I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but craft beer is a fairly complex industry. It involves energy, finance, art, chemistry, innovation, business, and intensive labor, all wrapped up in a fun package of festivals, tours, competitions, and collaborations. Sometimes it’s easy to lose the forest for the trees and get caught up in all the excitement and, well, the drinking. The less glamorous aspects of day-to-day operations are not always obvious to aspiring brewers, and in a rapidly expanding market like Boston’s, they’re especially important to acknowledge.

Admittedly, I am not immune to overlooking what’s in front of me. The 2013 Beer Bloggers Conference took place in the Park Plaza hotel last month, and I made it a point to swing by a couple satellite events; most notably at The Kinsale and Stoddards. On both occasions, I bumped into BBC attendee Joe Callender, and we chatted lightly about BrewHorn, his current pet project. I walked away thinking, “Huh. Another beer app.” Fortunately, my friend and occasional staff photographer Melissa reunited us via e-mail, telling me I should get to know Joe the Craft Beer Coach. Chalk another one up to “Careers My High School Guidance Counselor Should Have Mentioned Instead of Banker, Lawyer, and Doctor.” Naturally, I had to investigate this intriguing job title.

Melissa says you started out as a life coach. How does that position intersect with what you do now? What does being a “Craft Beer Coach” entail?

When I completed my certification in early 2012, I struggled with connecting to the student population I was trained to coach. I began to seek another way to apply the training – when it hit me that the craft beer industry is full of examples of people achieving personal fulfillment. Thus the idea to interview brewery personnel about who they are as far as skills, traits, passions, and motivations was born as the Craft Beer Coach Brewery Biography Series.

You’ve got quite a list of Brewery Biographies under your belt already. Which interview stood out for you, and why? 

The most perplexing one in the days prior to the actual interview was with Mikkel Borg Bjergsø of Mikkeller. I traveled to Copenhagen this past May, and [during] the weekend leading up to our planned Monday morning interview, it seemed Mikkel was dodging any face-to-face interaction with me. I was really perplexed by what I thought was going on.

I always ask the interviewee if he/she ever has any fear of trying something new. I’m thinking this is almost a silly question to ask someone like Mikkel, who seems to have a new beer out every week. He proceeded to reveal the golden nugget that explained our interaction over the weekend: his biggest fear in life is meeting new people. It seems almost unfathomable for someone in his role.

A significant life lesson was confirmed yet again: never assume you know what is going on with other people.

Were you surprised by anything you learned during the process? 

One detail that really sticks out to me happened [while] I was interviewing Brooks Carretta, who at the time was the brewmaster of Birreria at Eataly in New York City. He was telling me he used weeks of vacation to intern at an Italian brewery called Birra del Borgo while living in Rome with his family. In describing a typical day working in a brewery, he shared that he had no idea that his feet would be wet for 12 hours a day.

Something so simple is so revealing about what it takes to be a brewer. I think many today who have fallen in love with the romantic side of craft beer – so much so that they want to become a brewer – do not realize the amount of strength it will take. If it’s not an intrinsic passion, the physical and mental challenge will very quickly turn brewing into feeling like a chore.

I would ask them two questions: Are you willing to use up all of your vacation time to see if you truly are passionate about brewing? Will you be able to block out the feeling of your feet being wet inside rubber boots for 12 hours every day?

If the answers to Joe’s questions are yes, you just may be in business. Just don’t forget to have fun.