When I moved to a goat farm after the devastating Gatlinburg wildfires in late
2016, I never expected to fall in love… with craft beer. Ever since I started
working at a local brewery I have been enamored with beer and the brewing
process, so much that I started homebrewing and looking for scholarships in
brewing. Fast-forward a few years later and I have accepted a job in canning and
cellar work. This job came from a journey of volunteering, education, and most
importantly, beer.
I first started brewing at home like many others by making meads, beer and
anything else that I could ferment. I was captivated with the brewing process
instantly and felt in my gut that this is what I wanted to do for a living. I knew I
needed to go to school to learn more about brewing to build a solid foundation, as
most of my brewing came from a “feel” of brewing. As Charlie Papazian says in
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, “It is about feeling your beer and letting your
beer feel you.” While this is a great skill set in craft brewing and a priceless
education, my scientific method behind beer was lacking. I heard that Siebel
Institute of Technology was the way to learn from many professional brewers, so it
was a course from them that I focused on. I needed to take the Siebel W1 course so
I could understand the technical part of brewing, to combine my hands-on learning
with mechanical learning, and most importantly to grow in my career.
I came upon the Pink Boots Society as I was searching for a scholarship at Siebel. I
Googled “scholarship for Siebel Institute of Technology” and the Pink Boots
Society website was the first thing to pop up. I went through the site and was so
excited that I stumbled upon this group of female beer professionals. I signed up
that very day, submitted a request for volunteering and started working on my
scholarship application for the Siebel Concise Course in Brewing Technology. I
felt that it would better my chances of getting a scholarship if I volunteered for this
organization, and I was right. I learned a lot in that first year about Pink Boots and
it helped kick start my volunteer work for the following years. I went on to
volunteer at the local Biere de Femme in Asheville, North Carolina and met many
women that I had only known through email. This experience as a whole taught me
that I could be a part of something big and work hard for something I believe in.
I ended up receiving the scholarship for the Siebel online course at the beginning
of 2019 and attended over the summer. It was a whirlwind of information and I
stayed glued to my computer.
The Siebel class really helped me see the bigger picture behind brewing and answered a lot of my technical questions about brewing on a commercial system. For those of you who have not looked into the course, it is basically an overview of everything in brewing, from water chemistry to cleaning kegs, in three months. If you are planning on taking the course, I would suggest taking an organic chemistry class before taking the Siebel online class. I was fortunate enough to take a craft beer chemistry class the year before and it
really helped me digest what the Siebel course was teaching me in the organic
chemistry lectures. There were many positives of this course. I really enjoyed it
because it was online and I could work on it on my schedule and not be tied to a
class time every week. I also enjoyed the weekly discussions with the class and
instructor about that week’s topic. The instructors were awesome and there to
answer whatever question you have. One drawback for me was that since I was
still bartending, I was not able to apply what I was learning in the physical right
away. But that is why I was taking the class: to get a working knowledge of
commercial brewing in order to get a foot in the door. So, I took extensive notes
and frequently talked to professional brewers I know about whatever subject I was
learning about that week. I ended up passing the class with an “A!”
The significant thing that I learned is that I could spend my whole life learning
about beer and still never know all there is to know. That is why I love this career
and industry so much.
The Siebel Concise course in Brewing Technology has changed my life. With this
education I have been able to land a job in a brew house doing canning and cellar
work. This opportunity also allows me to grow within the company so I can
eventually brew beer commercially. I would not have gotten this job without my
certificate and for that I am very thankful to Pink Boots Society. In my journey I
was supported by women who I did not even know, I found stories that I could
relate to, I found ideas for growing my career and my beer, and most importantly, I
felt like I had found family.
Taylor Paige King resides in Eastern North Carolina with her partner Jordy and her cat Sigi. She works at Mother Earth Brewing as a packing technician and is currently planning a brew for the Pink Boots Society collaboration brew day. She volunteers with Pink Boots Society as a national and North Carolina scholarship liaison. She also attends Nash Community College full time and will complete her degree this May. In her spare time she enjoys home brewing, farming and reading.
