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In 1979, Ken Grossman began building a small
brewery in the town of Chico, California. His goal: to brew exceptional
ales and lagers. Today, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is considered the
premier craft brewery in the United States. And the beer? Critics
proclaim it “Among the best brewed anywhere in the world.”
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Ken’s passion for brewing began when
a friend showed him the basics of home brewing.
Using homemade
equipment, Ken began brewing five-gallon batches of
beer on
his own, and soon became a proficient home brewer.
In 1976, after studying chemistry
and physics at Butte Community
College and California State University at Chico,
Ken opened
his own store, The Home Brew Shop. There, he
supplied Chico’s
home-brewing community with equipment, materials,
and advice,
but dreamed of opening his own brewery. |
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Two years later, it was time to make the dream a
reality.
Ken and co-founder Paul Camusi cobbled a brewery together
from dairy
tanks, a soft-drink bottler, and equipment salvaged from
defunct breweries.
Though the equipment was secondhand, they created a
first-rate microbrewery.
The ingredients were premium, including the copious
quantities of
hops that would become the brewery’s trademark. An avid
backpacker,
Ken named the new company for his favorite hiking
grounds—the
Sierra Nevada mountains. |
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Finally,
on November 15, 1980, the Sierra
Nevada Brewing Co. brewed the first batch of what
would
soon become a landmark in American craft brewing:
Sierra Nevada
Pale Ale.
Word spread quickly, and over the
next decade the demand
for Sierra Nevada brews soon exceeded the brewery’s
modest brewing capacity. Despite nearly constant
additions
to the brewery, Ken was soon back at the drawing
board, planning
a new brewery. In 1989, the Sierra Nevada Brewing
Co.
moved to its current site. |
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Ken traveled to Germany and brought back a traditional
100-barrel copper brew house, which became the heart of
the new
brewery. This met demand for a while, but the brewery soon
needed
to expand again. In 1997, Ken commissioned the original
coppersmiths
to match new kettles to the originals, bringing the
brewery’s
total capacity to almost eight hundred thousand barrels
per year.
Building the new brewery afforded Sierra
Nevada the opportunity
to create two stunning showcases, both featuring
exceptional dining,
live music, and its award-winning beers. The elegant
Sierra Nevada
Taproom and Restaurant has become a destination in its own
right.
With mouthwatering lunch and dinner menus, an impressive
dining
room, and a large outdoor dining patio, it offers
distinctive, contemporary
cuisine as well as an opportunity to sample the brewery’s
entire line of premium ales and lagers, including
hard-to-find specialty
drafts. The 350-seat Big Room—a beautifully designed live
music and multi-purpose room—was constructed on the west
end
of the brewery to feature live music events for all ages
and is
a perfect facility for weddings, reunions, and business
conferences.
To this day, the Sierra Nevada Brewing
Co. remains true to
its roots. Ken is still personally involved in every
aspect of brewery
operation. Most importantly, the Sierra Nevada commitment
to quality
remains the same. Premium ingredients and time-honored
brewing techniques
make Sierra Nevada ales and lagers truly exceptional
beers. |
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