Nine Out of Ten Ain’t Bad: Life as a BBF Brewery Apprentice

The spring sunshine is cutting the Bristol clouds and belting down in BS3. Out in the brewery yard, the air hums with the sound of lager malt rattling through steel pipes, heading from silo to mill like it’s late for last orders. It’s loud, it’s warm, and it smells faintly of the beer you’ll be drinking in a few weeks’ time.

In short: it’s a good day to talk beer.

With two brewing apprentices - both, confusingly, called Lewis - closing in on their one-year milestone, we grabbed one off the floor (Lewis H, for clarity’s sake) to find out what life’s really like at the coalface.

“Life’s great,” he says, with the easy shrug of someone who’s found their lane. “Yeah, no complaints.”

Pints to Possibilities

Lewis didn’t grow up dreaming of mash tuns and fermentation curves. Like a lot of beer lovers, he started on the other side of the bar, pulling pints at the BBF Tap Room, soaking up the scene.

“Someone suggested it,” he says. “And I thought, I like beer.. why not? A year in, I absolutely love it. I have found my place. Only real challenge is living in Bristol on an apprenticeship wage.”

Now BBF choose to pay above national apprenticeship wage, but let’s not sugar-coat it - it’s not funding a lavish lifestyle. But after 12 months, both apprentices bump up to national minimum wage and once qualified, proper entry level brewing wage.

The apprenticeship lasts 19 months, which means Lewis will qualify in January 2027. After this point, he wants to stay on at BBF, saving up to fund some travel and ultimately try his hand at brewing down under.

So, What Does an apprentice Brewer Actually Do?

“About 80% of brewing is cleaning,” Lewis says. “Cleaning tanks. Cleaning casks. Cleaning floors. Cleaning the canning machine. Cleaning anything that even thinks about touching beer.”

The rest?

• Packaging: Our beers are brewed in 5,000-20,000 litre tanks (that's 8,800 - 32,500 pint to you or I). Once ready, every drop needs to be transferred into keg, cask or can so we can get it out to indie venues, pub gardens and kitchen tables across the city.
• Lab work: This is the geeky bit where we check gravities, run gluten tests, make sure everything’s behaving as it should and learn how to adjust when it isn’t. 
• Brewing: The dream part is when you get to design your perfect beer for the season and then create it using the freshest ingredients from the finest suppliers. Bring it on.

“Brewing is a mix of graft and using your head. I’m thinking about scientific stuff I haven’t touched in years. It’s teamwork and at times, quite solitary,” Lewis says. This balance seems to be exactly what keeps people hooked.

First Brews & Friendly Fights

Lewis and his fellow apprentice (yes, the other Lewis) have already had a crack at recipe design. Their debut was Second Nature, a 5.5% West Coast IPA.

“It was decent,” he says, with the understated confidence of someone who knows they’ll do even better next time. Round two is already brewing - at least in theory. The problem is one Lewis wants something juicy and sunshine-ready and the other is leaning towards an amber.

“It’s a fight,” he grins. “The other Lewis will probably win.”

Lessons from Nottingham (and Beyond)

Part of the apprenticeship takes Lewis out of Bristol and up to Nottingham for training days. Think big lecture halls, brewing experts, and deep dives into everything from malt chemistry to cleaning protocols.

“It’s less hands-on,” he says, “but you learn the fundamentals. The why behind everything.”

It’s also a chance to meet other apprentices all figuring it out together. One thing that’s surprised Lewis is just how tight-knit and genuinely supportive the brewing world is.

“It’s not something I realised before,” he says. “But everyone’s just… sound.”

Brewers swap advice, share knowledge, and look out for each other. He tells the story of a fellow apprentice whose brewery shut down mid-course. Within a month, other trainees had helped him land a new job. In an industry that could easily tip into competition and ego, that sense of community hits different.

One Brew at a Time

If you’re reading this in a Bristol pub, pint in hand, wondering if you could swap bar stools for brew decks - Lewis has a pretty clear answer.

“Do it. You’ll learn loads, work hard, find your team and get to make beer.”

So, if you spot a guy in the BBF Tap Room wearing brewing gear with 70’s inspired sunglasses and a mop of curly hair poking out from under his cap, there’s a decent chance it’s Lewis.

Give him a cheers. He’s probably cleaned the tank your pint came from.

Brewing is for everyone

Team BBF is committed to our city. But there is a long way to go in terms of tackling youth unemployment and securing greater representation in the brewing sector. That’s why we pledge to work with BREWED TO GIVE partners, to target our entry-level opportunities at young people who:

• are aged 18-30 years old;
• are underrepresented within brewing i.e. those who identify as women or non-binary, people who identify as LGBTQA+ and people of the Global Majority; and
• experience other challenges, such as young carers, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, those who struggled in mainstream education etc

If all of this sounds like a bit of you, open the door and step on in. It’s going to be one wild ride. Keep your eyes peeled on our Jobs page or drop your CV into your nearest BBF venue.