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Thinking back to before I knew anything about craft beer, if
someone were to ask me at that time to name a “craft beer”, I would have to say
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Chances are your
experience is similar. Whether you
started your beer drinking career on the good stuff or pounded Beast Light
throughout college, you've probably seen that green label sitting next to light
beer city, even at that lovable dive bar down the street.
Sierra Nevada has long been a solid go-to for me
personally. Whether it’s the seasonal, a
mix pack, or just a case of the Pale Ale to bring to a cookout, they seem to
really have something for every occasion.
Throw in the fact that they've managed to maintain some of the lowest
prices in the craft beer section of the grocery store, and it’s not surprising
that they continue to grow.
When I realized that my family’s California vacation was
going to take us straight up the middle of the northern part of the state, I
did some research and crafty map manipulation and found the perfect halfway
point to get out and stretch our legs.
You guessed it, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, CA. Their tours are absolutely free, you are just
requested to reserve a spot ahead of time so they know who to expect.
We showed up right on time, checked in, and the tour was
on. Our guide queued up a video on the
history of the brewery, then returned with something to kick us off—a sample of
the Pale Ale. We got the quintessential
run-down of beer brewing process, finished our samples, then off to the tour.
We first stopped in at the mill and mash tun. First let me say that I have been on a lot of
brewery tours. I’ve seen a lot of tanks,
but I’ve never a brewery of this magnitude.
They brew 200 BBL at a time.
That’s 400 kegs’ worth of beer at once, or 6,200 gallons. Just let that sink in for a second. Especially if you’re a homebrewer doing
somewhere between 1/6 and 1/2 BBL at a time.
Even thinking of a typical microbrewery setup of somewhere between 3 and
40 BBL, this is impressive.
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Anyway, back to the tour.
After the mash room (because, yes these things are all in separate
rooms), we came into the brewhouse (or at least one of them). They've got a series of massive kettles in
here, and the floor is basically built up close to the top. The room itself is really cool with sculpted
murals depicting the entire brewing process from harvest to celebration. The kettles are also covered with copper
(even though they’re stainless steel) as a tribute to one of the original large
scale systems the brewery brought over from Germany.
From here we continued on to my favorite part—the hop
room. Yes, they have a hop room, and yes
it’s amazing. It’s a giant walk-in
cooler with buckets and bails of hops.
Sierra Nevada only uses whole leaf hops, so they were everywhere. We were encouraged to go ahead and grab a
handful, rub them together and get a nice whiff of those alpha acids left on
our hands. I certainly wasn't shy about this,
and even though I washed my hands multiple times, they still smelled like hops
the next day (and in no way is that depressing).
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After they dragged me out of the cooler, we went on over
this catwalk into the bottling line. The
catwalk was cool because it exhibited the loads of solar panels they've got on
their roof. Sierra Nevada has actually
made renewable energy a large focus in their brewery. Between the solar panels and the hydrogen
fuel cells, they manage to keep external energy usage and cost remarkably low,
sometimes even selling energy from the panels back to the power companies. Additionally, they repurpose the tremendous
volume of CO2 given off by fermentation (in the 800 BBL fermentors, no less)
for use in carbonating the finished beer.
Not only is it pretty cool stuff, but it has to significantly cut
operating costs for the facility that runs all day, every day.
When the tour itself was finished, it was time for a guided
tasting of a bunch of their beers. In
addition to the Pale Ale that was provided to initiate
the tour, we were treated to 7 samples.
They started us with the Kellerweis, a light and fruity hefeweizen. From there we tasted the Ovila Tripel, which
was a collaboration brew with a local monastery that was looking to raise some
money. Seriously, they got to brew with
monks! Next was the Old Chico Brand ESB,
a fitting transition between the sweeter, Belgian style into hop land. The final four were a barrage of hops,
starting with the Flipside Red IPA, and an old Favorite, Torpedo Extra
IPA. To finish up, we got to sample two
of the Beer Camp collaboration beers, the Electric Ray IPL and the West Coast
Double IPA. It was interesting to get
some “tasting tips” during the group sample time and really experience all that
these beers had to offer.
Sierra Nevada is the second largest craft brewery in the
country. At their brewery in Chico they
produce just a shade under 1,000,000 BBL per year. The brewery they just recently opened in
Mills River, NC has the ability to match that production. At this point, the expansion was driven by
the fact that the Chico brewery had to brew around the clock to keep up with
demand. Mills River will alleviate s
ome
of that pressure (and allow the brewers to get some sleep), but will undoubtedly
be pushed to its limit one day in the not-so-distant future.
While that sheer quantity of beer is dizzying, what is
really impressive is the commitment to quality over all of those batches. After all, the “big three” of the American
breweries have been pumping out larger volumes than that for decades. But the attention to detail, quality of
ingredients, and consistency from batch to batch that is required to make
something as tasty as, say Torpedo IPA is staggering, especially from a simple
homebrewer’s perspective.
The Brewer’s Association has limited “craft brewers” to 6
million BBL per year. Though they aren’t
quite there, Sierra Nevada and some of the other big boys will inevitably be
close to this mark sooner rather than later.
It will be very interesting to see how the craft beer world evolves as
it continues to expand. We certainly
can’t rescind craft brewer status just because of total production volume,
especially if quality of the product is maintained. Exciting times ahead!
To say that Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is a great place
to visit would be a dramatic understatement.
Not only can you get the free tour and tasting, but afterward you can
head over to the pub to grab a bite and maybe another pint! It’s got a great atmosphere and from what I
could tell, great food. I haven’t had a
chance to visit the Mills River location, but I would wager that it too would
provide an awesome experience. If you’re
even remotely close to the area and have a few hours to spare, I’d say take the
pilgrimage to one of the great pioneers of the craft brewing world.
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