Sierra Nevada partners with Honolulu bars for tap takeover

They say quality is always better than quantity. But if we’re talking about craft beer, the more the merrier — right?

That was the thinking at REAL a gastropub in Kakaako and Brew’d Craft Pub in Kaimuki earlier this month. California-based Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. celebrated its 36th anniversary by taking over nearly all of the taps at the two bars with more than 45 different types of beer.

“Having the two pubs enabled us to work with the mainland and Hawaii representatives along with the distributor to bring this idea to fruition after several months of planning,” said REAL/Brew’d owner Troy Terorotua. “This is the most impressive lineup we have ever been able to obtain.”

Sierra Nevada traces its history back to the 1970s, when brewery founder Ken Grossman started making his own beer at home. Originally from Southern California, he moved north to Chico, Calif., in 1972 and opened his own homebrew supply store a few years later. By 1980 he had secured the space and equipment to launch Sierra Nevada and started selling the pale ale, porter and stout that continue to be brewed nearly four decades later.

Long before the craft beer movement even had a name, Grossman worked to improve the quality and consistency of his products. He built a quality control laboratory to test his beer and traveled to Germany so he could buy equipment from a defunct brewery and transport it to California. A new brewhouse expanded production in Chico by 200 barrels in 1997, and by 2005 a third brewhouse opened to facilitate small-scale experimental brewing and the production of limited-release beers.

Since then Sierra Nevada continues to innovate with even more new beers, partnerships with other breweries and the addition of a second brewery in Mills River, N.C. The growth was evident at REAL and Brew’d, as 47 different beers were spread amongst 54 taps at the two bars.

“I don’t think any other brewery has done anything of this magnitude before in Hawaii,” said Paradise Beverages’ Dean Ichimura, who handles sales for Sierra Nevada in Hawaii. “Credit goes to Troy, who really pushed the breweries to come to this market and has traveled all over the United States to recruit them for distribution out here. He’s worked really hard to make the craft scene work.”

It was pretty overwhelming to walk into REAL on Nov. 15 and see 31 different beers from the same brewery listed on the menu; Brew’d had 23 taps dedicated to Sierra Nevada that day, so there was some duplication between the two bars. Ichimura said that about 20 beers had never been served in a Hawaii bar before this tap takeover, including a 2009 collaboration between Sierra Nevada and Delaware-based Dogfish Head Craft Brewery made with maple syrup and a blend of the yeast used by each company during the brewing process. Terorotua said he was surprised to even get that particular beer, called Life and Limb, which was a one-time experiment and hasn’t been available to the general public for years.

I made sure to order a flight of Bigfoot, the higher-proof barleywine Grossman introduced in 1983 and still releases on an annual basis. REAL offered tastes of vintage Bigfoot from 2012-2015 along with this year’s brew, which provided excellent insight into how its flavor profile mellows out with age. The 2012 version had lost so much of its hop influence that it was almost too sweet to drink, but I found the 2013 and 2014 offerings were much more complex and enjoyable than those sold in 2015 and 2016.

Over at Brew’d, customers were able to order a flight of Sierra Nevada’s Narwhal Imperial Stout, another annual release, which boasts flavors of cocoa and coffee to go with a light smokiness. The bar also secured a barrel-aged version of the beer, which spent additional time resting in a used whiskey barrel to add even more depth and oak characteristics.

With so many different Sierra Nevada beers poured here for the first time, I made it a point to get out of my comfort zone and order as many styles as I could. Hawaii had never seen Old Chico Crystal Wheat, which is typically sold in cans only in Northern California around the brewery. Its light, crisp profile is a good introduction to craft beers and a great fit for hot summer days here in Hawaii — if we could get it on a consistent basis. I also liked the Outside Lands Saison, brewed French style and inspired by San Francisco’s annual Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival, as well as the barrel-aged Passionfruit Double IPA, which is brewed with three different types of hops and blended with nearly 8 pounds of passion fruit puree per barrel of beer. I was blown away by the mix of sweet and bitter flavors, while the barrel-aging added an almost creamy mouthfeel that I didn’t expect.

Terorotua said Sierra Nevada sent 5-gallon kegs to Honolulu for the takeover, which means there were approximately 40 pints of each beer available to start. He didn’t expect the beers to last long, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of them still on the menu at both bars the following week.

“This was something really fun to be a part of,” Ichimura said. “People have forgotten that Sierra Nevada makes really good beer. Doing events like these help us get both old and new customers to try our beers.”

Jason Genegabus covers all things alcohol-related for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and has written about the local bar scene since 2001. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram or email jason@staradvertiser.com.