AMHERST, Ohio – Larry Esper’s previous work experience had nothing to do with beer. But it all positioned him to open a brewery.
Esper, from Lorain County, was a welder-fitter who built everything from skyscrapers to prisons. He also poured a lot of concrete. In a later-in-life career change, he became a medical laboratory scientist – or MT, medical technologist. He worked at MetroHealth for more than a decade.
“You learn a lot about fungus and yeast, and you know a lot about chemistry,” he said, while his welding background taught him metallurgy and how to deal with pumps and pressures…