and a lot of physical grunt work. If you’re not prepared for it, you won’t like it. If you don’t believe in it, forget it.
13. When someone says ‘Call the plumber’ it means, ‘you fix it.’
14. It’s only a matter of time until the pump gives out. Pray it’s not on brew day.
15. Temperature control will become an obsession.
16. Things will go wrong – labels, boxes, packaging, supplies, hops, malt, licences, paperwork, water, electricity, gas. Just get on with it.
17. Be yourself. It shows in your beer.
18. They’ll be a hundred and one things you could do. The only one that matters is the one you’re at. Do it right.
19. Don’t underestimate the ability of government agencies to bury you in paperwork. Their sole existence is based on you filling in forms. Fill them you will.
20. Follow your heart. Your head will follow.
21. Never compromise.
