Genesee: Made for the Trade, Volume 6

Campaign highlights variety and quality of jobs available at the state's oldest brewery

Note: This newsletter is a sponsored partnership between the Genesee Brewery and the Cleveland Prost.

Kirk Wendt started at the Genesee Brewery the same year the United States of America was celebrating its 200th birthday.

Wendt, now 64, began his career at Genny in 1976 where many new hires found themselves — he was cleaning and filling kegs. Fast forward to 2022, most of that work is automated. He now works as a brewhouse operator, noting “we don’t really have titles,” because they perform a number of different tasks. Currently, he’s operating the centrifuge, which allows brewers to clarify and filter in a more efficient manner.

“I’ve done a bunch of other things, but right now, this is what I’m doing,” Wendt offered.

Genny, the state’s oldest brewery, was founded in 1878. And Wendt has worked there for nearly a third of the brewery’s entire history. That’s the kind of institutional knowledge and pride you can’t replace.

Wendt, a brewer who has held innumerable different positions, is the latest Genny employee to be featured in the brewery’s Made for the Trade campaign.

The campaign shows the wide range of rewarding careers at the brewery. Genny employs more than 600 people and the brewing department, which numbers about 50 people, isn’t even the largest department at the expansive 28-acre St. Paul Street campus.

The digital campaign showcases careers in packaging, operations, maintenance, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, security, and so much more. It aims to show the range of careers available without a college degree, those that can be obtained through union and trade training.

More details about jobs can be found here: https://www.fifcousa.com/careers/.

Here’s a bit more about Kirk:

Q: What other roles have you had at Genesee?

A: It used to be when you started here, everybody started the same. You were back in the draft package area, filling half kegs, quarter kegs. Way back then, we didn’t have the automated filling systems. It was all done by hand. We’d use mallets to punch in the wooden bungs (into the kegs).

I ran the yeast dryer, the grain dryer. I’ve been in fermenting. I spent 30 years on the kettle. In fermenting, you’ve got numerous different jobs — wort cooler, yeast collection, tank washing. I’ve touched pretty much everything here.

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Q: How did you train for your current job — on-the-job training, college, a union apprenticeship?

A: There’s no college training for this. It’s just whatever comes down the pike. It’s job experience. As time went on and they needed somebody here or needed somebody there, you’d get moved to a different area.

Q: How much has technology changed what you do?

A: When I was the lead man on the kettle, I always said our kettle operators were craftsmen and we brewed beer. Where now, it’s all computer-driven. Thirty-five years ago, everything was done by hand, manually doing everything. Automation has changed it a lot.

Q: What’s your favorite part about working at Genesee?

A: It’s a great paycheck. Some of the old-timers, I don’t consider myself that old (laughs), a lot of the guys who left, we joke with each other, years ago you never wanted to miss a date because there was always something going on here that was exciting. Years ago, there was so much change on a day-to-day basis.

Q: What advice would you give someone hoping to work at the brewery?

A: There’s nothing you really can’t learn while working here. One of the biggest things is you need to come to work. You need to be ready to work.

Q: What’s your favorite Genesee beer?

A: Usually, I drink Light, probably 90 percent of the time. I like our traditional red eye. Stuff that we don’t have any more, years ago, I loved Michael Shea’s.

Q: What makes you the most proud about working at Genesee?

A: I think the heritage here. We’ve been around since 1878. It’s one of the mainstays of Rochester. Rochester is known for a few things — Genesee beer, Zweigle’s.

More about this partnership

Genny wants to hire you! By highlighting the wide variety of positions available at the brewery, the hope is that folks will see a college degree isn’t a necessity for a great career. Many of these union and trade positions come equipped with opportunity for learning and advancement.

Over the next three months, we’ll highlight some of the people behind the iconic beers in this space.

“We want to continue to attract people to union and skilled trades. There is a shortage of skilled workers, and the industry needs to attract more women and minorities. There are viable career opportunities for virtually anyone who wants to work in beer,” said Mary Beth Popp, vice president of communications, FIFCO USA. 

To learn more about working at the Genesee Brewery, go to: https://www.fifcousa.com/careers/