Role 01 · Part-time
Packaging Operative
£14 per hour 16 hours per week
Lacada Brewery is looking for a Packaging Operative. This is a hands-on job in the brewery: packaging beer and kombucha, getting finished drinks out of the tank and into cans and kegs, and getting empty kegs clean enough to fill again.
Packaging is the last point where the beer can be ruined, and the point where it most often is. By the time it reaches you the brewing is done and the beer is good. Whether it is still good when someone opens it weeks later is down to how it was packaged. We take that seriously and we need someone who will too.
What you'll be doing:
- Packaging beer and kombucha, following the written procedure for each product.
- Running canning days: setting up, checking the product is ready, dialling in fill levels, keeping the cans moving, and shutting down and cleaning the lines at the end.
- Filling kegs from tank.
- Cleaning returned kegs.
- Labelling plain cans and packing cases.
- Keeping the packaging area clean and tidy, and recording what was packaged in our system at the end of the day.
The two things that matter most:
The beer-quality points below explain why packaging standards matter. Kombucha has its own product-specific procedures, which you will also be trained to follow.
Oxygen. Oxygen is the enemy of packaged beer. A can or keg that picks up air on the way in will taste stale and papery within weeks, long after it has left the brewery and long after anyone can do anything about it. Every step of a run is built around keeping air out: purging cans and kegs with CO2 before they are filled, keeping the beer under gas the whole way from tank to seam, getting fill levels right so there is no headspace of air, and never rushing the steps that stop oxygen getting in. You will not be able to see or taste the problem on the day. It shows up at the customer. So the procedure is followed exactly, every time, whether or not anyone is watching.
Cleanliness. The other way beer is ruined is infection. Kegs, lines, fittings and seals have to be genuinely clean and sanitised, not just rinsed. That means caustic and acid in the right order with the right gear on, understanding what you are removing and why, checking with a torch rather than assuming, and never putting beer into anything you would not be happy to drink from. Beer left in a line overnight, a dirty coupler, a keg that looked fine but wasn't: each of these has cost breweries dearly.
What we're looking for:
- Someone who holds a standard when nobody is checking. Most packaging faults are invisible on the day and only appear weeks later at the customer, so the job depends on doing it right, not on being caught doing it wrong
- Someone who takes cleaning seriously and wants to understand why each step exists, not just tick it off
- Careful and consistent. A canning day is the same steps in the same order, done properly every time, and the last case of the day is packaged as well as the first
- Able to follow a written procedure and stop when something looks wrong: a low CO2 reading, a fill that is off, a keg that smells sour. Stopping and asking is always the right call
- Happy doing physical work on your feet all day, in a cold room some of the time. A case of cans is about 11 kg and you will lift a lot of them. A full keg is 40 to 60 kg. We teach safe keg handling and you never lift what you shouldn't
- Experience of assembly line or production work is desirable, but not essential. If you have done repetitive work to a standard on a line, that is exactly the rhythm of a canning day
- No brewery experience needed. Everything is written down step by step and we train you on it. What we cannot teach is caring about the standard, so that is what we are hiring for
Essential: right to work in the UK; 18 or over; able to do the physical work described above; able to read and follow a written procedure and keep a simple record
Desirable, not essential: assembly line or production work; food or drink manufacturing; forklift or pallet-truck experience; brewery experience
Pay: £14 per hour, paid monthly through payroll
Hours: part-time, 16 hours per week over two days; working days to be agreed around the packaging schedule
Holiday: paid holiday accrues on every hour you work
Start: as soon as possible
Interested in full-time work? We also need taproom staff for 16 hours per week. For someone suited to both roles, a full-time position may be available, with hours and working arrangements to be agreed. You can apply for packaging only, taproom only, or both; please tell us which interests you.
Benefits:
- Employee discount on beer
To apply: email info@lacadabrewery.com with the subject "Packaging", and your CV.