Double Take -- by Mark Sproxton

It's 6 a.m. The sky begins changing colour from grey to pinky-orange and the birds are beginning to sing their morning songs. Despite the early hour, Sylvain Julien has already spent an hour focussed on nothing but beer.

Brewers Sylvain Julien, Brian Smith and Brian Lyster of Brewsters see restaurant patrons enjoying their beer daily.

Beer remains in his mind the entire day it turns out. That's nothing unusual though. Many actually believe he has the best job in the world. "I can't tell them they're wrong," says the brewery administrator for Brewsters Brewing Company at the 11th Avenue S.W. restaurant.

And after five years as a professional brewer, three with Brewsters, does Julien tire of being around beer all the time? "Some people may find this answer unusual, but it is no." The experienced brewer thoroughly enjoys the challenge of making craft beers in a restaurant.

Working for a smaller brewery, Julien and the two other brewers he shares duties with, are able to enjoy the one aspect most important to small brewers: independence. "Freedom is very important in craft brewing," Julien said.

"It starts with researching and designing a recipe and following it through each step of the brewing process. In the end, you have to evaluate the quality of the work you have done, and that involves tasting. That's the kind of freedom you will never have in a large brewery where every aspect of the process is highly specialized."

If the brewers worked for a larger, industrial-sized company, they would only be responsible for a small part of the brewing process, such as cleaning fermentation tanks, Julien said. But, by working in a restaurant, they are able to see how others react to their hard work.

"The pleasure of seeing somebody at the bar take a drink of your beer and give you a wink as you walk by, that makes the work all the more satisfying," the University of Alberta graduate said.

Like many brewers, Julien came to the field by brewing beer at home, joining a local brewing group and entering beer competitions. His interest in home brewing came as a bit of luck, though. After graduating from university with a history degree he was working on contract translating documents, but needed something else to occupy his down time.

The new hobby allowed him to develop a thorough understanding of the brewing process and learn just how crucial cleanliness is to producing beer. "In a sense, you can say the product you make is probably the harshest boss you can have," Julien said. "When it comes to fermentation, the equipment can't only be cleaned, it must also be sanitized."

Everyday the brewers spend much of their time cleaning vats, lines running from the bar taps to kegs and anything else the beer will touch. Along the way they must also spend time repairing or maintaining the various pumps, hoppers and filters used in the brewing and fermentation process. The work is heavy, hot and physically draining.

Sometimes early mornings are required as that is the only time the restaurants don't have thirsty patrons waiting to drink one of Brewsters' brews. Throughout the day the brewers are also in constant contact with the managers at the brew pub and restaurant's four locations ensuring equipment is functioning properly and supplies are on hand. Julien and his partners brew upwards of 10,000 pints a week with each batch taking three to four weeks to produce.

"It's a lot of hard work, there's no half-way," Julien said. "(But) this definitely has a number of upsides."