The Things I Learned at Beer Camp, Sierra Nevada Beer Camp 2010, Chico, CA

Sierra Nevada has joined forces with the Freeskiing World Tour. Last weekend Sierra Nevada invited 9 athletes from the Freeskiing World Tour and North Face Masters Tour to fly to Chico to learn more about the company and the brewing process. This what I learned at Beer Camp.

1) “Hop Harmony” – Sierra Nevada cares about the environment. From 10,000 individual solar panels to hydrogen fuel cells the brewery generates 1.5 MW AC of clean, emissions-free power. It can produce almost all of it’s own power. Sierra has their own waste water treatment facility onsite. All of the wastewater is treated in a state-of-the-art, two stage anaerobic/aerobic digester. A portion of the water is then used to irrigate their 8 acre hop field. The spent ingredients used in the brewing process are sold locally to provide a nutritional food source for local farmers and livestock. The brewery also maintains its own herd of naturally raised cattle which are fed the spent grains, hops, and yeast and used in the restaurant. Which I might add are delicious. The wasted cooking oil from the restaurant is converted into biodiesel fuel which is used in local and long-haul delivery trucks.

2) BREWING BEER IS NOT ONLY AN ART. IT IS A SCIENCE.

3) HOPS CONTAIN MORE ANTIOXIDANTS THAN GREEN TEA. JUST SAY’N.

4) THERE IS A BEER LIBRARY. The beer library contains a sample of every batch of beer that is made at the brewery. This is part of the quality control process. If a customer complains about a beer, the brewery can go back to the library to, find that specific batch, and try to find out what is wrong with the beer. The beer is tested for pathogens. It is tested by the sensory lab to see if it has been exposed to sunlight, oxygen, heat.

5) Sierra Nevada Brewery Bottles 600 Beers a Minute.
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WE WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO SPEND THE DAY LEARNING AND PARTICIPATING IN THE BREWING PROCESS FROM START TO FINISH.

I loved Beer camp! Thanks MSI and Sierra Nevada!