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Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Tours & Tastings

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Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Tours & Tastings - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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Sierra Nevada Brewery Tour

You would probably be hard-pressed to find someone who likes beer less than I do. Despite not being a beer drinker, I truly enjoyed the “Beyond the Pale” tour that gives guests a behind-the-scenes look at the Sierra Nevada Craft Brewery in Mills River, N.C.

Our visit to the Sierra Nevada property was part of a long weekend trip we recently took to Asheville, N.C.

The 90-minute tour begins with a video telling the story of Ken Grossman, who created the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and founded what has now become a global brand. 

It was fascinating to hear about the obstacles he overcame to launch the company. For example, he welded together spare parts from an old dairy farm to create one of the first incarnations of the brewery.

From there, we walked the halls where the hops are stored and had the chance to touch, smell, and hold these key ingredients in our hands.

We heard about the intricate process that makes great beer as we peered into the quality control lab, watched as the ingredients spun inside the copper kettles used as part of the process, and looked inside the packing area.

We finished in the tasting room and had the opportunity to sample 8 different kinds of beer. 

Craft beer aficionados (like my husband) will love this tour. As for me, I enjoyed learning about the science involved in making the beer. As a marketer in my professional life, I appreciated the storytelling, branding, and experiential marketing on display throughout the tour and the property. And, I always enjoy a new place to practice my photography skills.

The metallic and glass surfaces of the brewing equipment posed a challenge, as did the limited amount of time available to set up for shots. I minimized reflections by shooting without a flash and finding creative angles. I was also selective in the shots I took to avoid holding up the tour or missing out on some of the experience.

To sign up for your tour, visit this site .

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Beyond the Pale: The Story of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Grossman pays proper respect to Fritz Maytag  and the first new craft brewery, New Albion, for showing him that while continuing down his early path working at bike shops and nearly owning one would’ve been safer, “the thought of brewing beer for my livelihood was much more appealing that fixing flats.” Demonstrating how novel this concept was when Sierra Nevada made its first sale in 1981, readers learn that there were only five other craft breweries at the time. Ten by the following year. Instead of the 84-categories-strong competition that the Great American Beer Festival is today, in ’82, when the second annual GABF introduced a popular vote, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale came in first (and its porter took silver). Likewise, we see how patient and supportive his wife, Katie, was, while she managed the homebrew shop they actually owned while raising their first baby, Sierra, as Ken and founding partner Paul Camusi nurtured their other baby.

The stories of Grossman’s personal and professional brewingare told as if he’s speaking to an interviewer on the other side of his desk. It’s not as convivial as spinning yarns to someone next to him on a stool at the Chico brewery’s pub, though he does save some good asides for each chapter’s endnotes. In discussing making arrangements to sell the brewery (relax/spoiler alert: He doesn’t sell), he dubbed the plan Project Ocean because the sale would enable him to retire to the coast and go diving. Come the endnote, Ken remarks on his love of free diving, “One nice benefit of diving is that it’s hard for your mind to wander back to thoughts of work. … It also helps that no one has yet figured out how to make a cell phone that works under water.” Having said that, the book is meatier than Twitter tweets (another thing the Internet would’ve been useful for in the early days when they were trying to introduce their full-flavored beer).

Over all, Beyond the Pale slants more toward business parable than beer geek banter about Cascade hops. Yes, it’s about that storied Pale Ale, but there’s nary a mention of Torpedo or Hoptimum.

This book outlines Sierra Nevada’s against-all-odds ascent from its initial 10-barrel brewhouse in the early 1980s to surpassing 100,000 barrels in annual sales by the end of the 1990s (and the bitter battle along the way to buy out Camusi and his family members who were initial investors), to the company’s inexorable march to the million-barrel mark that it will soon reach. If you’re interested in picking up tips about the business side of the beer business, this is chock-full of them. If you’re looking to emulate Grossman’s success, note that he candidly comments, “In truth, I haven’t slept that well for the past 30 years.”

From our archives: Read a 2008 column by Ken Grossman

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Beyond The Pale – The Story of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

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Beyond The Pale Ale: Get To Know Sierra Nevada

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In November 1980, Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi, two Northern California homebrewing enthusiasts who had recently launched a brewery called Sierra Nevada, came out with a pale ale that was unabashedly citrusy and bitter. They called it, simply, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and released it in the spring of 1981.

