His daughter Sierra—named, like the company, after the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range—and son Brian eventually became important cogs in the company’s growing machinery.
Grossman smiles again when asked to evaluate them, and replies, “They’ve done great. Family dynamics is always a little challenging and the personalities of my children are all a bit different so I have to figure out how to best balance everybody and manage that—it’s been a good experience but also challenging.”
Sierra was the driving force behind the Torpedo Room, a beautiful taproom that the brewery recently opened in Berkeley, CA, allowing its many San Francisco Bay Area fans to drink all that’s on offer without having to drive all the way north to Chico. Brian, meanwhile, is assuming operations at the new Asheville, North Carolina facility. This brewery not only reduces Sierra Nevada’s carbon footprint, but also allows the brewery to deliver its beer in even fresher condition to its East Coast consumers.
Both breweries rely on some state-of-the-art equipment whose benefits don’t necessarily justify their costs as much as Grossman would like. But largely because of such investments in lab equipment, Sierra Nevada is at the cutting edge of brewing research and innovation. The company is generous with its knowledge, helping to guide younger breweries along the rocky path to higher quality. I’ve never met another brewer that didn’t have complete respect for what Grossman has accomplished.
But even Grossman stands on the shoulder of giants. I ask whom he would have called in a crisis back in the 1980s.
“Fritz Maytag. Or maybe his head brewer, Mark Carpenter. Sometimes it was some of the technical people at the big breweries whom I had developed friendships with. I was also active in the Brewers Association starting in the early 1980s so I could call up Ted Marty at August Schell in 1983 or 84 and he would certainly share his thoughts and experience. Or, I could call up someone at Anheuser Busch or Coors. They were generally helpful and supportive. The Siebel Institute was running back then and I knew Ron Siebel; I could call him up and get some brewing advice when needed.”
“But now you have all the answers!” I joke.
Grossman smiles wryly, “Nope. Don’t have all the answers. Never will. Nobody has all the answers and those that think they do or say they do are definitely not the ones that do.”
The Torpedo Room staff are friendly and extremely knowledgeable, owing as much as the great beer to the tasting room’s success.
This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.
