Its a pretty good size operation they have going on. The tour guide told us that in terms of craft breweries they're only second in size to Boston Brewing Company. As much as I love Sierra Nevada I have to say I was a little disappointed in the tour. Our guide seemed to know what she was talking about but it felt like she was just reading a script in her mind. You don't get to be up close to everything like you do on a Stone Brewery tour (more on that in a later entry). They have you go to this upstairs level where she talks about the steps of brewing shows you some ingredients and has a short video to show. Then she walked us down a hall where you can see some of the different steps through a window. At one point you can go on a walkway and see a mash tun from above.
One thing I didn't know, and really respect Sierra Nevada for, is that they only produce 2% waste of everything they bring in. All the wet grains get fed to cattle at Cal State Chico. Then the cattle get served in Sierra Nevada's Tap Room restaurant. They have a huge array of solar panels and their own water wells so they're pretty much off the grid which is really impressive for such a big operation. Solar panels are above the parking lot and above fields of hops. The hops, by the way, are only for their harvest beer; they can't grow enough hops for the amount of beer they brew so they mostly come from Oregon. They also designed a lot of the pipework themselves to make things more efficient. For example, somehow they figured out how to use co2 given off of the fermenting process for some other part of the brewing process.
After the tour, Kiki and I wondered around and took a few more pictures.
They even had their logo inlaid in the granite on the stairs.
I got spoiled going to Stone Brewing Co. where they give you free samples at the end of the free tour. Sierra Nevada doesn't do that. We checked out the taproom and I paid something like $14 for their sampler, but you get a LOT of beer. I didn't realize that they had so many other types besides Pale Ale, Torpedo, Celebration, and a couple others. The flights of beer come with 16 different beers. Sorry the picture sucks but I didnt' think to take one until part way through it.
I brought my Stone Growlers hoping I could get them filled, but I was informed they don't do that. They claim its California "law" that they can only fill their own growlers. Law students get free access to LexisNexis and WestLaw so I need to do some research and figure out if they were pulling my leg. Anyway, I reluctantly bought one, got it filled, and we drank it at our second wedding reception we had a couple days later. I let my father in law keep the growler because I figure he's more likely to end up in Chico since he's only a couple hours away.
If you're ever in the Chico area the tour is free so you can't beat the price. Sierra Nevada makes some great beers and they're environmentally friendly too!
