Steve Balzer
Steve Balzer is the master brewer at a microbrewery at a private club in Kona, Hawaii.
Balzer says he enjoys the independence and collaboration with local farmers that working at a microbrewery allows.
This is what his job is like, as told to freelance writer Natasha Bazika.
I'd started brewing beer when I was 21 at college in Oregon and kept doing it as a passion. After graduating from college in the 2008 economy crash, I didn't have much luck job-wise.
My degree was in marketing and economics, and while I initially had a job lined up, after graduation I was laid off before I even started, so I worked part-time jobs and brewed on the side. After four years of unstable temporary jobs, I decided to go back to college. I enrolled in Siebel Institute of Technology — out of Munich, Germany, and Chicago — for a masters of brewing.