Writing job descriptions for every role in a brewpub

Why a brewpub needs them more than a restaurant

In a restaurant, the line between kitchen and floor is clear. In a brewpub, a cellar job can fall between the brewer, the bartender and the manager. Then nobody does it. A keg line left uncleaned for six weeks is usually a job description problem, not a lazy staff problem.

A good job description answers four questions: what this person is responsible for, which numbers they own, who they report to and what they must never do. Keep each to one page. Nobody reads three.

The roles most brewpubs need

A typical brewpub with a 500 to 1,000 litre brewhouse and 100 to 150 covers needs these roles, though small sites combine some:

• Head brewer: recipes, brewing, fermentation, quality and excise records for production.
• Assistant brewer or cellar person: cleaning, transfers, kegging and brew day support.
• Taproom or general manager: floor, rosters, cash, licences on display and guest experience.
• Bartenders: pouring, line cleaning duties, beer knowledge and responsible service.
• Servers: orders, table service and selling the beer list.
• Head chef and kitchen team: menu, food cost, hygiene and food safety records.
• Housekeeping and dishwash: glassware, cleaning and waste.

Write one for each role even if one person holds two of them. It shows you what you are asking of them. It also makes the split easy later, when the business grows and the assistant brewer who also runs the cold room needs a colleague.

Put numbers in every description

Vague duties get vague work. Replace "maintain beer quality" with something a person can check:

• Head brewer: beer served within its style spec, dissolved oxygen and gravity logged for every batch, brew sheet complete the same day.
• Bartender: draught lines cleaned every 14 days, beer served at 2 to 4 °C, glasses beer clean.
• Kitchen: fridges at 5 °C or below, logged twice a day.
• Manager: daily cash reconciled, rosters published a week ahead.

These numbers become the backbone of your performance reviews later. Without them, a review turns into opinions.

Draw the lines between brewery and bar

Most brewpub friction happens where the brewery meets the bar. Decide in writing who owns each of these:

• Changing kegs and cleaning lines.
• Gas cylinders: ordering, changing and checking for leaks.
• The cold room temperature log.
• Telling guests when a beer is about to run out.

Our usual split: the brewer owns everything up to the serving tank or keg coupler, the bar owns everything from the coupler to the glass. Line cleaning sits with the bar but is checked by the brewer. Write it down once and the arguments stop.

Spell out reporting lines and hours

Every description needs a line that says who this person reports to and who reports to them. In a small brewpub the head brewer and the taproom manager often both report to the founder. That works until a bartender gets two different instructions about a keg change in one evening. Decide who has the final word on the floor during service. In most brewpubs it is the manager, with the brewer deciding anything about the beer itself.

State the working pattern honestly. Brewers start early on brew days, often at 6 or 7 am, because a 500 litre brew takes eight to ten hours from mash in to cleaned kit. Bar and floor staff work evenings and weekends, with the longest shifts on Friday and Saturday nights. Kitchen teams split shifts around lunch and dinner. Putting this in the description stops people taking a job they cannot sustain.

Add the skills you need on day one and the ones you will train. A bartender who has never poured draught can learn it in a week. One who will not ask for ID cannot be trained out of that. Say which is which in the description, so interviews test the attitude and induction teaches the skill.

Include what the role must never do

Each description needs a short safety and compliance section. A bartender must never enter a fermenter or confined space. A server must never serve someone under the legal drinking age, which differs by state. A cellar person must never open a pressurised tank or handle caustic without eye protection. A head brewer must never skip an excise register entry.

These lines protect people. They protect your licence too.

Use them to hire, then keep them alive

Build your job advert from the description, pull interview questions from the numbers and use the never section in induction. Review every description once a year, or when a role changes. A brewpub that adds a canning line or a second outlet has new jobs inside old titles.

Structuring a team around the work, with clear ownership and measurable standards, is one of the hardest parts of running a brewpub. Our guide to writing a staff handbook picks up where job descriptions stop.

Your first step: write the bartender description tonight, including the line cleaning number. Show it to the team tomorrow.

Common questions

How long should a brewpub job description be?

One page. It should cover responsibilities, the numbers the person owns, who they report to and what they must never do.

Who should clean draught lines in a brewpub, brewers or bar staff?

Many brewpubs give line cleaning to the bar with the brewer checking it. What matters is writing it down so it is done every 14 days.

Do small brewpubs need separate job descriptions if one person does two roles?

Yes. Writing both shows the full load on that person and makes it easy to split the role when you grow.