Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Encyclopedia
The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company was established in 1980 by homebrewers
Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi.
Located in Chico, California
, Sierra Nevada Brewing is one of the top craft breweries currently operating in the United States
. Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale
is the second best-selling craft beer in the United States, behind the Boston Beer Company's Samuel Adams
Boston Lager. It is currently the sixth-largest brewing company in the United States. The brewery produced 786,000 barrels of beer in 2010.
The brewery was named "Green Business of the Year" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
in 2010 for its practices in sustainability
.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company was founded in 1979, with founders Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi expanding their homebrewing
hobby into a brewery in Chico, California. Along with the brewery's location, Grossman claims the company's name comes from his love of hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. With $50,000 in loans from friends and family, Grossman & Camusi rented a 3000 square feet (278.7 m²) warehouse and pieced together discarded dairy equipment and scrapyard metal to create their brewing equipment. They later were able to acquire second-hand copper brewing kettles from Germany before moving to their larger, current brewing facility in 1989.
The first batch brewed on premises was its Pale Ale, in November 1980. The following year the brewery introduced Celebration, an IPA
, which it continues to release as a winter seasonal. The company sold 950 barrels of beer in its first year, and double that amount in the second.
The company's first employee was Steve Harrison, who was put in charge of marketing and sales. The head brewer is Steve Dresler who has been with the brewery since 1983, when its output was 25 to 30 barrels per week.
The company distributed the beer itself in the early 1980s, struggling with financial and marketing issues. A 1982 article in the San Francisco Chronicle
highlighting the brewery, as well as having its beer sold in prominent restaurants such as Berkeley's Chez Panisse
, helped establish a market for Sierra Nevada's beer.
By 1987, the brewery was distributing to seven states and production had reached 12,000 barrels per year, causing the company to pursue building a new brewery. In 1988, the brewery moved into a 100 barrel brewhouse, with four open-barrel fermenters, and 11 68-barrel secondary fermenters. A year later, Grossman and Camusi added The Sierra Nevada Taproom and Restaurant, which serves lunch and dinner and included a giftshop. In the year 2000, the brewery opened "The Big Room," a live music venue located inside the brewery's facilities, featuring a variety of acts including country, bluegrass, folk, rock, blues and other musical genres.
Camusi retired in 1998 and sold his share in the company to Grossman.
In 2010, Sierra Nevada Brewing partnered with the Abbey of New Clairvaux
, with the monastery beginning production of Trappist
-style beers in 2011. The Abbey has not yet been sanctioned by the International Trappist Association, and therefore the monastery will not be brewing official Trappist beer
.
The brewery currently employs about 450 people.
in San Francisco and the now-defunct New Albion Brewing Company
in Sonoma
, whose owners offered Grossman and Camusi early guidance in their venture, Sierra Nevada is considered one of the earliest and most influential breweries which spawned the craft beer movement of the 1980s-90s. Grossman has been dubbed a "pioneer" by fellow craft brewers in the United States.
Whereas many of the newly-spawned microbreweries
of the 1980s went out of business, Sierra Nevada Brewing endured to become one of the largest independent brewers in the country, whose beers were noted for their "character and complexity". Grossman believed many microbrewers of the early 1980s had put out an inferior product due to lack of preparation for the financial and mechanical realities of commercial brewing, which were a "much different process" from homebrewing.
For its 30th anniversary in 2010, the company released a series of collaborative beers with the assistance of those Grossman considered an early influence on his brewing: Charlie Papazian
, Fred Eckhardt
, Fritz Maytag (Anchor) and Jack McAuliffe (New Albion).
In November 2010, Stansbury Publishing released Hops and Dreams: The Story of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, written by Rob Burton who researched the company for three years.
The company has claimed to be neutral on political issues, and reiterated this stance in 2010 when it was erroneously linked by a beer industry group to opposing the California Proposition 19
of that year, which would have legalized marijuana in the state.
The brewery is powered by solar energy, having 10,000 solar arrays covering its rooftops and parking lot. In all, the brewery uses 2.6 megawatts of solar electricity on premesis. It also has built a charging station for electric vehicles on its premesis.
The company processes used cooking oil from its restaurant for biodiesel
use in its delivery trucks. In 2009, it reached an agreement with a local ethanol company to produce high-grade ethanol
fuel from its discarded yeast. Spent grain is sold to local cattle ranchers for livestock feed; spent water is sent to the brewery's own water treatment plant, where it is reused, mainly as drip irrigation for its fields. Over 99.5% of the brewery plant's solid waste is diverted from landfill
.
Sierra Nevada is the largest buyer of organic hops in the United States. It also farms its own organic hops and barley for use in its annual Chico Estate Harvest Ale release.
