Sierra Nevada a source of brewing boom
“Welcome to the mother ship.” Tour guide Byron Wetsch, looking like a cross between a lumberjack and Jerry Garcia, spreads his arms wide and grins. “Let’s sit down and have a beer.” Don’t mind if I do. It’s the end of a long day for me in and around Butte County, and I’m happy to discover that when you visit the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.’s Chico headquarters, you don’t have to wait until the end of your tour to start sampling the wares.
And with local giant Sierra Nevada Brewing in town, it’s no surprise that small brewers in Chico, as well as in nearby Oroville, have been inspired.
“It’s a beer town,” says Jesse Fischer, co-owner of Secret Trail Brewing Co. in Chico. “We’re in touch with other small brewers, and we help each other learn.”
Visitors should plan to wend around to smaller breweries and taprooms in the county, each with its own vibe, not to mention some excellent craft beer. (See “Where to sip” on the next page.) But I wanted also to understand “the mother ship.”
Sitting in the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.’s visitor center with Wetsch, tipping back a smooth glass of the company’s signature pale ale, I look around at the gleaming copper kettles, the soaring ceilings, the packed parking lot out the window, and the excited-looking visitors bustling around. (There’s also a full-size stuffed Bigfoot against one wall, but more on that later.)
This is definitely a destination — a place people seek out like a foam-topped Disneyland in a glass.
It’s no ordinary brewery. Though Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman used Welch’s grape juice in his first fermentation experiment back in 1969, he eventually got it right, apparently, creating what has become a craft brew standard, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, still the company’s top seller. What started out as a home-brewing hobby has mushroomed into one of the largest breweries in the country, annually producing 1.2 million barrels (that’s 2.4 million kegs in beer-speak).
How did this Sierra Nevada end up in Chico? Partly because Grossman followed high school friends attending Chico State and, once he got here, he liked Chico’s small-town vibe jazzed up by a lively college scene.
Another reason lies much deeper — in fact, it’s underground. Chico’s main water source is the Lower Tuscan Aquifer, and Grossman liked how it could deliver the elevated mineral levels ideal for brewing the darker, stronger, and hoppier brews he had in mind.
The rest is craft brewing history. Sierra Nevada Brewing now has two locations: the one where I am in Chico and a second brewery, housed in a spectacular LEED-certified compound in Mills River, N.C., opened in 2015. Both sites don’t just produce beer, but feature always-packed restaurants, beer gardens, performance spaces and taprooms, and offer tours year-round. In other words, they are a big, big success.
“A week doesn’t go by that Ken doesn’t get offered a ginormous check for this place,” says my guide with a sweep of his beefy arm. “But he’s not selling out.”
Wetsch sees that my glass is empty and he suggests we start our tour through the brewery before sampling our next round of brews. First up is the huge bottling room, where workers scurry to fill boxes headed for parts unknown.
We head to a little chamber filled with bales of pale green hops. Wetsch has me gently crush the buds (hops are related to cannabis and hemp) by rolling them between my palms, and they release their scent — grassy and earthy, with notes of citrus and pine.
Next, Wetsch shows me where the beer-making process begins — in giant vats fitted with little windows so we can
see the mash, an oatmeal-like blend of malted barley and water, mushing around inside.
Next up is the room housing a towering pair of hulking copper-plated kettles. This is where the sieved mash liquid, called wort, gets mixed and boiled with the hops.
“One way you can adjust the bitterness and flavor of a beer is by changing when you add the hops,” notes Wetsch, who, I am happy to see, is heading back to the visitor center’s taproom. “Now we can try a few beers and taste those differences.”
We settle down and peruse our six options, which include a quartet of experimental brews — Sierra Nevada’s brewers are always on the hunt for the next big thing in beer. I start with a tasting glass of a pilsner with hints of lemongrass and herbs.
Next up is a bold double IPA, a notice-me brew with deep, fruit-forward notes. My last little glass gets filled with a malty doppelbock — its chocolate and caramel notes make a perfect finish, and I toast Wetsch and thank him for the tour.
He makes a nod toward a full-size stuffed Bigfoot against one wall.
“See that?” Wetsch says. “Ken bought it — a late-night purchase on eBay.”
I wonder what kind of guy would buy a Bigfoot, much less put it on display in a dazzling brewery visited by some 35,000 beer fans each year. Maybe it’s the same kind of guy who would build this place in a farm town in rural Northern California known for little more than the local university.
A guy who wants people to say: “Chico? Isn’t that where they make Sierra Nevada beer?”
“It’s a beer town. We’re in touch with other small brewers, and we help each other learn.” Jesse Fischer, co-owner of Secret Trail Brewing Co. in Chico