I spend a lot of time representing the brewery at beer festivals, tastings, or beer dinners and I meet a lot of cool people that ask me great questions. The most frequent include: “Can I have your brewer’s work shirt?” “Are you hiring?” “Do you sit around and drink beer all day?”

My answers, in order: Trust me, you don’t want this shirt. I’m not sure, check the website. I wish.

The most common question I’m asked is how does one get into brewing. Below are a few of my colleague’s stories on how they got started in beer. I hope their tales will inspire you to quit your job and become a brewer. Or at least make you that much more proud to enjoy a Boulevard beer.

One of our newest brewers, Matt Hecke, was an intern with Boulevard last summer and had the following to say about his journey:

“It all started one day (probably staring out a window) at Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Missouri. I realized I had no ambition or intention of continuing my current education path, which focused on psychology, so I decided to take some risks. I moved to Oregon and attended Oregon State University the next fall. I studied Food Science and Technology with an emphasis in Fermentation for four years. During my education, I landed internships at The Pelican Pub and Brewery in Pacific City, Oregon, and Boulevard Brewing Company. The people, attitude, and culture of Boulevard stuck with me after my internship, and just a few months after I graduated, I accepted the job offer to be a brewer here at home in good old Kansas City. I'm proud to be one of the fine brewers here at Boulevard.”

Lead Brewer, Craig Pijanowski’s educational background is very similar to Matt’s, but his story is quite a bit different:

“I used to go to this bar in the small town I lived in and order Michelob or Guinness. The guys I hung out with called this “fancy beer.” One time when we came into the city for the day I tried Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and loved it. Of course I couldn’t find it when I got back home, so I started homebrewing. I made two batches of beer and then, while I was searching online to find information on how to make beer, I came across Boulevard’s website. One of the frequently asked questions back then was “How can I get a jacket that says Boulevard on it?” The answer was, “Come work for us for one year and we’ll give you a jacket.” I wrote into the FAQ’s that I would like to work for Boulevard and get a jacket. Steven Pauwels, the brewmaster, called me the next day to set up an interview. I spent the next six months commuting from Warrensburg and I never homebrewed again. That was 10 years ago.”

Cellarman Alex Rodriguez ended up being in the right place at the right time. Here’s his story:

“I got into homebrewing when I was living in Ft. Collins, Colorado, in 1998. My wife and I moved to Kansas City in 1999 when my job out there wasn't working out. I'm originally from Wichita and wanted to give KC a try since I had some family in town. In July of 2000, I walked in to Boulevard Brewing Company and filled out an application, indicating interest in either brewing or sales, knowing that either was a long shot. The production manager at the time just happened to be walking through as I was submitting the application and he interviewed my on the spot. He told me there weren’t any brewing or sales jobs open, but a production spot was available. I figured that was a start and he hired me right there. After a few months of working on the bottle and keg lines with some success, I sat down with Steven Pauwels and expressed my keen interest in becoming a brewer. He told me that he would give it some thought and that he would get back to me. Just after that, he and his family went home to Belgium for a visit. When he got back he hired me into brewing. The rest is history.”

As you can see, the beginning of our Boulevard stories are all just a bit different, but the middle, as we’re all still here, is the same. We’re a somewhat random band of brewers that feel ridiculously lucky to be here making beer for you.

- Jeremy Danner

Boulevard Brewer