“Every day I wake up and it’s like, ‘How did I get here?,’” Kapahi said of going from hobbyist to head brewer of a commercial brewery.

Johnson, 25, started working in the tap room of Borderlands while attending the UA’s school of film. By the time she earned her degree in 2017 she had pretty much made up her mind that she was going to make a career in beer. Mallozzi promoted her to production operations manager last May.

Saldate, 28, has a degree in family studies and human development from the UA, but working in the craft brewing industry, she said, is more fulfilling.

In addition to being a cellar worker at Borderlands for the past six months — assisting with the milling and cleaning out tanks — she works part-time as a bartender for Crooked Tooth.

“I love it,” Saldate said. “I am learning so much every day. I’m in no hurry to get to the brew deck, but one day.”

Dragoon’s Azzone started working at the brewery as a draft tech in 2013, driving to area bars that carried Dragoon on draft and cleaning out the tank lines. Over the past few years, she has done everything from packaging beer to bartending before landing in production two years ago.