Originally Published 8 April 2019
My name is Roberto Oliveira, I’m Brazilian, and I arrived in Dublin in early 2019 to enjoy the Irish lifestyle and improve my English skills (I’m studying at ATC language school). I’m a Web Applications Developer with ten years of experience developing and leading developer teams in some companies in São Paulo, Brazil. At the same time, I developed a Metallica cover band called The Four Horsemen and I graduated as a Beer Sommelier, which pushed by my passion for craft beers.
In 2004, I tasted the first craft beer of my life and I discovered that beer could be so much more than I ever imagined. I had a lot of interest in the history of beers and the styles (German, English, Belgian, and American styles). I found in São Paulo one the most important sommelier courses from Brazil, at ICB, Brazilian Beer Institute.
Along with being a Beer Sommelier, I homebrew my own beer. The first beer I ever brewed was a blonde ale called Bianca, after my wife. She is an important person that always pushed me to pursue my passion for beers. She gave me a homebrew course as a birthday gift in 2015 – I decided to make my first beer in her honour (this is the reason I chose a blonde ale style). I had some good luck in my first brew: it had a great taste with a good malt flavour!
The more I learn about beers, some of the concepts and preferred styles of my homebrew change. Making beer is like cooking: you never make it just for you; it is always to share with friends and the people that you love. But my future goals would be to have my own brewpub – I would love to make a good beer with a low price trying to attract more people to discover what beer truly is.
Metallica is also one of my greatest passions in life. We created the cover band The Four Horsemen as a way to express this passion and revive the Metallica characteristics, concerts, and energy from the 80s and 90s.
As part of this band, I do vocals and play base guitar. We’ve had many fantastic experiences at our live performances – in one of them, we did a tribute to Cliff Burton, the awesome base guitar from the first important Metallica formation who died in 1986. When we performed Orion (written by him), we could see many people crying during the performance out of a crowd of almost eight thousand people. It was amazing.
After I moved to Dublin, the band stopped for the first time in fifteen years, but I have a dream with this exchange project here in Dublin: to do a tour. And this dream will become a reality on the 20th of July 2019 in Fibbers. It will be our first performing in Irish soil. We’re really looking forward to it!
I do see many similarities between my time as a home brewer & musician and my current job. Both need much planning and strategy to make a good beer and to do a successful tour, like you need to build a system or application. These experiences have been a benefit to my technological career. Firstly, they clean my mind and revitalise my interest in the research and study that is highly required in my IT career. Beer and music are also a medicine for the soul; if you have good mental health, you can go above and beyond in any career.
I truly believe there is always more than tech. Technology is such an important tool to make people life’s easier. Technology is knowledge, and knowledge is the most incredible things to share because it helps to build a better world and is a good way to improve your own skills. A good way to learn is teaching, and when you do this, you spread goodness, and the world needs more and more good actions. We can help share this through our passions too. Beer and music can provide you some pleasure that any human being deserves to experiment and to live. It doesn’t matter what age or what your target is – just try them and start somewhere.
You can see more about The Four Horsemen, including some of their concert videos, through their Facebook page:
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