Sierra Nevada Tour

Took a very generic but very nice tour of the Sierra Nevada Brewery today. One of the more interesting comments is that they are the 3rd largest employer in Chico, behind Chico State University and Enloe Hospital, with over 640 employees. The tour is very basic but the artwork in the brew area is amazing. I will post pics sometime soon. Part of Ken Grossmans Bottle collection is also on display, some pretty nice old beer bottles including all the early Sierra Nevada Bottles. Anybody remember when SN Pale ALe label was not like it is now?

A small beer geek moment.

I am currently on a quick vacation trip to Chico. Why Chico one may ask?

Well for one I haven’t been to this part of California in like forever. And two it gives me an excuse to visit Sierra Nevada Brewing.

You know you are close to Sierra Nevada Brewing when you pass the experimental hop yard. The place is VERY large, although you might not realize that at first. The place is very spread out and no where seem cramped or crowed. Just stopped at the taproom restaurant today. Sampled a couple of the Audition beers, half pints in a dimpled mug were $2.75. The food was good, a slightly step above the usual good BrewPub food. The burger was fresh ground beef and the fries were cooked in fresh hot oil. Service was excellent, the waitress allowed be time with my first beer before asking if I wanted to order food. Going to try and go by for the tour tomorrow. I did have to stop in the gift store and limited my beergeek purchases to a Mouse pad and a nice metal bar bottle opener.

1001 Beers....

Anyone read "1001 Beers you must taste before you die" ?
A nice book, and if anyone is asking, NO I have not counted how many of the 1001 I have tasted...

YET.....

My 1st guess would be around 50%

RBTOTD- May 22

It is time to start these up again.. so

after moving around and looking at beer all day, I think it is time to drink some beer...

Beer Geek act of the day

A moment of total Beer Geekdom. I was doing an inventory of the beer in the beer closet and realized if I took out the boxes of book and other crap that was in the closet I would have more room for beer, or at least I would not have to stack them as high...

Sampled three of the Mikkeller Single Hop IPA's tonight. Cascade, Chinook, and Nelson Sauvin. Its interesting how a single hop variety can change the taste of an IPA. They also really let you taste the differences. The Chinook was a high alpha acid bitter hop, the Cascade was grapefruity and the Nelson Sauvin? I still dont have a good feel for this hop. It has a very different fruity, citrusy and yet somehow woody flavor to it.

Why Geologists Love Beer

Speaking from personal experience I know this to be true

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/15943/