Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We certainly did; filled with family, fun, food, and yes; cheese. Chico, California is near and dear to my heart since it is where Kathy is from and where I met her. I had written a post mentioning Chico in the past, but I knew I’d get around to writing a bit more about it when I had the chance, since it is a place I love. Plus, Chico does have quite a cheese culture, due to a lot of nearby dairy farming.

Before we get to cheese, a few words about Chico; it is an island of culture in the Northstate. An hour and a half drive south of Chico is Sacramento, and north, about the same distance, is Redding. This isolates Chico as the only “large” town in that part of the central California valley which has a university, the third largest municipal park in the contiguous United States, and also happens to be where Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is located. There’s much, much more that I can tell you about Chico, but we’ll start here since I plan to work my way to cheese in this entry…

Kathy’s sister Janet, and her boyfriend Eddie (aka Edmund; film critic for BlackBook Magazine) had flown out from New York for the weekend, so we visited a lot of points of interest which Eddie got to explore for the first time. Not the least of which was the Sierra Nevada Brewery. Since Kathy and Janet were “locals” for so many years, we were treated to a rare behind the scenes tour of the Brewery. Our friends Meilani and her husband John, who both work for Sierra Nevada (and who actually met there), brought us into the many marvelous rooms of the expansive brewery. I’ve taken several brewery tours in my life, and in some ways it always feels a bit like Charlie & the Chocolate Factory due to the large and varied rooms and machinery. Do not get the wrong impression, however; although Sierra Nevada has grown exponentially over the years, it was and still is a Microbrew Craft Beer, and is one of the most influential pioneers in the movement of microbreweries which have gained favor in the past couple decades. Our friends have worked there for 13 and 15 years respectfully, and although about the same age as us, will most likely be able to retire in about another 9 years. This is due to the wonderful policies and respect that Sierra Nevada has for its employees as well as their various plans of sustainability. Meilani conducted the majority of the tour for us, and answered all of my detailed questions about the processes, the equipment, the company, etc. (much, perhaps, to the saturation point of Kathy, Janet and Eddie’s patience). Touring creameries and factories as often as I have allows for both insight and fascination on my part…  and when someone as well informed as Meilani can help further my understanding, I become “that guy” on tours who asks too many, and too specific of questions. This naturally brings us to the beer though, since it is impossible to go through a factory which smells like hops for an hour and a half and not want to try some as soon as you can…

The tap room and restaurant at the Brewery has on draft all 16 of the commercially produced beers that Sierra Nevada currently brews. Many of these you can almost only find in the taproom in Chico since they are either seasonally released or are not sent to all markets. If you click on the picture of the sampler platter, a three-page pdf file will open up with the same picture and the written description of each of the beers. Another area of the brewery’s policies that interested me was that of waste management and impact on the environment. Again, Sierra Nevada is ahead of its time and is doing as much as they can in this regard. The pictured two-page pdf can explain in better detail just how much is being done.

Are you getting off-track, Bryce? Where’s the cheese?

Ah, inner-cheese voice; not off track at all. While talking with John inside of the Brewery, I mentioned how similar much of the sanitizing processes used on the stainless steel beer equipment was to that of large creameries. He mentioned that some of the original equipment used by the brewery had been modified cheese-making equipment… But I sense you’d like me to move onto more specific cheese topics, so I’d like to talk about Pedrozo Diary & Cheese. About four years ago when I took a week-long “vacation” by attending a Farmstead Cheese making University Extension course (conducted by UC Davis, and given in Orland, California, which is very close to Chico), I was able to meet Tim & Jill Pedrozo. By that time I was already familiar with their farmstead cheeses since in the Chico-Orland area they were already well known and respected. My in-laws had purchased a few wheels for me for my birthday and/or Christmas.

Completely distinct to the herd of grass-fed dairy cows on the dairy, Pedrozo’s cheeses have their own well-crafted flavor, and as many awards attest; they produce world-class cheeses. It would be an injustice to compare the cheese to other types of cheese, but Tim himself once described their cheeses to me as being not unlike an aged gouda. A couple of their varieties include Tipsy Cow, which has been soaked in red wine for added flavor during the aging process. A cheese, new to me, that I got to try (and buy) at the Saturday morning Chico Farmer’s Market, was the Stout Cow. Like the Tipsy Cow, this cheese has been soaked in alcohol, specifically Sierra Nevada’s Stout beer (see inner-cheese voice; it all comes together!). During the Farmstead Cheese making course I had taken several years ago, our class got to assist Jill Pedrozo in making their wonderful cheese. This is certainly a farmstead cheese; there’s one vat (originally built in Holland, if memory serves…), and Pedrozo’s capacity for cheese making is entirely reliant on the milk production of their well-maintained herd. When I bought some of the Stout Cow this weekend, I was fortunate to meet Mandy Johnson, the Pedrozo’s daughter, who not only helps with all aspects of the dairy and cheesemaking, but also has her own wonderful cheese blog. If you have even half a chance to buy or try some of the Pedrozo’s cheese, I highly recommend it; this is some of Northern California’s hand made cheese at its best.

So, Bryce, what about Sierra Nevada Cheese Company?

Thanks for asking! Actually, I want to make sure that you don’t confuse Sierra Nevada Brewing Company with the Sierra Nevada Cheese Company. The Cheese Company, which is only about 30 miles south-west of the Brewery, named its self years after the Brewery had been around. Whether they had done so due to the pre-existing name recognition, or the fact that the Sierra Nevada mountain range is large enough to bear the name of many companies, is any one’s guess, but you should know that these are two separate companies. Sierra Nevada Cheese Company is a fairly large operation and nowadays also owns, operates and produces Gina Marie Cream Cheese. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting that facility too; if I can dig up those photos some time I’ll write a bit more about them…

To finish up this post I’ll throw in a few more pictures and let you know that the Honey Run Covered Bridge (built in 1886) in Chico survived all the recent California fires. Some of the fires which burned in nearby Paradise had threatened (and burned) many, many acres nearby. Here’s to having had a relaxing three-day weekend. I hope all of you dear readers also got to enjoy some cheese. Let me know about it. Use the comment section.