No idea how representative this path is, but here we go…
I had quit teaching and was looking for a new job. Was a keen homebrewer so I applied for a part-time job running the fledgling shop at the new premises an Edinburgh-based craft brewery had built. Got that (ngl, perhaps slightly to do with the fact I was friends with another employee there, who had a PT role there whilst doing the Heriot Watt Brewing & Distilling course), and thanks to knowing how to brew already, then moved onto managing the brewery’s pilot kit/public beer brewing facility and also started doing brewery tours (being a former science teacher helped a lot there). I sadly had to quit that job when my wife became too ill (she had cancer) and needed full-time care (thankfully her amazing workplace paid her half-wages in perpetuity, so that just covered our expenses without me earning) so I took the (self-study & exam) General Certificate in Brewing course run by the Institute for Brewing & Distilling to keep me occupied (and with a half-idea of starting up myself at one point, which is a long-term dream at best given the state of the world just now). Anyway, when my wife passed away I decided to go for a fresh start and moved back to where I grew up. The local distillery were close opening new premises not far from my house & I thought “I fancy a job there” so I took the General Certificate in Distilling course to help with that; when the job ads came out the production positions had already been filled so I went for and got a job as a tour guide instead - prior experience in an adjacent field obviously helped. Did tours, tried to be generally useful round the place as well & made it be known that I’d love to move into production if the opportunity arose, so when a production position came up at the company’s other (original) site I was offered that.
so ultimately, no specific experience other than making alcohol in the home, then slowly working my way into an aborted brewing career which thankfully translated well into a subsequent distilling career. have an astrophysics PhD and teaching background, and a lot of the skills learned there came in very useful. i have no idea if the places I work are representative, but I do get the impression breweries and distilleries look to hire from within if they can, so entry level positions are a great way of getting one’s foot in the door. I’ve probably got the most relevant alcohol industry related experience of all the company’s distilling production staff, which feels weird as I’m the most junior, but it’s definitely not the be-all and end-all - technical factory-based production and plant maintenance experience is far more useful TBH, which I don’t have, but can be learned…
TL;DR: homebrew, hovering around production staff & making one’s self useful, persistence & luck 