Sierra's flagship Pale Ale
has been described as "a balance between aggressive hops and hearty malt flavor", with its Cascade hops offering a grapefruit aroma and fruity palate. Like several other Sierra Nevada offerings, it is bottle-conditioned. It is the best-selling American pale ale in the United States.
Sierra Nevada's Porter
, along with its heavier Stout
version, have been described by writer Michael Jackson
as "gently coffeish" and "beautifully roasty" examples of their respective styles. The two offerings have been brewed since the company's first year of operation.
Torpedo is an American India Pale Ale
and Kellerweiss is a traditional Bavarian hefeweizen. Both were introduced as nationwide offerings in 2009.
Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale has been brewed as a winter seasonal since 1981. While it has won medals under the IPA category, it has also been described as a hoppy, malty amber ale, as well as a "bigger version" of the company's pale ale.
Tumbler Brown Ale has been described as a full-bodied, malt-heavy brown ale
and is sold for the autumn months.
Glissade is a springtime Bock
beer, while Summerfest is a pilsner brewed in the Czech tradition.
Annual "Special Release" beers produced by Sierra Nevada include Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale, Hemisphere Harvest Ales and Chico Harvest Estate Ale.
Bigfoot is brewed with two types of malt and three differing hops, and tops out at 9.6%ABV
. It is a barleywine, but due to alcohol laws in the U.S. it must be marketed as a "barleywine style ale". It first won medals at the Great American Beer Festival
in 1987. It is generally released January–February of each year.
The brewery releases both a Northern and Southern Hemisphere Harvest "wet hop" ale. Introduced in 1996 as Harvest Ale, Northern Hemisphere utilizes wet (undried) hops from eastern Washington for its "fresh harvest" ale. It was the first fresh-hop ale brewed in the United States. The brewery later introduced Southern Hemisphere which features wet hops from New Zealand
.
The Chico Estate Harvest Ale is brewed with organic wet hops and barley grown in land on the brewery's premises.
Homebrewing
Homebrewing is the brewing of beer, wine, sake, mead, cider, perry and other beverages through fermentation on a small scale as a hobby for personal consumption, free distribution at social gatherings, amateur brewing competitions or other non-commercial reasons...
Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi.
Located in Chico, California
Chico, California
Chico is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States. The population was 86,187 at the 2010 census, up from 59,954 at the time of the 2000 census...
, Sierra Nevada Brewing is one of the top craft breweries currently operating in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale
Pale ale
Pale ale is a beer which uses a warm fermentation and predominantly pale malt. It is one of the world's major beer styles.The higher proportion of pale malts results in a lighter colour. The term "pale ale" was being applied around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with coke, which resulted in a...
is the second best-selling craft beer in the United States, behind the Boston Beer Company's Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams (beer)
Samuel Adams is an American brand of beer brewed by the Boston Beer Company and its associated contract brewers. The company was founded in 1984 by Jim Koch, Harry M. Rubin, and Lorenzo Lamadrid in Boston, Massachusetts, USA...
Boston Lager. It is currently the sixth-largest brewing company in the United States. The brewery produced 786,000 barrels of beer in 2010.
The brewery was named "Green Business of the Year" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
in 2010 for its practices in sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
.
History
Homebrewing
Homebrewing is the brewing of beer, wine, sake, mead, cider, perry and other beverages through fermentation on a small scale as a hobby for personal consumption, free distribution at social gatherings, amateur brewing competitions or other non-commercial reasons...
hobby into a brewery in Chico, California. Along with the brewery's location, Grossman claims the company's name comes from his love of hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. With $50,000 in loans from friends and family, Grossman & Camusi rented a 3000 square feet (278.7 m²) warehouse and pieced together discarded dairy equipment and scrapyard metal to create their brewing equipment. They later were able to acquire second-hand copper brewing kettles from Germany before moving to their larger, current brewing facility in 1989.
The first batch brewed on premises was its Pale Ale, in November 1980. The following year the brewery introduced Celebration, an IPA
India Pale Ale
India Pale Ale or IPA is a style of beer within the broader category of pale ale. It was first brewed in England in the 19th century.The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" comes from an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury newspaper published January 30, 1835...
, which it continues to release as a winter seasonal. The company sold 950 barrels of beer in its first year, and double that amount in the second.
The company's first employee was Steve Harrison, who was put in charge of marketing and sales. The head brewer is Steve Dresler who has been with the brewery since 1983, when its output was 25 to 30 barrels per week.