It was their Chico-based brewery's second commercial offering — the first had been a stout — but it ended up becoming first among American-made pale ales, a standard bearer and a bellwether for the English-devised style in the States.

The pale ale still accounts for nearly half of the output of Sierra Nevada, which has grown since its 1980 launch to be the second- or third-biggest craft brewery by volume, depending on whose definition of "craft" you use. The brewery now has a vastly expanded headquarters in Chico and an East Coast brewery in Mills River, North Carolina. Grossman remains in charge — he bought out an increasingly disinterested Camusi nearly 20 years ago — and Steve Dresler has been the head brewer since 1985.

Sierra Nevada's repertoire has ballooned, of course, well beyond that pale ale and stout. The brewery produced more than 200 different beers in 2015, including eight year-round releases and numerous seasonals. We've vetted nine beers to ease you into your own discovery of this multifaceted brewing juggernaut.

Citrusy sweet and pleasantly bitter, Sierra Nevada Pale is an all-events, all-seasons beer, a true classic. It was also one of the first beers to popularize the Cascade hop, which itself was the first American-grown hop used to provide aroma in commercial beer. Previously only European varieties got the aromatic honor, American ones relegated to the more utilitarian bittering phase of brewing. The Pale Ale is a manageable 5.6 percent alcohol by volume.

This spin on the classic English style is velvety rich all the way through, with strong hints of coffee and dark chocolate. It also has a nice, dry finish and is pleasantly hoppy (stouts are supposed to be all about the malts). At nearly 6 percent ABV, it's perfect for warming up during the cooler months.

A roastier version of the brewery's stout (in our opinion), it's a bit lusher and sweeter, too. It's also got an ABV similar to the stout's, and the same sort of dry finish. A good introduction to another English-born style and one that's not too heavy on the palate, nor the stomach.

Nooner Pilsner

Crisp, clear, clean, refreshing in its lack of adornment, the Nooner is the Sierra Nevada selection for people who just want a straight-ahead beer. At 5.2 percent ABV, it's positively sessionable.

Torpedo Extra IPA

For those who want to graduate from the Pale Ale to something even juicier and hoppier, there's Sierra Nevada's ex-officio double India pale ale . The brewery says this offering was the first to feature Sierra Nevada's "Hop Torpedo," a device designed to impart plenty of hop aroma without a lot of the bitterness that hops can bring. The result is that rare thing in West Coast IPAs: a well-balanced hop bomb. It's 7.2 percent ABV, so tread carefully.

Kellerweiss

This cloudy wheat beer is lemony smooth and a perfect accoutrement to the warmer spring days ahead. Sierra Nevada makes it in open fermenters, which are exactly what they sound like and which likely impart a complexity the beer would not otherwise achieve. The Kellerweiss is also unfiltered — hence the cloudiness. And at just under 5 percent ABV, it, too, is sessionable.

Celebration

You may still be able to find bottles of this winter seasonal on the shelves. If so, buy it and let it age until next winter. The extra time will only bring out more of the textured sweetness that's offset nicely at the finish with a hoppy crispness. Celebration is always a nice alternative to all those super-spicy, somewhat syrupy holiday beers. Nearly 7 percent ABV.

Bigfoot Barleywine-Style Ale

This is another seasonal you can age. Sierra Nevada's contribution to perhaps the most stonking strong of all beer styles seems (to us) to vary from year to year. The last one we had was from 2014, and it had a sort of burnt-brown-sugar aroma and a lot of hoppy spiciness up front and on the finish. An eminently sippable beer, even at around 9.5 percent ABV (or maybe because of it).

Like the Nooner, Sierra Nevada's summer seasonal is a crisp, clean, refreshing pilsner. Summerfest is spicier, though, and has a sweet finish that's thankfully dry. A lot of summer beers tend to be needlessly busy affairs when simple is what's wanted amid the heat. An even 5 percent ABV.

