Most Bizarre Student Jobs

12rmh18
Fri, 01 Feb 2013 20:09:56 +0000

When I was 20 yrs old, I spent part of the summer between my junior & senior year of college working in the bottling cellar (Flaschenkeller) of a German brewery. I sorted bottles according to size & color as they passed along a conveyor belt to be sterilized & re-used. Every Friday, production in the factory shut down for routine maintenance: machinery was dissembled, cleaned & lubricated; as part of the lower-paid worker corps, I helped sterilize the floors with diluted hydrochloric acid. During breaks, I would go to the cafeteria, which had all-you-can-drink beer dispensers, & drink … hot chocolate. :eek:

The most dramatic event while I was at the brewery was when a conveyor belt transporting the finished cases of beer to street level jammed. I watched 2-3 pallets, each containing 72 cases of beer, collide. Over 5,000 bottles of German beer toppled and shattered everywhere. Oh, the tragedy.