I grew up in Chico, California, a small college town ninety miles north of Sacramento. Chico is known for Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers, who went to my high school and CSU Chico (Chico State), which was voted the number one party school in the nation back in '87. That rep still stands.
Finally, Chico is the home of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (SN), an organization which over time has proven to be one of the most eco-friendly, socially conscious, and loyal companies running in the United States. Plus . . . They brew some damn good suds.
1978 marked a low-point for the American beer market. In that year, there were fewer than fifty breweries in operation. To put that in context, in 2015, the Brewers Association reported 4,144 breweries, with another 1,800 on the way.
None of this would've been possible without the craft beer renaissance which started in the 1980's. In 1979 Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi, a pair of home brewers opened Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California, The City of Trees.
Within the next year, Grossman began brewing the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, a hop forward ale which broke all the rules of the American beer market, which had long been dominated by the American Lager. The story goes that for every ten people that tried Pale Ale, nine of them hated it. But Grossman knew that he wasn't making beer for them. He was making it for the one guy who asked for something more from his beer. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the beer that changed it all. It delivered on the bitter hop flavor which was lacking from the brews of the era. The beer is still brewed with the exact recipe from 37 years ago, and Grossman has no intention of changing it. When craft brewers have been asked about which beer inspired them to start brewing, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is almost always part of the answer.
Over the next two decades, SN expanded their line of brews and their business to include a new brewing space, taproom, and national distribution. In 1998 Paul Camusi sold his shares to Grossman, making Ken the sole owner of the business, as he remains to this day.
The current brewing space is located on 20th street on the south side of Chico and is a local landmark and hotspot.
In 2015 Ken Grossman made his way onto the billionaires list. There's something comforting about the fact that this man doesn't have a price tag. Grossman owns the 7th largest brewery in the nation and he wants to keep it in the family.
The brewery just recently achieved 99.8% waste recovery, effectively making it zero waste. The Mills River brewery, the east coast brewery, was the first production brewery to be awarded LEED certification, a rating system for recognizing environmental business practices. The Chico brewery also boasts eleven thousand solar panels, micro-turbines, and most recently a Tesla power system.
The brewery produces over one hundred different beers each year, many of which will never be bottled, or never be made again. They have also always featured brews only available in the local area, some of which don't make it out of Nor-Cal and some of which rarely make it out of Chico. This brings me to another point, the price point. In Chico and the areas around it, SN matches any brew you can find apart from Keystone and Natty Lights. At $6.99, SN sells craft beer at a cheap and competitive price point. I'm not aware of any craft breweries that sell at that point. Being a beer geek is an expensive habit, but Grossman and the folks at SN are trying to make it an affordable one.
Sierra Nevada continues to prove that businesses can focus on delivering quality product, practicing sustainable business practices, and not just the bottom line.
When I was a kid, my friend's parents worked at the brewery. Now my friends work there. It's part of the community. It's hard to go out in Chico without seeing four or five people wearing SN gear. Every bar has at least one or two of their brews on tap. The Bear serves $7 pitchers on Thursdays and U-Bar does dollar pints of Pale on Tuesdays.
When you're from a small town, you take pride in small, weird things. When you move away from home, you double down on that pride. I have nothing to do with it, but I am immensely proud that my hometown brewery is Sierra Nevada.
Sierra Nevada converted me to the cult of craft and made me a beer geek. They convinced me to start home brewing and they are one of the things that makes me proud to call Chico home.
So, to Ken Grossman and the folks at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Cheers!