Sierra Nevada's contribution to the It style of 2015 , this gose is dosed with pear cactus and grapefruit, and both help it achieve an unusual balance between sweet and sour. And we tasted only a touch of salt, a hallmark ingredient in the gose style. Finally, the ABV is just 4.5 percent, making Otra Vez (Spanish for "again") the least alcoholic of the bunch.

Tom Acitelli is the author of   The Audacity of Hops: The History of America's Craft Beer Revolution  and the new fine-wine history  American Wine: A Coming-of-Age Story .

An Ode to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

It’s the beer that built this current movement—an American twist on an established style that pushed the boundary of hops. And almost forty years after its debut, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale remains both beloved and timeless.

John Holl Jul 2, 2018 - 6 min read

Argue if you like, but no other beer brewed in this country, in the modern age, has had more of a positive impact on both the industry and the way consumers have come to embrace the aroma and flavor of hops than Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s Pale Ale.

It’s immediately recognizable, thanks to its distinctive green label announcing “purest ingredients” and “finest quality” and the 12-ounce heritage bottle with the quality-seal cap (use bottle opener). But it’s the concoction of ingredients inside that brings people back again and again and helped grow a once-small brewing operation into a globally recognized brand.

When Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi opened Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California, in 1980, the first beer they made was a stout. Sierra Pale came along shortly after but took almost a dozen tries to get the recipe dialed in to their liking. In his book Beyond the Pale: The Story of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. , Grossman says the pair spent a lot of time “trying to decide exactly what flavor and aroma profile our flagship beer should have. We knew we needed to create our own style of beer that would stand out as being unique and distinctive.”

It came from testing a number of hops varietals, different malt bills, and even trying several different yeast strains. The recipe today remains faithful to the original with some slight tweaks along the way, but it is wonderfully complex for a relatively simple 5.6 percent ABV, brewed with 2-row pale and caramel malts and Magnum and Perle as bittering hops and Cascade (an American marvel in its own right) as the finishing hops.

Today, where bitterness is a badge of honor, Sierra Pale set the foundation of what was to come. Sierra Pale clocks in at 38 IBUs, a number that might seem impossibly low to some of today’s drinkers. But remember, this was created in an age where there were only a handful of microbrewers, and the beer that ruled the land (not unlike today) was the American lager that mostly used hops as a token ingredient. Budweiser has 7 IBUs.

“Even today, I remember how hoppy and bracingly bitter it was,” says Mitch Steele, the brewmaster at New Realm Brewing (for more about New Realm Brewing, see “The Frequent Flyer" ) who spent a decade at Stone Brewing Co., another California brewery known for pushing the hops envelope. He first visited Sierra Nevada while he was a student at the brewing program at the University of California at Davis.

“They had open-top dairy tanks fermenting beer, [former Sierra Nevada Brewmaster] Steve Dressler was walking around this Frankensteined-together system, and it was just the coolest thing. I bought a mixed case of pale, stout, and porter and just fell in love with everything that small brewing could be.”

“[Sierra Pale] is a lovely, balanced and great, great beer,” says Dan Kenary, the cofounder of Harpoon Brewery. “It was my go-to when I couldn’t get Harpoon IPA. For a lot of my generation of American beer drinkers, Sierra Pale was a recognition that we could do this and make great American beer. When this beer came onto the market, it was an antidote to what we could get in the 1970s and early 1980s.”

Even though Sierra Nevada started out small, its positive reputation grew quickly. Kenary says that when his brewery, founded in 1986, was assembling their flagship IPA, a beer rooted in the British tradition but with an American influence, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale served as an inspiration.

“Sierra Pale awoke a spirit in people, and we knew what beer should be,” says Kenary. “This beer introduced hops to the American palate, and there’s a reason that it still has a cult following: it’s still great to drink.”

The cult following is what brings tens of thousands of people to the brewery’s doors each year. The brewery in Chico, California, is a mecca for many brewers and fans who want to walk through the brewery and experience in person where the beer that launched their love for craft is made.

As large and impressive as the brewery in Chico is, it pales (no pun intended) in comparison to the brewery’s second location in Mills River, North Carolina, which opened in 2012. The sprawling brewing complex has been dubbed “Malt Disney World” by fans, but most employees refer to it as “the House that Pale Built.”

