There was the “glamorous” side of brewing you could geek out over. Then there were the more mundane brewery tasks, such as spraying little bits of grain towards the drains. Brewery floors are never slanted correctly towards the drains. Maybe in some spots they are, but there are always areas where water, grain, and whatever solids you’re trying to clean up tend to flow back towards a wall or a tricky-to-reach spot in between the feet of the tanks and not towards the drain at all.
You catch yourself spending an absurd amount of time at the end of the day making the floor look clear of the spent grain kernels. Then you come back after you’ve done everything else, ready to clock out, and see more kernels, have to spray some more. Drives you nuts.
You can be efficient as fuck, flying around crushing a brew day, everything in spec and not a minute spent extra—but then you invariably waste all this time at the end, standing holding a water hose aimed at the floor, your face probably contorted from the effort and concentration it takes to get this one fucking grain piece to go out of sight. And squeegees in breweries as a rule never work—until you ascend to the point when you can purchase the squeegee yourself, and then you might stand a chance of a clean floor in a decent timeframe.
Words + Photo by Charlie Cummings