Sierra Nevada starts rare beer club

Sierra Nevada Brewing is launching a new rare beers club, in which members will receive a quarterly release of extremely limited experimental brews, made either at the Mills River brewery or the flagship brewery in Chico, California.

Membership in the Alpha Hops Society will cost $250 and is limited to just 300 nationally, Sierra spokesman Bill Manley said. That membership will include the costs of the beers, to be packaged in 750 milliliter bottles, he said. Members will pick up their beers either in Mills River, Chico or Sierra's Torpedo Room in Berkeley, California, Manley said. None of the beers will be sold on draft or will be available in stores. Members will also receive special tours and tastings of new, unreleased and experimental beers in progress.

Within minutes of making the club announcement, the brewery enrolled almost three dozen members, he said. Memberships can be had at www.sierranevada.com/alphahop

The first beers, to be released in February, will be an American red wild ale, a blended scotch ale aged in absinthe and bourbon barrels and a strong Belgian "pentuppel" blended with chilies. The first three beers were made at the Chico brewery.

The rare beer club has been in the planning for three years, and grew out of small experimental beers made at the Sierra breweries, he said. "We wanted to find a way to make these cool beers available to people who really wanted them, he said, "We just don't have enough of these beers to do more. It's the ultimate way of playing around in our brewery and letting our brewers and blenders reflect their creativity."