T.O.Out of curiosity how did you get into this field and any insight on somebody trying to go into it?
Just a guess, but I'd say start with reading. A lot of reading. Beer brewing has so much to be said about it you could spend days reading about history and technique and methods and such and never reread the same piece of information. Get to know the subject well.
Next I'd say you should do some homebrews. Maybe some easy kits at first then start further and further up the chain of ingredients (ex malting your own grain) until you really get a handle of what brewing beer is about. Experimenting would be a next logical step, it will increase your knowledge so much more once you've made a lot of mistakes and finally made a decent brew from your own recipe.
After that I dunno. Maybe find a job as an assistant at a small brewery where you can have a good mentor and get some good hands on experience at a brewery scale. Or at least some weekend volunteering or something. I'm sure after that you'll have met enough people to know the right contacts to get a more involved job.
Just a guess though.