Sierra Nevada now brews more than 1 million barrels of beer annually, and Pale Ale is the clear best seller. It paved the way for hoppier beers such as Torpedo Extra IPA and has served as the base for a line extension, Sidecar, brewed with oranges.

Still, for every new beer that Sierra Nevada releases with an experimental hops or special ingredients, it’s the reliability, familiarity, and just downright refreshing nature of Pale Ale that keeps even the most forward-moving of craft drinkers coming back again and again for pint after pint.

John Holl is the author of Drink Beer, Think Beer: Getting to the Bottom of Every Pint , and has worked for both Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® and All About Beer Magazine.

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USA TODAY 10Best

Go behind the stills on the 10 best brewery tours in the country

Best Brewery Tour (2024) March 8, 2024

The only thing better than sipping a pint of your favorite brew is getting a behind-the-scenes look at where it's made. To determine which breweries offer the best tour experiences, we asked a panel of beer experts to nominate their top brewery tours across the country. Then, our readers voted for their favorites. Here are the 10 best brewery tours in the United States.

No. 10: Samuel Adams - Boston, Massachusetts

Samuel Adams has long been a giant in the Boston beer scene, and visitors are invited to learn more about the history of the company and its famous Boston lager during 45-minute tours of the brewery. Other themed tours focus on cheese pairings and research and development.

No. 9: Stone Brewing - Escondido, California and Richmond, Virginia

San Diego's king of craft beer offers public tours of its Escondido, California, and Richmond, Virginia, production facilities. Beer experts lead visitors through the brewing facility and packaging hall while offering insight into the science of brewing and craft beer culture. Tours end with a tasting and include a souvenir glass.

No. 8: New Belgium Brewing Company - Fort Collins, Colorado & Asheville, North Carolina

Visitors to the New Belgium facilities in both Fort Collins and Asheville are in for a treat. Tours that last 90 minutes include beer sampling as well as stories of the brewery's history and a look at the facilities. After the tour, guests are invited to enjoy beers in the tasting room or grab a bite to eat from a rotating list of visiting food trucks. Free 45-minute Tour Teasers are also available, which include a tour of the Brewhouse and one beer sample.

No. 7: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. - Chico, California and Mills River, North Carolina

Sierra Nevada beer fans have the opportunity to tour brewing facilities in either North Carolina or California. During each 45- to 60-minute interactive tour, visitors trace the process from grain to bottle. Smell whole-cone hops, sample sugary wort, and finish with a guided tasting of Sierra Nevada beers. Beer Geek, Beyond the Pale, and other tours go further in depth.

No. 6: Bell's Brewery - Comstock, Michigan

Bell’s Brewery, one of the oldest craft breweries east of Colorado, started out with a 15-gallon soup pot in 1985. Today, visitors can tour the facilities at both the Comstock and Kalamazoo locations to learn more about the processes of brewing, fermentation, and packaging. Tours include complimentary samples.

No. 5: Spoetzl Brewery - Shiner, Texas

Spoetzl Brewery, the pride of Shiner, Texas, dates back to the early 1900s. Those who take the 45-minute brewery tour will be introduced to the history of Spoetzl, learn about the impact its success has had on the town of Shiner, and have the opportunity to witness the brewing process up close. Tour packages start at $25 per person over 21 years old and include complimentary pours of Shiner beer. 

No. 4: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery - Milton, Delaware

The first-come, first-served $5 tours of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery offer a laid-back journey through the working brewhouse for a chance to watch the magic happen. For beer lovers, Off-Centered tours go into the brewhouse, rackhouse, and R&D system, with stops for tastings along the way.

No. 3: Burial Beer Co. Forestry Camp - Asheville, North Carolina

Burial Beer Co. gives its tour-takers the chance to bring along a guest for free, if they're the designated driver. Of course, they won't get the free samples that everyone else does, but they will get the lowdown on the Asheville brewing scene and the history of Burial during this 1-hour experience. 

No. 2: Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. - Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

Visitors to this Chippewa Falls brewery have a few options for tours. The hour-long Legacy Tour covers the 150-plus-year history of Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co., with a stroll through the modern facilities and a visit to the Leinie Lodge. Or spend 90 minutes on a tour with the master brewer, 30 minutes exploring the Leinie Lodge Pilot Brewery, or 90 minutes learning about the history of the brewery and Chippewa Falls.

