As on-premise hospitality reopened more fully earlier this year, breweries were there alongside bars and restaurants struggling to hire and retain front-of-house workers. However, the labor crunch is hitting the brewhouse, too: From coast to coast, breweries say they’re having trouble hiring for open brewing jobs.
In Montana, Flathead Valley Community College’s Brewing Program receives five brewing job offers for every graduate it produces. In New Hampshire, there was a point earlier this year when as many as 12 of the state’s breweries lacked a head brewer or assistant brewer, according to C.J. Haines, director of the NH Brewers Association. The group canceled its 2021 New Hampshire Brewers Festival and Craft Brew Conference—partly, Haines says, because “I couldn’t in good conscience ask breweries to send staff that they couldn’t spare.”