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Monday, November 26, 2001


[AT WORK]


CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Brennan Fielding brewmaster at Brew Moon,



Brewmaster

Brennan Fielding adopted his dad's home
brewing kit and discovered a new career

>> Brennan Fielding: At Brew Moon Restaurant & Microbrewery, it takes me an entire day to brew a full batch of beer. But that is just the first step. Before the beer is ready for consumption, two to three weeks (depending on the style of beer) of careful nurturing follow -- monitoring temperatures, checking oxygen levels, running quality control tests, managing yeast supplies to keep them alive, filtering, carbonating, transferring, cleaning and sterilizing. All this is necessary to ensure that at the final step -- when the bartender pours your beer -- you receive the freshest, cleanest, best-tasting beer possible.

I have been brewing since the day I stumbled across my dad's home brewing equipment in my grandmother's basement in 1984. My first brewing creations were far from perfect, but they were cold and wet, and they quenched my thirst. Having worked hard to turn my favorite hobby into a rewarding career path, 17 years later I am still just as excited and passionate about what I do as I was at the outset.

A voracious appetite for reading all things "brew" helped me fine-tune my skills, and when college chemistry and physics classes suddenly made sense because of their direct application to the scientific subtleties of brewing, I knew I was onto something. Ultimately, a brewer at a large West Coast brewery encouraged me to distribute my resume, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I have brewed on Oahu and Maui, and in Japan and Australia. Earlier this year, my wife and I teamed up with two business partners to form Honolulu Brewing Co. Together, we purchased the assets of Brew Moon at Ward Centre. With part-ownership comes the freedom for me to take total creative and technical control of our brewing operation -- a brewmaster's dream.

Brewing is both a science and an art. Recipe development is a process whose creative aspect must be matched with scientific knowledge and technical expertise to ensure the final product is within the intended style and boasts the desired color, flavor and alcohol content. The history of brewing spans more than 5,000 years. Needless to say, there's a lot to learn, and I am happy to say that I feel like I learn something new every day.


At Work is a weekly feature that shows and tells what people do for a living in their own words. Send comments and submissions to: business@starbulletin.com



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