Consultant or full-time head brewer?
Owners ask this as a cost question. It is really about what the brewery needs over the next year. It is also about what happens to the beer if one person walks out.
The question behind the question
Owners usually ask this as a cost question. It is really a question about what your brewery needs over the next year: someone to brew every day, someone to set things up properly or both.
A brewpub needs a person on site for every brew, every transfer, every clean and every problem in the cellar. Nobody can run a 10 hl brewhouse by phone, however good the advice on the other end. The real choice is who that person is, how experienced they are and whether a consultant stands behind them.
What a full-time head brewer gives you
A good head brewer owns the beer from grain order to the glass. They brew, schedule, run the cellar, order raw materials, train assistants and taste every batch. They notice the fermenter that is running warm and the gasket that is starting to go. That daily presence is hard to replace.
The difficulty is finding one. Experienced head brewers are not easy to find in India. Many owners hire a junior brewer instead. That works when someone more experienced has set the recipes, specifications and routines the junior brewer works within.
What a consultant gives you
A consultant brings experience from many breweries and many problems. That suits work that happens once or now and then: specifying and commissioning a brewhouse, designing core recipes, setting up a quality system, training a team, auditing yield and losses or helping a struggling site. A consultant spots a pattern quickly because they have met it elsewhere.
What a consultant does not give you is daily presence. A consultant who visits monthly cannot catch the tank that was crashed a day early. Any arrangement built on remote advice needs a competent person on the floor to act on it.
Arrangements that work
- Consultant for set-up, then a full-time brewer. The consultant commissions the kit, writes the recipes and SOPs and trains the brewer you hire. Our brewhouse commissioning checklist shows what that phase involves.
- Junior brewer with consultant support. A brewer with a few years' experience runs daily brewing. The consultant reviews the logs and numbers, visits on a schedule and handles the hard problems.
- Experienced head brewer with a periodic review. The head brewer runs everything. An outside health check once or twice a year gives a second pair of eyes on yield, quality and cost.
How to decide
- How many brews a week do you need? Several a week means a full-time brewer, without question.
- Is the kit still to be commissioned, or already running?
- Do you have written recipes, specs and SOPs, or does it all live in one brewer's head?
- Who reads the numbers: yield, losses, cost per litre?
- What happens if your brewer leaves next month?
The last question matters most. A brewery whose recipes and methods exist only in one person's memory is at that person's mercy, employee or consultant. Whatever you choose, insist that the systems are written down and that someone else on the team can follow them.
Plan the handover
Whichever route you take, plan the handover. When a consultant finishes the set-up, the brewer you hire should have brewed each core beer at least once under supervision, run a full cleaning cycle alone and know where every record lives. When a head brewer leaves, the same test applies to whoever replaces them.
Finding a replacement brewer takes time. Keep a written brew sheet for every core beer, the cleaning schedule and the supplier list in a shared folder the owner can open. That one folder is cheap insurance.
Questions to ask a consultant
Ask what they will leave behind: written recipes, SOPs, a quality system, a trained team. Ask how they will measure progress and how often they will be on site. Ask who on your team they will train to take over from them.
A good consultant aims to become less necessary over time. If the plan has no point where your own team runs things, ask why. Our guide to the first 100 days of a new brewpub shows where outside help usually earns its place.
Common questions
Can a consultant run my brewery remotely?
No. Remote advice works only when a competent brewer is on site every day to act on it.
Should a new brewpub hire its head brewer before opening?
Ideally yes, before commissioning, so they learn the kit as it goes in. A consultant can lead commissioning and train them alongside.
Is a consultant cheaper than a head brewer?
It depends how much of their time you need. Compare what each will deliver and leave behind, not the day rate against the salary alone.