No. 1: Tröegs Independent Brewing - Hershey, Pennsylvania

Visitors to Hershey can enjoy a 1-hour guided production tour at Tröegs Independent Brewing. The experience includes a behind-the-scenes look at the mill room, hop cooler, brewhouse deck, fermentation cellars, and packaging lines. A welcome beer kicks off the exploration and three more samples are included.

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Dennis Malcolm Byron aka Ale Sharpton is a world-renowned beer authority, award-winning journalist, blogger ( AleSharpton.com ), photographer, event planner, host, speaker and beer judge to name a few of his roles. While passionately traveling the globe to cover everything from automobiles to culinary scenes, celebrity profiles, sports, hotel destinations, art, and what he terms “the world’s best beverage,” Ale has contributed to more than 30 magazines and websites combined. His current media outlets include USAToday , Thrillist.com , Craft Beer & Brewing , CraftBeer.com , Theinfatuation.com , ButterATL.com , James Beard Foundation , Atlanta Magazine , and others. Along with being featured in various publications, on the web, radio, podcasts, television, beer fests, conferences, and ongoing Cruisin’ For A Brewsin’ video series, Ale utilizes his Cornell University School of Hotel Administration education and vast work experience to consult in the culinary industry as well. Forbes , Smithsonian Institution, UNTAPPD, Good Beer Hunting , and numerous others have showcased Ale’s accomplishments. In a collaboration going on six years with brewing giant New Belgium, Ale has produced a beer he conceptualized called Piano Keys—a chocolate vanilla imperial stout—geared to support diversity and racial equality. This project with New Belgium also spawned his initiative, BrewGether , which raises funds to support nonprofits embracing the same mission as Piano Keys.  Ale proudly owns AllWays Open Creative Solutions, an agency specializing in creative direction, logo design, branding, web design, video production, photography, consulting, and social media. Although a native New Yorker, Ale proudly calls Atlanta his home. Follow Ale’s globetrotting adventures on his captivating Instagram ( @realalesharpton ).

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Dr. Mike Arra is the CBO (Chief Beer Officer) and logistics guru of Bon Beer Voyage , an award-winning beer tour company for Belgian and Craft Beer Enthusiasts. Bon Beer Voyage was created by Mike and his wife, Ruth Berman, as the beer geek’s answer to wine snob tours- without the snob part.  They offer higher quality, small group, gourmet beer vacations (Beercations) both in the US and abroad; providing their guests with one-of-kind-experiences, sightseeing, great food, brewery insider visits and beer tastings. Mike is the head beer instructor for Bon Beer Voyage’s virtual and in-person beer tasting classes, sharing tastings and pairings with beer lovers from all over the world. Designer of the coveted Beercation app brewery and bar maps that are shared with Bon Beer Voyage’s Beercation guests,  he also serves as the beer guide for their Beercation beer hunting sessions. 

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Beyond the Pale Ale: Sierra Nevada

• By Colleen Henry
• January 17, 2023
• No Comments

Beyond the Pale Ale: Sierra Nevada Takes its Shot at Beyond Beer

No longer a catchy buzzword, beyond beer is the future of the industry and Sierra Nevada knows this better than most. Always at the forefront of innovation – Sierra’s sparkling, non-alcoholic hop water, Hop Splash, is killing it at retail – the people behind the top-selling IPA Hazy Little Thing are committed to doubling their share of  the great beyond over the next five years.

Everything we do at Sierra Nevada is rooted in consumer behaviors and insights,” says Sierra’s Brand Director Kyle Ingram. “We see drinkers migrating. It’s not that they don’t like beer anymore, but they’re interested in trying new things and expanding their repertoire. These customers are younger, more diverse, 50/50 male & female… and they’re always looking for something new.”

Armed with a solid understanding of what millennial and Gen Z consumers want, Sierra’s CFO Paul Janicki announced that the company is committed to doubling the size of their beyond beer portfolio in five years. To achieve this goal, the brewery is making major investments, including a new 85,000 square-foot “Can Do Innovation Center” production facility that’s already under construction.

