Hop Heaven Homebrew
A study in the art and science of brewing beer.
Sierra Nevada awarded “Green Business of the Year”
Posted by on December 18, 2010
Recently I was asked what is my favorite brewery and my answer came without hesitation. It wasn’t one of the five breweries each within 20 miles of my home. It wasn’t one of the hop-dynamos whose beers I so sought-after back before I moved to the West Coast. It wasn’t any of those American breweries so often credited with pushing the envelope and changing the American palette. Yet, and this is why I chose them, Sierra Nevada has done more for beer in their brief 30-yr history than any other American brewery. That’s not opinion, just fact.
I believe Sierra Nevada is often overlooked by those of us who’ve been drinking craft beer for a while now because we were breast-fed, so to speak, on their eponymous Pale Ale. Send me to the store nowadays for an APA and I’m after Fish Tale, Mirror Pond, Lagunitas, Stone, Firestone Walker… anything but Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Benchmark for the style, sure, but I’m so over it.
Still, a quick overview of their ale offerings is enough to bring any self-fashioned connoisseur to his or her knees. With the release of Torpedo IPA in early ’09 they introduced the world to Citra hops. Their Harvest Ale marked them as the first American brewer to experiment with adding fresh hops to beer. Southern-hemisphere Harvest Ale brought fresh hops to market in the Spring and then Chico Estate Ale showcased a profile of hops grown entirely on brewery premises. Kellerweiss is their worthy intrepretation of a German Hefeweizen and in the years to come I predict it will thwart the current mindset that many consumers new to craft beer need an “entry-level” (read: bland) wheat ale as an introduction to the world beyond mass-produced lagers. Then we have the 30th Anniversary lineup, their upcoming collaboration with the Abbey of St. Clairvaux, and the list of stellar beers that Sierra Nevada has been putting out in just this last decade goes on and on…
However, it wasn’t simply their beer that I admired when I proclaimed them my favorite brewery. Sierra Nevada is unparalleled in their implementation of imaginative technology and sustainable brewing practices. From oxygen-blocking crowns to solar panels to tracking carbon emissions, a zero-waste policy, and the Wild Rivers Campaign… Sierra Nevada does more than just produce world-class beer, they’re a conscientious steward of their environment, community, and friends – the list of breweries using equipment passed on from SN is seemingly endless – and a exemplary business model to boot. It should come as no surprise then that the Environmental Protection Agency pronounced them Green Business of the Year for 2010. Let’s all congratulate them and raise a pint of Celebration Ale in their honor!
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It surprises me how fast beer geeks “forget” about Sierra Nevada (forget as is pass it off for another beer). They do keep coming out with quality beer after quality beer, but because of the Pale Ale stigma (which you stated earlier), many people, myself included pass over their other beers.
I often find myself at the store with glazed-over eyes trying to pick out a new beer amongst all that I’ve tried. And then I snap out of it and remember some of the more dismal surprises I’ve taken home when instead a trusty sixer of Sierra Nevada was well within reach. It’s a sign of the times, I’m afraid – the incessant lust for something new, anything wild, wacky, strange, or just different. I don’t worry for Sierra Nevada, their business is going strong, but there are a lot of upstart breweries that may be failing to attract a regular clientele because anymore there’s just so much beer to try. It seems a new brewery pops up every day.