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A Career in Beer Will Make You Poor — and Happy, According to Brewmaster Garrett Oliver

"It's a story of a diverted life plan."

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Almost nobody working in the craft beer business today grew up wanting to be a craft brewer, according to Brooklyn Brewery's brewmaster and James Beard Award winner Garrett Oliver. He recently stopped by Eater's midtown Manhattan studios to chat with Eater Upsell hosts Helen Rosner and Greg Morabito. In the full interview, Oliver talks about hunting with his dad as a kid and growing up in Queens way before it was cool. He also reviews the last two decades of America's craft beer movement, and notes that everyone who gets into craft beer, even today, didn't plan for it: "It's a story of a diverted life plan... nobody in craft beer thought they were going to be a brewer. We intended for something else. And then you fall in love, but the thing you fall in love with is beer. But beer will make you poor. And then you become poor..." Oliver says those who fall into beer spend the rest of their life trying to make it work — which is a common story for many in the food and beverage business. Watch Oliver's story, above, and listen to this whole episode of the Eater Upsell here.

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