#DeafSuccess: Paul Zeringue, Kombucha Brewer

Dec 19, 2018

[Subtitles available in English & Spanish | Subtítulos disponibles en español y inglés]

Visual description found here: https://tinyurl.com/y9y9gejt

[Begin video description. Video begins with a white male with dark hair under a brown baseball cap, brown mustache,, and white beard. seated in the center of the frame wearing a purple t-shirt printed with a white design. Design depicts a circle outline drawn in an organic shape with a fleur de lis inside followed by “-BIG EASY-“ in smaller text and “BUCHA” in larger text. More small text underneath is indistinct. He sits next to a white metal table holding a line of six kombucha drinks in glass bottles with white plastic caps. Each label is a different color, (from left to right) purple, sky blue, orange, light blue, yellow, and green, all with white labels. The drink inside the bottles are light green with the exception of one dark purple. A full color NDC logo is in the bottom right and remains there. The room he is in appears to be a large warehouse with shiny concrete floors, a white Volkswagen bay window bus with blue, green, pink, yellow, and orange psychedelic polka dots painted across the side and windows open. A white rocking chair in front of another white patio table as well as a smaller white patio chair and a brown table sits behind the male. Further in the background shows what appears to be a white counter bookended by a fridge with glass doors holding more kombucha drinks and a clothes rack holding white t-shirts with the Bucha logo in a darker color. On the counters are various items that are blurry and harder to see, possibly a sign on a small table top easel, a draft tap, a spray bottle. The man signs:

“During college, did I ever think I would end up in this type of job? No, to be honest. My goals were directed toward biology, so it’s still related.”

As he signs, he shakes his head when he says “No” and crosses his arms for a moment.

The video transitions to a still showing a closer up shot of the man smiling at the camera. He is positioned more to the right now. The colors are slightly faded out and darker and a teal border outlines the edge of the frame. In white text to the left: “paul zeringue” in bold and “head brewer” beneath.

Video comes back to the previous frame as Zeringue continues to sign:

“There was an opening here, and so I sent in my resume. The following day, they asked me to come in for an interview, so I came here and they asked why I was interested in this position. I told them I had been making beer for five years as a hobby and that I loved it. They asked me what type of beer I made and I named off the different flavors including fruit beer. Their curiosity was piqued, so I clarified further, pumpkin ale, blackberry ale, strawberry ale, blueberry ale, and apple ale. They said I would be a great fit for their company.”

As he signs, he takes a moment to think of the sign “duty” and continues:

“They then asked what was the most important, the primary duty of the job. I answered “cleanliness”; everything has to be sterilized. I was hired on the spot.”

The video divides into a split screen with Zeringue still talking on the right:

“Bucha is short for kombucha, which is fermented tea made with a bacteria called scoby.”

The left side of the screen shows a close up of several opened and closed kombucha bottles in purple, orange, light blue, and yellow labels. A set of arms with light skin reaching from bottom right corner holds on to an orange labeled bottle and brings a white cap filled with kombucha towards themselves. Another set of arms holds onto a blue labeled bottle reaching from top left. They wear a black top. Another set of arms with light skin signs something indistinct in front of the camera.

As he continues to talk, the split screen transitions to a close-up shot of the scoby in a very large vat (accessed by using a ladder) framed on top with a lid. The scoby is a white and tan bubbling foam layer that sits on top of the brown tea. Then the clip comes back to Zeringue talking in the warehouse.

Zeringue stands among rows of large vats fitted with small staircases on each one. They are metal and rimmed with a textured metal band on the bottom. Zeringue points towards one of the vats in a row and signs indistinctly as the voiceover begins again:

“When the company decided to expand, they offered me a full-time position as head brewer because they had seen me work over the previous several months.”

The video transitions during the voiceover to show Zeringue from behind, wearing the same purple shirt but this time we see “STAFF” in white across the back. He stands in a space with a black industrial shelf holding cardboard boxes and a plastic grey control box.

Next, he is wiping down a smaller vat, (about as tall as him and slightly wider), with a light blue cloth. We see he is wearing black pants with grey pinstripes.

Next, Zeringue makes his away up one of the staircases towards a large vat with his hands on the railing. The top rail holds about six black fish-style clips, three large, and three smaller and all tipped in red or orange.

Next, he is at the top of the staircase and carefully unrolling the black fabric lid covering one of the large vats. We see one of the black clips holding the fabric in place. As he lifts a bit of it off, he leans over to inspect the inside.

We come back to the setting from the beginning of the video with the bus behind him. He looks off camera towards the left as he thinks, and then signs:

“Have I always aspired to be a brewer?  No, I wanted to be a lab assistant at a veterinary hospital. That had been my goal, but I took a different path and I’m happy where I am now.”

Video fades to white with a blue parallelogram banner in the center. White text inside reads: “#deafsuccess”. “success” is in bold. The still fades out.

An animation of the NDC logo forming plays. It moves up to reveal “National Deaf Center” in larger letters and “on Postsecondary Outcomes” in smaller letters underneath. The logo moves to the right, separated by a vertical teal line, more small text appears reading: “This video was developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, OSEP #HD326D160001. However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.” Underneath, three logos appear. The first reads “IDEAs that Work” with an arrow drawing a circle from “IDEAs” to “Work” and the words “U.S. Office of Special Education Programs”. The second logo shows a red-and-blue star with text next to it that reads “TA&D”. The third logo shows a blue circle around a tree. In the blue circle are the words “U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.” End description]

Do you have questions? Email us at: [email protected]

© National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes
Video licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International

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Topic(s): #DeafSuccess
Type of Resource: Videos

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