The Ledger
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Boutique Breweries Must Offer Unique Products and Charge Premium Prices
“So he helped sort of create what is now the craft brewing industry by Realizing that if you're going to be a small boutique brewery in this country, you better, one, produce a unique product, and two, figure out how to charge enough of a price that you can sur…”
Grossman Secretly Jackhammered His Leased Warehouse Floor to Install Brewery Drainage
“So we went in, and unbeknownst to the Landlord, we jackhammered, ah, through the floor, sawed, and put in drainage, and then poured slope floors on top of that, and but we did all that ourselves”
The US Hop Industry Lacked a Distinct Aroma Signature Before Cascade
“In this country, there wasn't really a aroma signature from the U.S. Hop industry until us and a few other brewers started to focus on a new variety called Cascade which was bred up in at Oregon State.”
Grossman Took Double His Co-Founder's Salary Due to a Workload Disparity
“At one point, it became a critical issue between us, and we did end up adjusting compensation, so I was making I don't know, double what he was making, and so we did try to address it, but, you know, as the business grew, and the value of the business grew, an…”
Grossman: Venture Capital Forces Exit Timelines That Harm Long-Term Founders
“They're gonna have some really tough metrics that I've gotta meet to give them the returns they're looking for, and then they're gonna want out in five or seven years, and I'm gonna be right back where I am today, but in a worse place.”
Deadly Pathogens Cannot Grow in Beer
“Well, I guess one of the things about beer making is that things like that don't grow in beer.
[584] Guy Raz: I gotcha.
[585] Guy Raz: Okay, fine.
[586] Guy Raz: Good to know.
[586] Ken Grossman: The alcohol, the pH, and the hops are all inhibitory to
[591]…”
90% of Tasters Rejected Sierra Nevada's Early Beer as Too Bitter
“And it was even that way when we first started the brewery, you know, you'd go to a tasting, and 90% of the people were like, wow, this is way too bitter, I can't drink this, or I don't like this, and but then you'd find somebody who's like, god, I just love t…”
Ken Grossman Started Sierra Nevada With Only $17,000 in Capital
“So we had assembled 17,000 dollars, and between the two of us. I had sold my home brew shop for, you know, 3000 or 4000 dollars And I had some savings, and my grandfather had given me some bonds to go to college. I cashed all those in, and Paul had similar, so…”
Major Brewers Like Coors and Anheuser-Busch Answered Grossman's Technical Questions
“You could call up a technical person at another brewery, whether it was Coors or Anheuser-Busch or Miller, and ask a question, and they would talk to you.”
Sierra Nevada Dumped Its Early Test Batches of Pale Ale
“Realize we were not able to make batch after batch taste the same. They weren't bad. They were just you know, pale ale three was actually pretty good, I remember, and we were bottling a little bit and sharing it with friends, saying, I think we're there, we're…”
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Has 38 Bitterness Units Versus Domestics' 8-10
“Today, domestic lager beers might be in the eight to 10 bitterness units and there's outliers to that, but that's about the range. Our pale ale, when it came out, and still is is at 38 bitterness units.”
Sierra Nevada Tracked Grateful Dead Tours to Anticipate Surges in Demand
“And then the Grateful Dead, actually They somehow early on got hooked into the beer, and so when the dead would travel around we'd have to watch where their concert series were, and we'd get all these orders for beer ahead of them hitting town.”
Grossman Bought German Brewhouse Equipment for a $15,000 Scrap Value
“I bought their whole brewing side, so didn't get their packaging equipment, but bought the brew house, and paid
Basically the scrap value 15,000 dollars to buy all the equipment, and we spent more, more than that crating it and shipping it back to the U.S.”
Brewery Valuations Hit $50M While Grossman Was Buying Out His Co-Founder
“The valuations across the industry were sort of all over the place, but also were going up pretty steadily and, you know, 30,000,040 1,000,050 million, and this you know, me buying Paul out took
Years to work through with attorneys”
Sierra Nevada Operated 24/7 for 363 Days in 1997
“I think it was 19 97, we brewed 363 days, 24 hours a day.
We took Christmas and Thanksgiving off, I think, and just, other than that, just kept going.”
Sierra Nevada Grew Double Digits During a Late 1990s Market Slump
“We pretty much doubled capacity that year in 97, and we were able to sort of immediately go into some of that pent-up demand. So we grew, I think, double digits when the rest of the industry was flat.”
Sierra Nevada Is the Sole Survivor of Its Early Craft Brewery Cohort
“When I opened, I mentioned, I think there were six of us, and the five other craft brewers that opened in that same era have all failed. Today, I'm the last man standing, so we all sort of had an equal shot at it, I guess.”
COVID-19 Onset Marked the Most Stressful Period in Sierra Nevada's History
“So it's, yeah, it's been you know, one of the most difficult and stressful weeks in our existence. I've had a lot of them over 40 years. You know, there's been a lot of sleepless nights, but this is sort of at the pinnacle of, you know, things for us to have t…”
Ken Grossman and His Wife Cleaned Their Building in Lieu of Rent
“Well, we couldn't pay the rent some months, and so we worked out a deal where we'd be the janitors for the For the place in lieu of rent, so Katie and I did that for a while.”
In the 1970s, Homebrew Was Viewed Negatively as Murky and Acidic
“There was no knowledge of craft beer, and homebrew was you know, not necessarily viewed in a positive light, and, you know, based sort of on what most people had tasted, if they ever tasted homebrew, it was highly alcoholic acidic, and it looked murky, and whi…”
Sierra Nevada's Initial Business Plan Projected a $50,000 Startup Cost
“The original one, I think, called for 50,000 dollars total, and went to banks”
Grossman Had Zero Commercial Brewing Experience When Starting Sierra Nevada
“Yeah, who had no experience in the brewing industry. You know, we'd never worked a day for a brewery or a beer distributor or anything like that, so.”
Grossman Passed on an Opportunity to Buy an Established Bike Shop
“And I had the, I guess, the early opportunity right when I was committing to build the brewery to actually buy one of the bike shops I had worked in. The owner was getting out of the business and he would have sold it to me probably preferentially if I said I …”