The company distributed the beer itself in the early 1980s, struggling with financial and marketing issues. A 1982 article in the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
highlighting the brewery, as well as having its beer sold in prominent restaurants such as Berkeley's Chez Panisse
Chez Panisse
Chez Panisse is a Berkeley, California restaurant known for using local, organic foods and credited as the inspiration for the style of cooking known as California cuisine. Well-known restauranteur, author, and food activist Alice Waters co-founded Chez Panisse in 1971 with film producer Paul...
, helped establish a market for Sierra Nevada's beer.
By 1987, the brewery was distributing to seven states and production had reached 12,000 barrels per year, causing the company to pursue building a new brewery. In 1988, the brewery moved into a 100 barrel brewhouse, with four open-barrel fermenters, and 11 68-barrel secondary fermenters. A year later, Grossman and Camusi added The Sierra Nevada Taproom and Restaurant, which serves lunch and dinner and included a giftshop. In the year 2000, the brewery opened "The Big Room," a live music venue located inside the brewery's facilities, featuring a variety of acts including country, bluegrass, folk, rock, blues and other musical genres.
Camusi retired in 1998 and sold his share in the company to Grossman.
In 2010, Sierra Nevada Brewing partnered with the Abbey of New Clairvaux
Abbey of New Clairvaux
The Abbey of New Clairvaux is a rural Trappist monastery located in Northern California in the small town of Vina in Tehama County. The farmland, once owned by Leland Stanford, grows prunes, walnuts, and grapes which the monks harvest from the orchards and vineyards to sustain the...
, with the monastery beginning production of Trappist
TRAPPIST
TRAPPIST is Belgian robotic telescope in Chile which came online in 2010, and is an acronym for TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope, so named in homage to Trappist beer produced in the Belgian region. Situated high in the Chilean mountains at La Silla Observatory, it is actually...
-style beers in 2011. The Abbey has not yet been sanctioned by the International Trappist Association, and therefore the monastery will not be brewing official Trappist beer
Trappist beer
A Trappist beer is a beer brewed by or under control of Trappist monks. There are a total of 174 Trappist monasteries worldwide ; only seven produce Trappist beer and are authorized to label their beers with the Authentic Trappist Product logo that indicates a compliance to the various rules of...
.
The brewery currently employs about 450 people.
Influence
Along with Anchor Brewing CompanyAnchor Brewing Company
Anchor Brewing Company is an American alcoholic beverage producer, operating a brewery and distillery on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, California. The brewery was founded in 1896 and was purchased by Frederick Louis Maytag III, in 1965, saving it from closure. It moved to its current location in...
in San Francisco and the now-defunct New Albion Brewing Company
New Albion Brewing Company
The New Albion Brewing Company is a defunct American brewery. Founded in 1976 by Jack McAuliffe in Sonoma, California, New Albion is acknowledged as the first United States microbrewery of the modern era...
in Sonoma
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. It was the capital of the short-lived California Republic...
, whose owners offered Grossman and Camusi early guidance in their venture, Sierra Nevada is considered one of the earliest and most influential breweries which spawned the craft beer movement of the 1980s-90s. Grossman has been dubbed a "pioneer" by fellow craft brewers in the United States.
Whereas many of the newly-spawned microbreweries
Microbrewery
A microbrewery or craft brewer is a brewery which produces a limited amount of beer, and is associated by consumers with innovation and uniqueness....
of the 1980s went out of business, Sierra Nevada Brewing endured to become one of the largest independent brewers in the country, whose beers were noted for their "character and complexity". Grossman believed many microbrewers of the early 1980s had put out an inferior product due to lack of preparation for the financial and mechanical realities of commercial brewing, which were a "much different process" from homebrewing.
For its 30th anniversary in 2010, the company released a series of collaborative beers with the assistance of those Grossman considered an early influence on his brewing: Charlie Papazian
Charlie Papazian
Charles N. "Charlie" Papazian is an American nuclear engineer who founded the Association of Brewers and the Great American Beer Festival, and wrote The Complete Joy of Home Brewing. Papazian is the current president of the Brewers Association...
, Fred Eckhardt
Fred Eckhardt
Fred Eckhardt is an American brewer, homebrewing advocate and publicist. He writes about brewed beverages—beer and sake, and wrote the 1989 book, The Essentials of Beer Style...
, Fritz Maytag (Anchor) and Jack McAuliffe (New Albion).
In November 2010, Stansbury Publishing released Hops and Dreams: The Story of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, written by Rob Burton who researched the company for three years.
The company has claimed to be neutral on political issues, and reiterated this stance in 2010 when it was erroneously linked by a beer industry group to opposing the California Proposition 19
California Proposition 19 (2010)
California Proposition 19 was a ballot initiative on the November 2, 2010 statewide ballot...
of that year, which would have legalized marijuana in the state.
