IF WE KNOW a craft beer when we see one, we have Sierra Nevada to thank. From the squat brown bottles with labels depicting sylvan scenes to the bitter-pine and citrus flavors of West Coast hops, this pioneering brewery in California's Central Valley set the tone.

These days, though Sierra's bottles are still stubby, they whir down the line thousands at a time. Sixty-foot-tall fermenters frame the namesake mountains. And on Aug. 3, a $110 million brewery will open in Mills River, N.C., 2,500 miles from those peaks.

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