Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

On our work day off, me and my friend Jack headed to the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company(http://www.sierranevada.com/tour/introduction.html) located about 120miles north of Folsom in the town of Chico (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico,_California). The two hour trip ended at the Sierra Nevada's Restuarant gift shop where we signed up for a guided tour of the brewery. The place was one big brewing facility with gift shops and restaurant. Jack and I had lunch at the very nice restuarant as soon as it opened at 11 am. Jack couldn't resist but had a sample of all the Brewery's beer. He was rather happy about it and manage to drink all the little shots. Our tour, the first one, started at 1pm. The guide took is through a 75 minute view of the processing facility. She showed us the hugh vast where the barely is cooked and fermented with the very nice copper laid vats. The 31 degree F cold room where the hops are stored. We rubbed the hops in our hands to smell the various variety including a couple of the experimental hops they are trying out. One great thing about Sierra Nevada is how they try to recycle as much as possible and can produce up to 75% of their own electricity while reducing carbon emissions. Fuel cells, solar panels, methane gas recycling is all part of their plans for being green. We also saw the packaging room where remote systems bottle and box all the beer that leaves Sierra Nevada.


This was a great trip where one actually gets on the processing floor to see how beer is actually made. A wonderful thing to see even if you are like me and don't like beer.
 
Photos can be seen in the link below

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106669&id=1507778102&l=089c8a6eb4