Cascadia Beer Odyssey

We are truly blessed to live in Cascadia! From San Franciscoto Vancouver BC we are surrounded by amazing geography and scenery. Driving from Eugene to Chico, Californiatoday through the Siskiyou Mountains under blue sky and the shadow of Mount Shastawe were blown away by God’s country! TheCypress trees (TOH to Heath for knowing the species (of course)) gave apowerful aroma in the sun. Crossing theborder from Oregon into California we found 95 degrees and no clouds.

(Dear Olympia and your rain, We do not miss you. Love, Us!)

First stop of the day was in Weed, California and MountShasta Brewery. We found the beer to bejust OK but the setting in the mountains coupled with our first taste ofsunshine in months created a great experience. We stopped further down I-5 at at the Burger Barn in Dunsmuir for lunch.Best burgers EVER while sitting outside in the warm mountain air.

The main destination of the day did not let us down. We werea bit late for a 4:00 appointment at Sierra Nevada brewing company and a VIPtour arranged by head brewer Steve Dressler. I met Steve through a good friend and retired hop broker Gerrard Lemmensspending our breaks judging at the Great American Beer Festival with cold Ginand Tonics. I also had the honor orbeing featured as a west coast brewer with Steve on a morning TV show inAtlanta Ga several years ago followed by an incredible beer dinner at anAtlanta restaurant highlighting both our beer.

SierraNevada’s approach to sustainability should be the benchmark for all Americancompanies. In 2008 they completedconstruction on one of the largest private solar arrays in the United States.This solar project produces over 1.4 MW of AC power for the brewery.This—coupled with its existing 1.2 MW fuel cell plant—provides the majority ofthe brewery’s electrical energy needs with clean power produced on-site.Surplus electrical energy will be available to help supply the overloadedCalifornia power grid during peak power usage periods. Covering a majority ofthe brewing facility’s roofs, this system utilizes over 6700 Mitsubishi185-watt lead-free panels. The solar panels were even covering the parking lotproviding shade for the vehicles.

SierraNevada also reclaims their waste water for reuse. Their waste water treatmentprocess includes an anaerobic digester that breaks down organic materials in anoxygen-deprived environment and produces a methane-rich biogas. A recoverysystem captures this gas and sends it to fuel their boilers to offset thenatural gas needed to run the system. This lowers their natural gas utilityconsumption and cost while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Ontop of all that the beer was fantastic and we were treated to a wonderful beertasting and meal. Our hotel had a pool which welcomed us at the end of a great day. VIP lifestyle is good!

Formore information (you will see I plagiarized) on this amazing greenbrewing program check out their website: http://www.sierranevada.com/environment/solar.html

Todaywe head into San Francisco! HappyIndependence Day.