But don’t let that five-year timeline confuse you. Sierra Nevada already makes beyond-beer products that are major hits with consumers. Sierra entered the category some time ago with the hard kombucha Strainge Beast , which continues to grow and evolve as a brand. And recently, the company was among the first to launch a non-alcoholic sparkling hop water – the highly successful Hop Splash .

The story behind Hop Splash demonstrates just how forward-thinking Sierra’s brewers really are. As you might expect, the talented people responsible for making beers like Torpedo Extra IPA and Big Little Thing not only understand how to use hops, they also happen to like the way they taste. Looking for something non-alcoholic to drink while on the job, Sierra Nevada brewmasters developed the recipe for what became Hop Splash, which debuted nationally last fall.

Commenting on the success of Hop Splash, Ingram explains, “We knew it was a product we could make well and have instant credibility with, given our reputation for hops.” To keep the momentum going, Ingram said that Sierra is spending heavily behind the brand. Look for the release of new flavors this year.

Ingram went on to say that this is just the beginning for Sierra’s non-alc portfolio. “Drinkers are embracing the idea of moderation as a means of improving mental, physical and financial health. We’re currently in development of many new and exciting alcoholic beverages that meet those requirements.  But he added, True to Sierra Nevada’s ethos of quality and innovation, the company isn’t just focused on ‘what’s not in it,’ but rather ‘what non-alc products can enable our consumers to do.”

As you can see, instead of playing catch-up to changing trends, Sierra Nevada is leading the way with a stellar portfolio of innovative beyond-beer offerings. Always on top of their game, the company understands that successful products offer solutions that meet the changing tastes of today’s consumers. In fact, based on the success of Hop Water and Strainge Beast, they are already doing just that.

Beyond Beer the Sierra Nevada Way

As you might expect, a brewery with two top-five best-selling craft beers (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale & Hazy Little Thing), Sierra Nevada knows how to build brands that last. The brewery’s beyond beer offerings are created and marketed based on the same rigorous research behind the success of the company’s many award-winning beers, so they might just be the next big thing.

STRAINGE BEAST

Already boasting a high conversion rate once consumers try the liquid, next year’s priorities for the brand lie in flavor innovation and capitalizing on the growing canned cocktail trend. A Strainge Beast Mimosa line extension will be available in the spring. This new “fermented cocktail” is slow crafted through a more natural process than other RTDs, producing alcohol through fermentation for big flavor and wild effervescence.

Hop Splash’s launch has exceeded expectations. Sierra Nevada’s new zero alcohol, zero calorie sparkling water infused with Citra and Amarillo hops for refreshing notes of peach, mango and grapefruit already has 100 points of distribution in Philadelphia, and it will be a major focus in 2023 with a new program called “Enter the Splash Zone.” Sierra Nevada brewer Isaiah Mangold says, “If you’re a beer drinker, and you want something that scratches the itch a little bit, this does for sure.”

About Kramer Beverage  

Kramer Beverage is South Jersey’s largest award-winning beer wholesaler, owned and operated by four generations of the Kramer family since 1924. Based out of Hammonton, Atlantic County, and services eight counties in southern New Jersey with top brands from MolsonCoors, Constellation, Yuengling, Boston Beer, Heineken USA, Pabst, Diageo, FIFCO, and more. Kramer Beverage also distributes a wide variety of craft beers, from suppliers such as New Belgium and Sierra Nevada, to local favorites including Flying Fish, Double Nickel, Evil Genius, Glasstown , MudHen and 2SP. For more information on Kramer Beverage, please visit www.kramerbev.com .

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Beyond the Pale and Shores of America

Sierra nevada's role in the uk and europe, episode 102.

Founded in 1980, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co . is arguably one of America’s premier craft breweries.  Renowned for exclusively using whole-cone hops, Sierra Nevada has set the standard for artisan brewers worldwide with beers like Tropedio, Big Foot and their West Coast style Stout.

But it’s the modern classic, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale that thrust the brewery into the consciousness of consumers and has since long endured in the hearts of beer drinkers across the globe.

