Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

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Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Location Chico, CA
United States
Owner Ken Grossman (independent)
Year opened 1979
Annual production 680,000 barrels
Active Beers
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Pale ale
Sierra Nevada Porter Porter
Sierra Nevada Stout Stout
Sierra Nevada Wheat Beer American Wheat
Seasonal Beers
Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale Barley wine
Celebration Ale India pale ale
Summerfest Pale lager
Specialty Beers
Best Bitter Ale Bitter
Blonde Ale Blonde ale
Brown Ale Brown ale
Crystal Wheat Pale wheat ale
India Pale Ale India pale ale
Ruthless Weiss Beer Hefe weizen
Other Beers
20th Street Ale Pale ale
Doppelbock Doppelbock
Draught Style Pale Ale Pale ale
Extra Special Pale Ale (ESP) Pale ale
Harvest Ale Pale ale
Oktoberfest Oktoberfest
Pale Bock Helles bock
Pilsner Pilsener
Rauchbier Rauchbier

The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company was established in 1979 and began selling beers in February of 1981 by homebrewer Ken Grossman (and Paul Camusi, who retired in 1998 and sold his share in the company to Grossman). Located in Chico, California, Sierra Nevada Brewing is one of the most popular craft breweries currently operating in the United States. Their Pale Ale is world renowned, and the brewery produces about 600,000 barrels of beer per year. Their specialty brews include the winter Celebration, like the pale ale only hoppier with hints of oak and cinnamon, and Summerfest, which is citrusy and sunny. This beer is consistently rated high in BeerAdvocate.com's Top 25 list, and has been featured on many television shows, including Friends and Sex in the City. In 1989, after moving the brewery to its current location, Ken added The Sierra Nevada Taproom and Restaurant, which serves lunch and dinner. More recently the brewery opened "The Big Room", a live music venue located inside the brewery's facilities, and featuring world-class acts from country, bluegrass, folk, rock, blues and other musical genres. The facility is to be entirely fuel cell powered by 2007.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is the second best-selling craft beer brand in the United States, behind the Boston Beer Company, makers of Samuel Adams. Sierra Nevada has sponsored a professional bicycle racing team since 2001, now co-sponsored by Kodak EasyShare Gallery.

The brewmaster is Steve Dressler who has been with the brewery since 1983 when their output was 25 to 30 barrels a week. While commonly referred to as a microbrewery, their production has outgrown that label and they are more properly called a craft brewery.

Contents

[edit] Beers

[edit] Sierra Nevada Classics

[edit] Pale Ale

  • Alcohol Content: 5.6% by volume
  • Beginning Gravity: 13.0 Plato
  • Ending Gravity: 2.8 Plato
  • Bitterness Units: 37
  • Yeast: Top-fermenting Ale Yeast
  • Bittering Hops: Magnum & Perle
  • Finishing Hops: Cascade
  • Malts: Two-row Pale & Caramel

[edit] Porter

  • Alcohol Content: 5.6% by volume
  • Beginning Gravity: 14.5 Plato
  • Ending Gravity: 3.8 Plato
  • Bitterness Units: 40
  • Yeast: Top-fermenting Ale Yeast
  • Bittering Hops: Goldings
  • Finishing Hops: Willamette
  • Malts: Two-row Pale, Munich, Chocolate & Caramel

[edit] Wheat

  • Alcohol Content: 4.4% by volume
  • Beginning Gravity: 11.5 Plato
  • Ending Gravity: 2.3 Plato
  • Bitterness Units: 27
  • Yeast: Top-fermenting Ale Yeast
  • Bittering Hops: Perle
  • Finishing Hops: Spalt
  • Malts: Two-row Pale, Dextrin & Wheat

[edit] Stout

  • Alcohol Content: 5.8% by volume
  • Beginning Gravity: 16.0 Plato
  • Ending Gravity: 4.8 Plato
  • Bitterness Units: 60
  • Yeast: Top-fermenting Ale Yeast
  • Bittering Hops: Magnum
  • Finishing Hops: Cascade & Willamette
  • Malts: Two-row Pale, Munich, Caramel & Black

[edit] Seasonals

[edit] Summerfest

  • Alcohol Content: 5.0% by volume
  • Beginning Gravity: 11.8 Plato
  • Ending Gravity: 2.8 Plato
  • Bitterness Units: 32
  • Yeast: Bottom-fermenting Lager Yeast
  • Bittering Hops: Perle & Saaz
  • Finishing Hops: Saaz
  • Malts: Two-row Pale, Dextrin & Munich
Bigfoot, 2006 Edition
Enlarge
Bigfoot, 2006 Edition

[edit] Bigfoot - Barleywine Style Ale

  • Alcohol Content: 9.6% by volume
  • Beginning Gravity: 23.0 Plato
  • Ending Gravity: 6.0 Plato
  • Bitterness Units: 90
  • Yeast: Top-fermenting Ale Yeast
  • Bittering Hops: Chinook
  • Finishing Hops: Cascade & Centennnial
  • Dry Hopping: Cascade, Centennial & Chinook
  • Malts: Two-row Pale, English Caramel & Dextrin

[edit] Celebration Ale

  • Alcohol Content: 6.8% by volume
  • Beginning Gravity: 16.0 Plato
  • Ending Gravity: 4.0 Plato
  • Bitterness Units: 62
  • Yeast: Top-fermenting Ale Yeast
  • Bittering Hops: Chinook
  • Finishing Hops: Cascade & Centennnial
  • Dry Hopping: Cascade, Centennial & Chinook
  • Malts: Two-row Pale, English Caramel & Dextrin

[edit] Specialty Drafts

[edit] India Pale Ale

  • Bittering Hops: Magnum
  • Finishing Hops: Goldings
  • Dry Hopping: Goldings
  • Malts: English

[edit] Brown Ale

Now available bottled in select markets, the bottled Brown Ale is slated to be a Fall seasonal release between Summerfest (sales ending around September 1), and Celebration (sales beginning November 1).

  • Hops: Goldings

[edit] Crystal Wheat

  • Malts: 2/3 wheat malt, 1/3 barley malt

[edit] Blonde Ale

  • Hops: Perle, Styrian Goldings
  • Malts: Maris Otter English

[edit] Best Bitter Ale

[edit] Ruthless Weiss Beer

  • Unfiltered

[edit] See also

Craft beer

[edit] External links

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