Environmental Record
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company won the US Environmental Protection Agency's "Green Business of the Year" award for 2010.The brewery is powered by solar energy, having 10,000 solar arrays covering its rooftops and parking lot. In all, the brewery uses 2.6 megawatts of solar electricity on premesis. It also has built a charging station for electric vehicles on its premesis.
The company processes used cooking oil from its restaurant for biodiesel
Biodiesel
Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....
use in its delivery trucks. In 2009, it reached an agreement with a local ethanol company to produce high-grade ethanol
Ethanol
Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...
fuel from its discarded yeast. Spent grain is sold to local cattle ranchers for livestock feed; spent water is sent to the brewery's own water treatment plant, where it is reused, mainly as drip irrigation for its fields. Over 99.5% of the brewery plant's solid waste is diverted from landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
.
Sierra Nevada is the largest buyer of organic hops in the United States. It also farms its own organic hops and barley for use in its annual Chico Estate Harvest Ale release.
Sierra Nevada Classics
The brewery's year-round offerings include its Pale Ale, Porter, Stout, Torpedo 'Extra' IPA, and Kellerweis Hefeweizen.Sierra's flagship Pale Ale
Pale ale
Pale ale is a beer which uses a warm fermentation and predominantly pale malt. It is one of the world's major beer styles.The higher proportion of pale malts results in a lighter colour. The term "pale ale" was being applied around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with coke, which resulted in a...
has been described as "a balance between aggressive hops and hearty malt flavor", with its Cascade hops offering a grapefruit aroma and fruity palate. Like several other Sierra Nevada offerings, it is bottle-conditioned. It is the best-selling American pale ale in the United States.
Sierra Nevada's Porter
Porter (beer)
Porter is a dark-coloured style of beer. The history and development of stout and porter are intertwined. The name was first used in the 18th century from its popularity with the street and river porters of London. It is generally brewed with dark malts...
, along with its heavier Stout
Stout
Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery....
version, have been described by writer Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson (writer)
Michael Jackson was an English writer and journalist. He was the author of several influential books about beer and whisky.-Life:...
as "gently coffeish" and "beautifully roasty" examples of their respective styles. The two offerings have been brewed since the company's first year of operation.
Torpedo is an American India Pale Ale
India Pale Ale
India Pale Ale or IPA is a style of beer within the broader category of pale ale. It was first brewed in England in the 19th century.The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" comes from an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury newspaper published January 30, 1835...
and Kellerweiss is a traditional Bavarian hefeweizen. Both were introduced as nationwide offerings in 2009.
Seasonals
The brewery's current lineup of seasonals include Glissade Golden Bock, Summerfest pilsner, Tumbler Brown Ale, and Celebration Ale.Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale has been brewed as a winter seasonal since 1981. While it has won medals under the IPA category, it has also been described as a hoppy, malty amber ale, as well as a "bigger version" of the company's pale ale.
Tumbler Brown Ale has been described as a full-bodied, malt-heavy brown ale
Brown ale
Brown ale is a style of beer with a dark amber or brown colour. The term was first used by London brewers in the late 17th century to describe their products, such as mild ale, though the term had a rather different meaning than it does today...
and is sold for the autumn months.
Glissade is a springtime Bock
Bock
Bock is a strong lager of German origin. Several substyles exist, including maibock or helles bock, a paler, more hopped version generally made for consumption at spring festivals; doppelbock, a stronger and maltier version; and eisbock, a much stronger version made by partially freezing the beer...
beer, while Summerfest is a pilsner brewed in the Czech tradition.
Special Release
Bigfoot is brewed with two types of malt and three differing hops, and tops out at 9.6%ABV
ABV
ABV is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* Alcohol by volume, a measure of the alcohol content of alcoholic drinks* Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Nigeria, from its IATA airport code...
. It is a barleywine, but due to alcohol laws in the U.S. it must be marketed as a "barleywine style ale". It first won medals at the Great American Beer Festival
Great American Beer Festival
The Great American Beer Festival is a three-day annual event hosted by the Brewers Association, held in Denver, Colorado, in mid to late September or early October. This year, 2011, the festival runs from 29 September through 1 October. The GABF brings visitors from around the world to sample more...
in 1987. It is generally released January–February of each year.
The brewery releases both a Northern and Southern Hemisphere Harvest "wet hop" ale. Introduced in 1996 as Harvest Ale, Northern Hemisphere utilizes wet (undried) hops from eastern Washington for its "fresh harvest" ale. It was the first fresh-hop ale brewed in the United States. The brewery later introduced Southern Hemisphere which features wet hops from New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
The Chico Estate Harvest Ale is brewed with organic wet hops and barley grown in land on the brewery's premises.