I’m convinced that many, if not most, in the brewing industry can trace their journey back at least in part to that first time they discovered that golden amber coloured ale, boasting all 38 of its International Bitterness Units (or IBUs) and Cascade hops: qualities which, now in 2021, seem merely casual next to the extremities of juicy, hazy NEIPAs or pithy, resinous West Coast IPAs.

The beer that inspired founder Ken Grossman, of course, was Fuller’s ESB : a brewery that itself is predominantly known for its own flagship brand, London Pride.

There’s something poetic that the journey of Sierra Nevada has gone full circle, very much in the same way The Beatles and The Beach Boys played creative ping-pong over the Atlantic, ramping up the volume on 60’s pysedelida with each record.

Yet, it would be wrong to simply discard Pale Ale or even the Sierra Nevada brand as Yesterday’s Brews, earning the ‘Been there, drunk that’ Untappd badge.

Over 40 years on Sierra Nevada still retains allegiance from both faithful fans or the newbie to craft beer who is discovering Pale Ale for the first time with a sense of reverence and awe…  and rightly so!

Who hasn’t stood at a shelf or at the bar and – despite all the other exciting beers you’ve never tried and may never even get to – reached for a bottle or uttered the words ‘I’ll have a pint of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, please?’.

Recently, the Beer O’Clock Show – a long running podcast – ran an exclusive episode featuring the much-sought-after Ken Grossman.  If you haven’t listened to that episode, I’d encourage you to go listen to that first, before this one.  Steve and Martin did a cracking job of interviewing Ken and dissecting what everyone loves about those beers in such a fantastic way.

In this particular episode, though, we explore the brand through the eyes of Iain Newell : the European Managing Director for Sierra Nevada.

We take a deep dive into the world of exporting beer from the USA into other territories, how and why Sierra Nevada – a 100% family owned, operated, and argued over – brewery based in both Chico and now Mills River, North Carolina – resonates with drinkers as far flung as Russia; and we explore the newly launched Cascade Club – a Direct to Drinker and Business to Business e-commerce platform, and what that means for both consumers and those in retail and bar trade.

It’s evident from talking to Iain, he is well versed in the industry. Working for Whitbread, AB InBev and Heinekien – amongst others before assuming his position with Sierra Nevada – we managed to have some interesting discussion on brewery acquisitions and how Sierra Nevada have managed to remain independent after all this time.

Make sure you check out www.thecascadeclub.com/

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This episode is sponsored by...

Lallemand brewing.

Support for this episode comes from Lallemand Brewing .

Lallemand Brewing, a division of Lallemand Inc., a global producer of yeast and bacteria, is helping breweries achieve their growth and quality goals by offering products, services, and education.

Lallemand Brewing’s premium brewing yeasts and bacteria deliver unmatched consistency, reliability, and purity, allowing brewers to take full control of the brewing process.

At the forefront of innovation, Lallemand Brewing recently launched several dry yeast products: LalBrew Voss, LalBrew Verdant IPA, and WildBrew Philly Sour.

For more information about Lallemand products in the UK please contact our local representative Andrew Paterson, global contacts details for the UK and other territories can be found via our website www.lallemandbrewing.com

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Beyond the Pale Ale: Sierra Nevada Takes its Shot at Beyond Beer

No longer a catchy buzzword, beyond beer is the future of the industry and Sierra Nevada knows this better than most. Always at the forefront of innovation – Sierra’s sparkling, non alcoholic hop water, Hop Splash , is killing it at retail – the people behind the top-selling IPA Hazy Little Thing are committed to doubling their share of the great beyond over the next five years.

“Everything we do at Sierra Nevada is rooted in consumer behaviors and insights,” says Sierra’s Brand Director Kyle Ingram. “We see drinkers migrating. It’s not that they don’t like beer anymore, but they’re interested in trying new things and expanding their repertoire. These customers are younger, more diverse, 50/50 male & female… and they’re always looking for something new.”

Armed with a solid understanding of what millennial and Gen Z consumers want, Sierra’s CFO Paul Janicki announced that the company is committed to doubling the size of their beyond beer portfolio in five years. To achieve this goal, the brewery is making major investments, including a new 85,000 square-foot “Can Do Innovation Center” production facility that’s already under construction.

