| Skill | What it means | Level needed |
|---|
| Works safely around pressurized tanks, wet and slippery floors, hot wort and steam, glycol and refrigerant lines and moving conveyors, wears the PPE the task calls for, respects guarding and lockout/tagout, and shuts equipment down and gets help rather than reaching into it. | |
| Treats CO2 and nitrogen as oxygen-displacement hazards: wears and bump-tests the gas monitor before entering the cellar, and leaves and reports on an alarm instead of working through it. | |
| Follows the plant's current Good Manufacturing Practice rules every shift without being told: handwashing at entry and after every break or restroom visit, hair and beard restraints, clean outer garments, no unsecured jewelry, gum or food on the production floor, and self-reporting illness or an open wound before starting work. | |
| Hand-cleans and sanitizes the parts a CIP circuit cannot reach - hoses, tri-clamp fittings, gaskets, valves, sample ports and filler change parts - at the right chemical strength and temperature, then drains, caps and racks them so they stay clean until they are used, keeping the floors, non-product surfaces and production areas around the work clean as it goes and returning sanitation chemicals to the plant's separate, prominently labeled storage area rather than leaving them in a room where product is handled or containers are washed. | |
| Connects a CIP circuit on a brewhouse vessel, fermenter or brite tank to the plant's posted hookup sheet, with the circuit physically disconnected from any line or tank carrying product, runs the wash recipe, records chemical strength, temperature and return flow at each step, and reports the final-rinse result to the cellar lead, who releases the tank back to production. | |
| Protects tank and pipeline stainless from corrosion by using only non-chloride cleaners and stainless-safe pads, rinsing caustic and acid off completely rather than leaving them to sit, and reporting rouging, pitting or scratched welds instead of scrubbing them out. | |
| Reads the brew sheet or packaging work order before starting and works from it rather than from memory: the product and batch number, the ingredient list and quantities, the target number at each step, and the sign-offs the sheet asks for. | |
| Works the routine brewing arithmetic the batch sheet needs - specific gravity and Plato conversions, dilution to a target gravity or ABV, hop alpha-acid substitution, and tank volume - and shows the working so someone else can check it. | |
| Receives, stores and stages malt, hops, adjuncts and process chemicals against the batch sheet: checks lot number and condition on arrival, keeps each material in a clean, dry, cold or dark area as its spec requires and handles it to avoid contaminating it before use, and pulls the oldest usable lot first. | |
| Runs an assigned brewhouse step - milling, mashing, lautering, boil or knockout - to the recipe and the setup someone else prepared, watching temperature, time and level through the step and calling the brewer when a number drifts off target. | |
| Handles yeast without contaminating it or the beer: pitches the assigned yeast at the rate and point the sheet directs, harvests and stores it cold in a sanitized brink, sanitizes every port and hose it touches, and dumps spent yeast on the schedule given. | |
| Pulls a sanitary sample from each fermenting or conditioning tank on the posted round and records gravity, pH and temperature against the expected curve, reporting a stalled, fast or off-temperature tank to the cellar lead the same shift rather than at the end of the week. | |
| Moves liquid between vessels under direction: stages sanitized hoses, clamps and gaskets, purges the receiving tank with CO2, watches pressure and flow through the transfer, and records the movement on the transfer log. | |
| Clarifies product to the setup someone else prepared: doses fining agents at the point and rate the sheet directs, builds or loads the filter media, holds flow and pressure inside the stated range, watches clarity through the run, and stops and reports when differential pressure climbs. | |
| Carbonates product toward the target CO2 volumes under direction: connects the gas, holds tank pressure and temperature where the sheet says, checks the level with the plant's carbonation tester, and adjusts or reports rather than guessing. | |
| Runs an assigned station on the can, bottle or keg line - depalletizer, rinser, labeler, coder, case packer or palletizer - keeps it fed and clear, clears routine jams safely, and stops the line and calls a mechanic for anything beyond a jam. | |
| Runs the filler and the seamer or crowner to the setup given: keeps bowl covers, drip deflectors and infeed shields in place through the run, discards the first closures from each tube and any left in the chute, and pulls and empties any container that seals badly. | |
| Pulls finished packages at the posted interval and checks fill level, closure seal, label placement and code legibility against the limit card, records each result, and holds product back to the last good check when a result falls out of limit. | |
| Runs the keg line: puts returned kegs through the washer on the correct caustic, acid and sanitizer cycles and fills each to the target weight under CO2 counter-pressure, with the fill weighed, recorded and date-tagged. | |
| Handles the returnable fleet coming back from trade: unloads and stages returned kegs, casks and glass in returnable shells, inspects each keg and spear for damage, sorts out foreign and out-of-service kegs, and stores washed kegs capped and protected until they are filled. | |
| Manages glass on the line: inspects bottles before filling for chips, damage and foreign material, and on a breakage stops the line, cordons the area, clears the affected containers and cleans with the dedicated glass kit before restarting. | |
| Assists the packaging mechanic or lead through a changeover between package sizes or products: clears all prior labels, film, closures and product off the line, stages the change part kit, fits the non-seam change parts (starwheels, guide rails, fill tubes) to the setup sheet under direction, and runs a first article afterward for the mechanic or lead to check before production restarts. | |
| Completes the shift's production paperwork as the work happens rather than at the end: liquid movements, process readings, lot and code numbers and downtime, written legibly on the controlled form and handed on to where it belongs. | |
| Tastes, smells and looks at product against the reference sample at the stated points in the process, describes plainly what is different, and pulls a sample for the brewer or QA rather than deciding alone that it is fine. | |
| Keeps finished kegs, cans and bottles at the cold-storage temperature the spec requires and ships the oldest code date first, checking and logging cold-room temperature and moving anything that has warmed into the hold area. | |
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