Brewing at Sierra Nevada
Brewing at Sierra Nevada
By John Aitchison
On Sept. 2, a bunch of us went up to Sierra Nevada Brewing in Chico to “help” brew collaboration Festbier for the 50th Anniversary Party. Why a Festbier? Of course the party on Oct. 19 will be a festivity like no other. But add in that one of the reasons Merlin Eckhart and friends started our club was to brew better German lagers. We needed one to help us celebrate our history.
Early club President, Marty Velas, contacted Sierra Nevada and they jointly came up with the recipe. Marty was president from 1980-1982. He actually knew Merlin and what he brewed. And Marty is now the owner and head brewer of Fanatic Brewing in Knoxville, TN. Fanatic is a regional brewery, with several taphouses scattered around eastern Tennessee. And he knows lagers.
Most of us stayed at the Oxford Inn, they have a shuttle bus to take people to Sierra Nevada. And of course we started drinking the night before. On brew day, we all went to Sierra Nevada, and watched them make the beer. About all we had to do is throw a few specialty grains into their grain mill. Sierra Nevada’s mill sprays their strike temperature water into the grain just before it goes through the rollers, and an auger takes it from there to the mash tun. All computer controlled. We brewed on the 10 Barrel system, they have three systems, and ours was the intermediate sized one. They double batched our beer, we actually “participated” in the milling of the 2nd batch. And we watched the tail end of the boil and the transfer of the wort though the heat exchanger before going to one of their fomenters.
Then it was time for the morning tour. We got to see how Sierra Nevada mills, mashes, ferments, and lauters their beer. And we not only had two senior Sierra Nevada brewers “help” us, but were joined by both Steve and Ken Grossman. I took some pictures, at several times I got pictures of over 100 years of brewing experience in one frame. We sent some of our best brewers there also. Our pros included Eric Bonney (Golden Road), Rives Borland (Project Barley), and Marty Velas (Fanatic Brewing). We’ll see collaboration beers from both the first two breweries on the 19th, and we’ll get Marty on a Happy Hour in early 2025.
Sierra Nevada couldn’t have been more generous. Free food at the taproom. And it was good. Free beer as well. As much as you want from the 20+ they had on tap. And after the 2nd half of the tour, more free beer. Except this was great beer from their archives. And free tasters off their bright tanks during the tour. And free dinner and more beer at a Sushi restaurant afterwards. Every beer I tasted was spot on. Not one bad one. And you all know how picky I am.
We all went home the next day. Marty flew back to Knoxville. Gavin and Jason flew back to Gavin’s airport. And the rest of drove home with great memories. More to come in a couple of weeks when we taste what we helped create.