Nick Willers from Derby is not a typical 64-year-old. He runs Little Brewing Company with his son, Matt, which produces 4,500 pints a week and employs four staff.
“I’m a big believer in following your dreams,” he says, and he’s certainly put his money where his mouth is.
In 2020, three years after Willers retired from a career in aerospace, his son approached him with the news that a tiny local microbrewery had been put up for sale, and they decided to purchase and run it together.
“A lot of retirees can find themselves at sea; I wanted something to keep the brain cells going,” Willers says. “I’d done a bit of homebrewing before – I’d always been interested in beer, but I’d never considered doing it professionally.”
Shortly after Nick and Matt embarked on their journey, they were visiting a local brewery when one of the staff suggested they undertake a brewing apprenticeship.
“My initial response was that I was too old – I was 60, not 16 – but they convinced me. I didn’t realise there was no upper age limit with apprenticeships. I was a bit of an outlier in that sense,” Willers laughs, who remains the oldest student that the Nottingham-based course has had. “If nothing else, I proved it can be done.”
If you’ve always wanted to work in the beer industry but lack experience, the level 4 apprenticeship launched in 2018 by training provider Hospitality Industry Training (HIT) might be for you.
Successful applicants are taught part-time at the University of Nottingham by industry experts over the course of 18 months, while simultaneously working for one of many breweries around the country. Companies already signed up to the scheme include Heineken, Molson Coors, Hall & Woodhouse and Everards, to name a few.
“By hiring brewing apprentices, employers benefit from their enthusiasm and willingness to learn while they gain practical skills and experience directly related to the industry,” explains HIT’s Jeremy Scorer.
Interest in apprenticeships is increasing in the UK, particularly among young people. Some 59pc of young people aged 13 to 17 are considering an apprenticeship, according to Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), and there was a 62.4pc uptick in search volumes year on year.
The surge is thought to be due to the increasing amount of debt facing today’s university graduates, many of whom will never repay what they owe during their working lives.
For Nick and Matt, doing the apprenticeship proved to be one of the best decisions they made during their business venture.
“The apprenticeship has been transformational for us as a business. We wouldn’t have had the success we’ve had without it,” Willers says. “You’ve got world-class experts teaching you, plus you’re forming networks and meeting other people in the industry, which is really useful.”
He and his son paid just £30 a month each for the 18-month programme, which they were able to do part-time alongside the daily running of their business. Their tasks included writing essays and producing evidence-based portfolios of their work. At the end of the course, they were awarded the General Certificate of Brewing by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling.
Gaining a technical qualification is one of the keys to surviving in the industry as a microbrewery, according to Willers. “Brewing is a science; you need that technical underpinning to understand what you’re doing, and why something might not have worked out why you thought it would have,” he says.
Making a microbrewery a success is no easy task. The number of British breweries becoming insolvent almost doubled during 2023, according to analysis of insolvency data by audit firm Mazars. The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) found that there were 1,777 breweries in the UK at the end of March 2024, 51 fewer than at the start of 2023.
“Microbreweries are floundering left, right and centre. They’re an endangered species. It’s a relatively low capital business to enter on a small scale, but it’s hard to succeed. The quickest way to build a million-pound brewery is to start with five million quid,” Willers jokes.
Currently, he says, the market is being flooded with second-hand brewing equipment due to companies unable to continue operations.
“Lots of microbreweries have overextended themselves, taking bounceback loans with no revenue streams to repay them, treating VAT like it’s the business’s money and not being able to pay it back later. If your product’s not right, forget it, because there’s lots of competition out there,” he says.
‘I ditched my degree for an apprenticeship – now I’m head brewer’
For Felix Granell, 28, an apprenticeship proved a better career choice than his popular degree course.
Granell was part of the HIT apprenticeship scheme’s first cohort in 2018, and now works at St Austell Brewery near Bristol as a brewing manager.
He’d previously been studying a degree in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at the University of Brighton, but realised that it wasn’t for him and dropped out to do the apprenticeship, after seeing a training opportunities advert from a local brewery.
Granell says: “At university I was missing the practical working aspect that you get with apprenticeships.
“On the course, you have access to some of the best brewing minds around, people who are at the helm of some of the biggest breweries in the country. You have a big pool of expertise to pull from – the standard of learning is very high. The foundations it laid paved the way for what I’m doing now.”
Granell oversees a team of seven brewers, along with production planning and recipes. He also mentors some of the younger members of the team.
“Lots of my family were publicans, so I’ve always had a connection with pubs, beer and community,” Granell says. “The apprenticeship made a lot of sense to me. I feel very strongly about the British pub scene.
“I’ve met some of the best people in this industry, who are naturally very passionate and collaborative. If you enjoy working as a team, problem solving and the creative side of things, brewing might be for you.”
‘It’s never too late to get into brewing’
Zoe Clack, 30, is a brewing shift manager for Heineken, working in the John Smith’s brewery in Tadcaster. Despite doing a degree in politics, she led tours of the Adnam’s brewery in Suffolk during the university holidays, and always felt an affinity for the industry.
Clack leapt at the opportunity to join the apprenticeship scheme, working for Greene King while studying part-time at the University of Nottingham.
She says: “Having done both a degree and an apprenticeship, I now steer people towards the latter.”
You don’t need an advanced taste palate to work as a brewer, she explains: “You can learn that, as funny as it sounds. I don’t think I was very good at tasting before; I was taught it, so it shouldn’t hold you back – though some people can’t taste certain flavours.”
What’s the best way to get on to a brewing apprenticeship?
“An official scheme, like HIT, is probably your best route, but there’s nothing to stop you approaching local breweries and asking if it’s something they’d consider taking part in,” she says.
‘It’s not like going to the pub – you’re running a business’
Other than doing a qualification, what advice does Nick Willers of Little Brewing Company have for others wanting to run their own microbrewery?
“Do your homework – don’t look at brewing through rose-tinted glasses,” he says. “It’s not like going to the pub, you’re running a business. Spend some time in an existing brewery to understand the physical demands of the job – there’s lots of heavy lifting involved, and it’s not for everybody.
“If you’ve got the passion for it – and you need to – push hard, but be realistic. There are lots of microbreweries around, and you need to be good if you want to grow. You constantly need to innovate and bring new beers out – small pubs always want something new on the bar.”
Willers notes that competition from large brewing companies – Marston’s and Molson Coors, to name just two – make it tougher to sell lager to a pub than cask ale.
Having an appealing brand with a short and memorable name is also essential, he says. “People buy the first beer with their eyes,” he says. “You need an attractive pump clip rather than something bland and old-fashioned. We try to avoid competing on price – we focus on making a good product.
“You also need to be good with people – it’s a business where relationships with your customers are very important. Work the phones, go out and meet people and get them to try your beer. If you’re an introvert, it might not be the trade for you.”
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