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Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

In 1980, Ken Grossman made his first batch of Pale Ale—and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company was born. 40 years later, Sierra Nevada is still proudly family owned, operated, and argued over.

In full Soundscapes and custom mid-rolls produced by NPM Creative, Ken, his family, and fellow brewer Terence Sullivan discuss the science and art of brewing, and how they all maintain the family values that continue to shape the business. Mandi McKay, Director of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, also shares how Sierra Nevada collaborated with smaller craft breweries to create a recycling co-op in the North Carolina region.

Full Soundscape

A Family, A Brewery, And A Passion For "Doing It Right"

Behind The Brew: Where Science Meets Craft

Building Community To Help Brewers Recycle Better Together

Soundscape Mid-Rolls

Building A Company—And A Culture

[NPM Voice Talent] Support for NPR and the following message come from our sponsor, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Founder Ken Grossman shares why he thinks of his company as a family – and not just because his daughter and son help run the brewery: [Ken] We’ve been focused from our beginning on trying to do the right thing. Our focus is to treat people fairly, to produce great products, to try to build a company to a culture that’s sustaining. But it’s also a community, a family. [NPM Voice Talent] To learn more, go to SierraNevada.com. Please drink responsibly.

Bigger Than A Brewery

[NPM Voice Talent] Support for NPR and the following message come from our sponsor, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company: family owned and operated since 1980. As a second-generation owner and VP of the brewery, Brian Grossman says Sierra Nevada is more than just a business to him and his siblings. [Brian] It is entirely intertwined with our childhood. It’s been part of who we are. The brewery is much bigger than just a physical place that makes beer. It’s much more than four walls and some kettles. The people really make it alive, the product is alive itself with fermentation. The alchemy is pretty magical when you look at what it takes to put a bottle of beer out. It is hard to put words to the relationship that we have with the brewery, and even team members. It’s much more… We’re all pulled together for the common cause. And that common cause, yes, most of the time it is beer. But it’s that common cause of getting it right. It’s that kinship of doing it right. Getting it right. [NPM Voice Talent] To learn more go to SierraNevada.com. Please drink responsibly.

Sustainability As An Operational Philosophy

[NPM Voice Talent] This message comes from NPR sponsor, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Director of Sustainability Mandi McKay details one of the ways they are taking sustainability to heart as an operational philosophy:
[Mandi] We have the largest solar installation in craft beer right now and that started back in 2007. And that coupled with a couple other onsite technologies, we’re generating about 90% of our own power onsite at the Chico brewery. [NPM Voice Talent] Learn more by visiting SierraNevada.com. Must be 21 or older, please drink responsibly.

Stewarding Local Water Sheds And Community

[NPM Voice Talent] This message comes from NPR sponsor, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Director of Sustainability Mandi McKay explains how doing things sustainably can also be more efficient, like a water recovery loop that has decreased their water use: [Mandi] It’s thinking sort of outside of your own operations. Yes, it makes business sense for us because then we’re not using as much water, we’re not paying for that water; but then we’re also making sure we’re being good stewards in our community and for our local water systems and our watershed. [NPM Voice Talent] Learn more by visiting SierraNevada.com. Must be 21 or older, please drink responsibly.

Closing Loops By Composting

[NPM Voice Talent] This message comes from NPR sponsor, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Director of Sustainability Mandi McKay shares one of the many ways their team is thinking about how sustainable brewing practices also help make operations more efficient: [Mandi] We earned platinum zero waste certification back in 2013 and that means we’re diverting 99.8% of our waste from the landfill and most of that is through recycling, composting, or reuse. We own the only hot rot composting system in the entire country and its there to compost all of our food waste and some of our spent brewing materials on site, we turn it into compost and then we use that compost on our estate garden which grows food for the restaurant and our hop and barley fields nearby. We just took it upon ourselves to do that, do it ourselves, and keep that organic material out of the landfill, turn it into something we can use, and close that loop. [NPM Voice Talent] Learn more by visiting SierraNevada.com. Must be 21 or older, please drink responsibly.

Earning LEED Platinum Certification At Mills River

[NPM Voice Talent] This message comes from NPR sponsor, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, whose long history of sustainability practices led to the development of a LEED Platinum certification for their Mills River brewery. Here’s Director of Sustainability Mandi McKay: [Mandi] Given what we had built in Chico and the operational philosophies that we’ve had, we knew that we could take everything that we had learned in the past 35 years in terms of efficiency and building construction and operational sustainability, we could put all of that into a brand new facility. We opened our second facility in Mills River, North Carolina in 2015. We ended up achieving LEED Platinum, it looks at everything from natural light coming in through windows, what types of building materials did you use, are you providing alternative transportation, do you have onsite energy generation? And so we’re the only production brewery in the US to have achieved that. [NPM Voice Talent] Learn more by visiting SierraNevada.com. Must be 21 or older, please drink responsibly.