Head Brewer

Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Employment type: Full-time, permanent, salaried, non-exempt

Reports to: Head of Brewing Operations

Direct reports: One staff brewer, with shared day-to-day leadership of cellar and packaging personnel

About the Role

Cinderlands Beer Co. is seeking a hands-on Head Brewer to lead the daily operation of our production brewery from wort production through fermentation, cellaring, finishing, and handoff to packaging. As a company, we will produce 6,000 bbls of beer and other beverage this year, with about 3,500 of that coming from our Strip District location's 15 bbl brewhouse under the Head Brewer's scope.

Our brewing team has won five gold and one bronze medal across World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival competitions. Industry publications including Craft Beer & Brewing and Brewing Industry Guide look to us as leading thinkers and practitioners among modern breweries. Most importantly, our partnerships with non-profit organizations such as the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium, and Variety - the Children's Charity anchor our connection to the community and the broader purpose of our hospitality-driven brewery.

This is a working leadership position. The Head Brewer will brew and cellar alongside the team while organizing daily work, coordinating tanks and materials, maintaining quality and safety standards, and developing the people around them.

The right candidate will enjoy making excellent beer, solving practical problems, and building an operation that is clean, organized, reliable, and continuously improving. This is a strong opportunity for an experienced brewer or cellar leader ready to take on meaningful management responsibility without stepping away from hands-on production.

What You’ll Do

Lead Daily Production

• Turn the approved weekly production plan into a clear and achievable daily schedule.
• Coordinate brewing, yeast management, fermentation, dry hopping, cellaring, centrifugation, brite tanks, and packaging handoffs.
• Direct daily work while remaining actively involved in brewing and cellaring.
• Anticipate tank, staffing, ingredient, maintenance, and scheduling constraints before they create delays.
• Communicate production priorities, changes, and risks clearly across the brewery.

Maintain Quality and Consistency

• Ensure beers are produced according to approved recipes, processes, specifications, and sensory standards.
• Conduct production-data and sensory checks before beer is released to packaging.
• Maintain and improve practical SOPs for brewing, cellaring, sanitation, and equipment operation.
• Support recipe execution, limited-release development, and ongoing improvements to established brands in partnership with the Head of Brewing Operations.
• Maintain accurate production records in Ekos and other approved systems.

Manage Ingredients, Inventory, and Equipment

• Purchase routine ingredients, chemicals, process aids, and production supplies within approved parameters.
• Use Ekos to anticipate material needs, create purchase orders, and maintain inventory accuracy.
• Participate in monthly physical inventory counts and investigate meaningful discrepancies.
• Maintain the preventive-maintenance schedule and coordinate routine troubleshooting and repairs.
• Escalate major equipment, quality, purchasing, or production concerns promptly.

Lead and Develop the Team

• Set clear daily and weekly expectations.
• Train and cross-train employees across brewing, cellaring, yeast management, centrifugation, sanitation, and related production work.
• Provide regular, direct, and constructive feedback.
• Conduct performance reviews in partnership with the Head of Brewing Operations.
• Build a respectful and accountable team culture where safety, quality, and operational concerns can be raised openly.

Protect Safety and Facility Standards

• Make employee, consumer, and guest safety the first consideration in production decisions.
• Reinforce proper PPE, chemical-handling, lockout/tagout, ladder, forklift, and other applicable safety practices.
• Maintain exceptionally high standards for cleanliness, sanitation, organization, and documentation.
• Ensure the brewery presents as a professional food-manufacturing facility, including areas visible to customers and guests.

What Success Looks Like

A successful Head Brewer will:

• Deliver production plans with fewer avoidable delays, surprises, and product shortages.
• Improve coordination between brewing, cellaring, packaging, sales, and front-of-house teams.
• Maintain accurate records, inventory, purchasing, and production communication.
• Build a more capable and flexible team through training and cross-training.
• Strengthen quality, sensory, maintenance, sanitation, and safety practices.
• Identify practical improvements in areas such as yield, tank utilization, material loss, labor efficiency, schedule reliability, and downtime.
• Give the Head of Brewing Operations dependable visibility without requiring constant involvement in daily execution.

Experience and Qualifications

Strong candidates will have:

• At least three years of professional brewery-production experience with meaningful brewing and cellaring responsibility.
• Experience leading shifts, organizing work, training employees, or coordinating production activities.
• Strong practical knowledge of fermentation, yeast management, dry hopping, clarification, centrifugation, carbonation, finishing, and brite-tank management.
• Strong sanitation, documentation, and production-recordkeeping practices.
• Mechanical aptitude and comfort troubleshooting brewery equipment.
• The ability to remain organized, communicative, and constructive when schedules change or production pressure increases.
• Sound judgment about which problems to solve independently and which to escalate.

Helpful additional experience includes:

• Previous supervisory or management responsibility.
• Experience using Ekos or another brewery ERP system.
• Formal brewing, fermentation-science, food-science, engineering, or manufacturing education.
• Experience developing SOPs, preventive-maintenance programs, production KPIs, or process-improvement projects.
• HACCP, GMP, OSHA, lockout/tagout, forklift, or comparable safety training.

A specific degree is not required. Relevant professional experience may substitute for formal education.

Schedule and Physical Requirements

This is a full-time, on-site brewery position generally scheduled during weekday production hours. Reasonable flexibility is required for early starts, late finishes, occasional weekend work, maintenance events, and urgent production issues.

The role requires extended periods of standing and walking; working around hot surfaces, steam, pressurized vessels, wet floors, noise, chemicals, and refrigerated spaces; climbing stairs and ladders; and lifting ingredients, hoses, fittings, or equipment weighing up to approximately 55 pounds. Reasonable accommodations will be provided for qualified individuals with disabilities.

Compensation and Benefits

• Annual salary of $52,000–$58,000, based on relevant experience and readiness to assume the role.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance, with three current UPMC plan options.
• Two weeks of paid vacation and one additional unpaid week.
• One additional paid vacation day per year of tenure, up to five additional days.
• Employee beer, food, and merch benefits.
• Professional-development opportunities, brewing-education support, and occasional travel opportunities for industry events, collaborations, festivals, and hop selection.

How to Apply

Submit a resume and cover letter explaining why this role interests you. We are especially interested in examples of how you have:

• Improved a production schedule or workflow.
• Trained or developed another employee.
• Handled a difficult supervisory conversation.
• Solved a recurring quality, sanitation, or equipment problem.
• Built a system that made an operation safer, cleaner, more consistent, or more reliable.

Candidates do not need to meet every preferred qualification to apply.

Cinderlands Beer Co. is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.