California Beerzine

In the extreme Northwest of California, Humboldt Nation to be precise, you will notice an amazing concentration of breweries and brewpubs in and around Eureka. Most people recognize Humboldt for its other major export. Believe me, that hasn’t stolen the attention of all the great beer coming from Humboldt.

Why is so much great beer concentrated in this area? After speaking with several brewers from the region, I think I’ve traced it back to a couple of reasons.

One is the Humbrewers Guild, an active homebrew club that dates back earlier than the advent of craft brew itself. The other is the Humboldt brewery (no longer with us, label was bought out by Firestone Walker).

Bob Smith, Founder and President of Mad River Brewing Company, spent much of his time brewing with the Humbrewers. He was a regular patron of Ken Grossman’s homebrew shop in Chico, buying supplies for himself and the club. Ken eventually closed the homebrew shop in order to start Sierra Nevada, a decision we are all happy about.

Bob was putting in time at the Humboldt Brewery to help ensure their success in the county. He also consulted for Wendy Pound and Barbara Groom on their new brewpub, Lost Coast. After all this, he had the momentum to get backing for his own brewery. He wanted it to be a production facility from the start.

Mad River now produces the Steelhead and Jamaica Brand of beers. During the holiday season, they produce John Barleycorn Barleywine (GABF Gold medal last year). While I was up visiting this month they were working on test batches for this year’s release. Seek it out.

I spoke with GABF Gold and Silver medal winner, Carlos Sanchez (Brewmaster, Six Rivers Brewpub) who, two weeks after losing a boring day job back in 1990, decided to go work at 

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