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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Sierra Blanca Brewery Toasts Its Success

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
    The Sierra Blanca microbrewery in Moriarty plans a grand opening and Oktoberfest celebration this Saturday.
    Three brands of microbrewed beer are produced at Sierra Blanca: Rio Grande, Sierra Blanca and Isotopes Brewing. Each brand includes several different labels.
    Isotopes Brewing Co., Santa Fe Cider and Rio Grande, which is now owned by Sierra Blanca, are the other three brewers that joined Sierra Blanca in its move to Moriarty.
    Brewery owner Richard Weber, a former electrical/mechanical engineer, says the company's No. 1 selling beer is Alien Amber Ale.
    "It's got good packaging, it's a good beer and we worked on it for two years," Weber said, explaining why the beer with the Roswell extraterrestrial creature on the label is their top seller.
    Weber and his wife, Suzanne, who owned a restaurant in Carrizozo for eight years, said business is going very well for the brewery that relocated to the Moriarty Industrial Park last October.
    The relocation has increased overall production by about 20 percent, Weber said. When the company was in Carrizozo, production was in the range of 2,500 beer barrels a year. Weber said the company now produces approximately 3,500 beer barrels annually, or the equivalent of 25,000 cases.
    There is a difference between microbrewed beer and the products produced by large breweries. Weber's beer consists only of barley, water, hops and yeast— big breweries add corn and rice, according to Weber.
    Brewer Randy Ziegler or one of the other six employees at the plant starts out by grinding malted barley and wheat.
    Hot water is added, which activates the enzymes and converts the starch to sugar. By boiling the mixture and adding hops, the sweet wort is turned into bitter wort.
    "We make the bitter wort and the yeast does the magic," Weber said.
    Fermentation begins within 24 hours with Ziegler measuring the sugar on a daily basis.
    "Then we crash the beer (when it's done) by bringing the temperature down to 33 degrees," Weber said. The temperature drop makes the yeast dormant.
    The entire brewing process takes 11 hours for 40 barrels, and the length of fermentation depends on style. The Sierra Blanca Pilsner takes 30 days to ferment.
    A small area outside the brewery building functions as a tasting room/bar, which is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. "to at least 5 p.m.," Weber said. Customers can go there and order the microbrewed beer. Depending on business, the Webers may expand the space.
    The brewery operates from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and produces 14 different beers, sodas and apple cider.
    On Saturday starting at 2 p.m., the brewery will open for free tours, bratwurst and beer samples, along with root beer and ginger ale, the Way 2 Cool brand, for young people.