But don’t let that five-year timeline confuse you. Sierra Nevada already makes beyond beer products that are major hits with consumers. Sierra entered the category some time ago with the hard kombucha Strainge Beast , which continues to grow and evolve as a brand. And recently, the company was among the first to launch a non-alcoholic sparkling hop water – the highly successful Hop Splash .

The story behind Hop Splash demonstrates just how forward-thinking Sierra’s brewers really are. As you might expect, the talented people responsible for making beers like Torpedo Extra IPA and Big Little Thing not only understand how to use hops, they also happen to like the way they taste. Looking for something non-alcoholic to drink while on the job, Sierra Nevada brewmasters developed the recipe for what became Hop Splash, which debuted nationally last fall.

Commenting on the success of Hop Splash, Ingram explains, “We knew it was a product we could make well and have instant credibility with, given our reputation for hops.” To keep the momentum going, Ingram said that Sierra is spending heavily behind the brand. Look for the release of new flavors this year.

“We see drinkers migrating. It’s not that they don’t like beer anymore, but they’re interested in trying new things and expanding their repertoire.” KYLE INGRAM, Sierra Nevada Brand Director

Ingram went on to say that this is just the beginning for Sierra’s non-alc portfolio. “Drinkers are embracing the idea of moderation as a means of improving mental, physical and financial health. We’re currently in development of many new and exciting alcoholic beverages that meet those requirements.” But he added, “True to Sierra Nevada’s ethos of quality and innovation, the company isn’t just focused on ‘what’s not in it,’ but rather ‘what non-alc products can enable our consumers to do.’”

As you can see, instead of playing catch-up to changing trends, Sierra Nevada is leading the way with a stellar portfolio of innovative beyond beer offerings. Always on top of their game, the company understands that successful products offer solutions that meet the changing tastes of today’s consumers. In fact, based on the success of Hop Water and Strainge Beast, they’re already doing just that.

Beyond Beer the Sierra Nevada Way

As you might expect, a brewery with two top-five best-selling craft beers ( Sierra Nevada Pale Ale & Hazy Little Thing), Sierra Nevada knows how to build brands that last. The brewery’s beyond beer offerings are created and marketed based on the same rigorous research behind the success of the company’s many award-winning beers, so they might just be the next big thing.

STRAINGE BEAST Already boasting a high conversion rate once consumers try the liquid, next year’s priorities for the brand lie in flavor innovation and capitalizing on the growing canned cocktail trend. A Strainge Beast Mimosa line extension will be available in the spring. This new “fermented cocktail” is slow crafted through a more natural process than other RTDs, producing alcohol through fermentation for big flavor and wild effervescence.

HOP SPLASH Hop Splash’s launch has exceeded expectations. Sierra Nevada’s new zero alcohol, zero calorie sparkling water infused with Citra and Amarillo hops for refreshing notes of peach, mango and grapefruit already has 100 points of distribution in Philadelphia, and it will be a major focus in 2023 with a new program called “Enter the Splash Zone.” Sierra Nevada brewer Isaiah Mangold says, “If you’re a beer drinker, and you want something that scratches the itch a little bit, this does for sure.”

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Beyond the Pale: The Story of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Audio CD – Unabridged, March 1, 2021

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• Print length 1 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Tantor and Blackstone Publishing
• Publication date March 1, 2021
• Dimensions 5.2 x 5.7 inches
• ISBN-10 1665195487
• ISBN-13 978-1665195485
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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tantor and Blackstone Publishing; Unabridged edition (March 1, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Audio CD ‏ : ‎ 1 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1665195487
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1665195485
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 5.7 inches
• #17,988 in Entrepreneurship (Books)
• #19,479 in Books on CD

About the author

Ken grossman.

KEN GROSSMAN is the founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., established in 1980. Ken's passion for good beer began when a friend showed him the basics of homebrewing. He began brewing five-gallon batches of beer on his own and soon became a proficient homebrewer. In 1976, Ken opened his own store, The Home Brew Shop, and, soon after, began building a small brewery in the town of Chico, California. His goal: to brew exceptional ales and lagers. An avid backpacker, Ken named the new company for his favorite hiking grounds—the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 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. Today, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is considered one of the premier craft breweries in the United States.

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