Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp

What’s not to like? Getting away from the daily grind, doing things you’ve never done before, hanging with cool people, and brewing beer…that’s right, brewing serious beer. That’s what Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp is all about and the program just keeps yielding better and better results!

With multiple camps offered every month, Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp program started back in 2008 when a group of distributors wanted to visit Chico and learn how to brew beer. It has since then evolved into not just an industry outing but also a national consumer contest where Sierra Nevada invites fans to submit videos for a chance to come to Beer Camp. Winners from all over the country would head to Chico for a two-day, hands-on brewing session. And they’ve just recently completed their 100th session…that’s a whole lot of brewing, bonding, and beer.

Over the years, Beer Camp has evolved into more than a communal outing built around craft beer. It’s become an incubator for great craft beer ideas. And it’s at the Beer Camp brewhouse that some of their best ideas are born. Visiting campers are activists here – they develop the recipes, play with techniques, and bring together their diverging ideas to brew one collaborative beer per session. Campers are challenged as a group to push the envelope – and the more unlikely the ingredients, the better. Sometimes the results are interesting – and other times, not so much – but after 100 Beer Camps, each session has developed its own creative and truly unique beer.

Initially, favorite Beer Camp brews might be bottled as very limited releases or as draft-only rarities, so seeing one at a bar near you was a rare find. One-time-only legends were born over the years. Campers still celebrate Blood Shot, a one-of-a-kind Imperial Red, as they do the holiday-themed Cabin Fever, a winter warmer that was crafted by Sierra Nevada’s employee campers.

In 2011, the Sierra Nevada crew decided to spread the Beer Camp love and came up with the brilliant idea of releasing some of their best beers from the previous year’s Beer Camp nationally as a variety 12-pack and a classic tradition was born. Their first 12-pack, the appropriately named “The Best of Beer Camp” garnered rave reviews and it singlehandedly redefined what summer variety packs could be…

Forgoing the “three core beers and a newbie” formula that still characterizes many of today’s summer variety packs, Beer Camp’s selections feature only special-release beers that differ every year and will never be available again. The first 12-pack contained four different beers, but will be remembered for its distinctive Juniper Black Ale and its California Common. 2012’s variety pack featured a big Imperial Red, a rare Oatmeal Stout, and a hefty Pilsner – but the highlight for many was Sierra Nevada Floral IPA (Beer Camp #53), an IPA brewed with rose hips that fans still long for.

This year’s soon-to-be-released Beer Camp Variety Pack differs from the previous two in a couple of ways. The 2013 package will feature three, rather than four, selections chosen from 2012 Beer Camp sessions. Unlike the previous 12-packs, all three of these beers are aggressively hop-forward. Beer Camp #93 IPA is billed as flexing big-time flavor and was brewed using potent whole cones of the piney-citrus Cascade and tropical fruit-like Citra hops. Beer Camp #94 Belgian-style Black IPA takes a detour with a dose of new world hops, including the Sorachi Ace and Nelson Sauvin varieties. Beer Camp #95 Imperial Red Ale is a massive Red Ale that pits smooth malts up against West Coast hops and has little patience for moderation.

Sierra Nevada’s 2013 Variety Pack is scheduled to hit retail as early as next week. When it does, campers and fans alike will all be “happy campers.”