Skip to main content

Sierra Nevada and Breweries Everywhere are Brewing Beer to Help California Wildfire Survivors

sierra nevada resilience butte county proud ipa
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Barely a week after the Camp Fire — the deadliest wildfire in California history, during which 88 people died and over 150,000 acres of Butte County in Northern California were burned and —  Californians are still, obviously, reeling. Sierra Nevada Brewery, which is located in Chico, California, has decided to step up to help in the relief process and they’ve asked every brewery in America to help.

While Chico was not hit hard by the wildfire, it is located just 11 miles west of Paradise, the town that was utterly destroyed by the fire. In a letter on the brewery’s website, Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman outlined the brewery’s plan:

“Many of you have asked if we will be brewing a fundraiser beer to support Camp Fire relief efforts. The answer is a resounding ‘yes.’

We are proud to announce the upcoming release of Resilience Butte County Proud IPA. We will be brewing Resilience on Giving Tuesday, November 27 and donating 100-percent of the beer sales to the Camp Fire Relief Fund. In addition, we are also asking every brewer in America to brew Resilience and do the same.”

The Camp Fire Relief Fund was started by Sierra Nevada with an initial $100,000 seeding. Grossman went on to say they are working with malt, yeast, and hop distributors to provide breweries that sign up before December 7 with ingredients. To date, over 1,200 breweries have signed up — even Ambridge Brewery from the UK is joining in the efforts.

The goal is to have the beer ready to go by December 17. At that point, Sierra Nevada will be selling it on tap and in cans, and you will be able to get it on draft at your local brewery if it’s participating. With around 7,000 breweries in the United States, though, there’s a good chance at least one of your nearby producers will be participating. If they’re not, you have until December 7 to convince them to join the relief efforts.

To find what breweries near you are making Resilience Butte County Proud IPA, check out the Resilience IPA map above. You can also check out a brewery list by state here.

You don’t have to drink beer to support the Camp Fire Relief fund — you can donate directly here.

For those that want to homebrew a batch of Resilience, you can check out the recipe, which was provided by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and scaled down from the original by Chip Walton of Chop and Brew, right here.

Editors' Recommendations

Sam Slaughter
Sam Slaughter was the Food and Drink Editor for The Manual. Born and raised in New Jersey, he’s called the South home for…
Understanding the Cult of Pliny the Elder Beer and Why People Can’t Get Enough
Pliny the elder

There are few American beers more celebrated than Pliny the Elder. Russian River Brewing's iconic Double IPA is the stuff of legends, attracting long lines and a wildly devoted fanbase. It’s also responsible for some of the most brilliant marketing tactics in domestic craft.
Andrew Harmon of BeerMongers in Portland knows the product well. The decade-old bottle shop has been working with Pliny for a while. He says the beer is a case study in marketing as well as the role of the internet and social media in beer. On top of that, he credits a very talented brewer.
“For a while, it was a running joke — and very real reality — that at least once a shift I would get a call asking if we had Pliny the Elder on tap,” he says.
Keep in mind this is Portland, nicknamed Beervana, where good craft ales virtually grow on trees. On top of that, the beer is the product of California, a state that is awarded a healthy amount of skepticism (rational and irrational) from many Pacific Northwesterners.
“I do think to a certain extent Pliny was kind of the first big beer to come out of the check-in beer nerd culture,” Harmon says. “It was on top of national beer media’s best-of lists for so long, and still is, and as the craft beer industry really took off in the late 2000s, people started traveling across the country to finally get to try it.”
Just a small handful of other limited-distribution offerings come to mind that inspire cross-country road trips. Harmon mentions Indiana’s Three Floyds and Heady Topper from beloved The Alchemist in Vermont.

Before the can craze, Russian River was delivering tiny lots of 16-ounce bottles to select markets. The label popped in a simple, timeless, and eye-catching sort of way. It’s always reminded Harmon of the classic Lucky Strike branding. “They’re also the only brewery ever that’s been able to get away with using Comic Sans MS on their labels for so long,” he says. “I’m sure their marketing department has had so many critiques on that and probably only keeps it around for its tackiness.”
It helps that the beer is good. Debuting in 2000 at a local beer festival in California, Pliny set the bar for balanced West Coast IPAs. The beer, technically a double IPA, flexes plenty piney hop muscle but is round and highly approachable. It’s named after the 1st-century natural philosopher who is believed to be one of the first to reference hops in his writings.
Elder is made with Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ, and Simcoe hops. Russian River’s limited distribution and thirsty audience implies that it will do what any good IPA should: be consumed fresh.
The beer’s higher-octane sibling, Pliny the Younger, is also hugely sought-after. Harmon says the state of Oregon gets anywhere from four-to-six 1/6 barrels shortly after the beer is released (in February for San Francisco Beer Week). Years ago, BeerMongers played off of the social media craze and devout fanbase surrounding the Pliny beers and listed their draft allotment as “Miller High Life” to quell the demand and reward those in the know. “We still try to come up with a different name for it every year and ask that people don’t check-in on it until after the keg is gone,” he says.

Read more
Far older than you think: A beginner’s guide to Mexican wine
Mexico has a great unsung wine scene
White wine glass tip

Wine has been produced in Mexico since the 16th century. With Spanish rule came mandatory vineyard plantings, wine-loving missions, and a steady flow of vino.

Today, the country is responsible for some exciting up-and-coming wines. The Baja region, in particular, is home to more than 125 producers and is beginning to get some serious industry recognition. Beneath the fine agave spirits and beach-friendly lagers, there’s quality wine on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Read more
This is how to sharpen a serrated knife the right way
This fearsome blade needs a little extra love
Knife blades closeup

In every good set of kitchen knives, there is one particular blade that most people both love and hate. We love it for its ability to flawlessly slice through foods like crusty baguettes and plump, ripened tomatoes. Its jagged edge gives us smooth cuts through otherwise tricky-to-slice ingredients, all while appearing rather fierce in the process. But this knife can be desperately infuriating in its trickiness to sharpen. This is the serrated knife - a fiercely toothy blade with a saw-like edge.

Serrated knives come in all sizes for a variety of kitchen tasks. Their toothy edge is perfect for many culinary uses, allowing for crisp, clean cuts without tearing or squashing the ingredient's often tender interior.

Read more