Sierra Nevada Brewery - providence

I feel God's leading in this time. I felt in the planning stages of this trip that there was a right way to go about this trip. I felt unsure of myself when I was trying to make definite plans and send out emails to the owners/brewers of the breweries that I was planning to visit. It seemed like I needed to be "open" to whatever happened along the way. When I talked to some people about my trip in this way, I received positive replies, "Awesome, dude." (In surfer accent) Other people seemed supportive, but had a doubting way of asking, "What will you do if you don't meet any brewers? How will you learn about the industry?" I could only reply that the process of planning was as important as the trip itself. I was needing an emotional posture of being free and open. Submissive and willing to try.

I thought that I may have some luck along the way, but I had no idea that it would come on the First brewery tour.

Sierra Nevada Brewing was a beautiful, gigantic, natural compound. I'll have pics later. I didn't expect to pick up any bits of wisdom from their brewery tour considering that they are the 6th largest brewery in the US and the #1 privately owned brewery. They ship to all 50 states and the UK. Damn, they are big. On their compound - I think that I wrote down the numbers right - they have ten or twenty 500 barrel fermentation tanks each holding what will become almost a million bottles of beer. So that is a scale that I don't want to shoot for as a start up. They do some cool things like get 90% of their electricity from Solar panels in their parking lot and grow hops and barley on site for a brew called Estate Harvest - excellent. Overall, the tour was fine.
But I spent some time in the taproom before and after the tour and met two important people.
(I don't know if I should use names or not... I am not going to, for now. feedback please)
I met an actual brewer coming off his shift! I slyly moved in for a conversation when I heard him talking to the bar tender about the day's brew. I told him about my trip and asked him questions about his path to get into the industry, etc. We have similar paths. He was in bio-tech and was fired for succeeding. He found passion for homebrew. He then went to brewing college at UC Davis, something I have looked into and had his internship at SN. He was on his last week as a functional brewer and was moving in to R&D. He enjoyed the brewing, but told me things that I have heard before - long hours, hard work, hot, wet, and tiring. He told me about a couple of breweries that I need to check out in the Santa Cruz region - south of San Fran. I may or may not check these out, but he said that there was one where the owner was always more than happy to discuss brew.

I was overjoyed at this interaction and went on the tour thinking about what he had said.

After the tour, I intended to sit back down and shoot the shit some more, but the bar was full. I asked the host if I could get a table, but as he pointed me in the direction, a place at the bar opened up near a white bearded older man. We began talking when he asked me what beer I ordered. When I described the flavors and aromas in such detail, he had follow up questions about brewing. I told him my story and we began to talk about beer and teaching. He had been in and out of the industry working mostly as the investment capital and business support person. He talked about the hard side of making it in the industry. He talked about how increasing production, bottling and kegging don't always equal more profit. We were chatting about Lawrence and the market there. We talked and talked.
He told me about a few breweries that I needed to check out, also, but he went further and gave me the name and contact info for the brewer/owner of Auburn Alehouse. As we talked more, he ended up saying, "When you give him a call [at Auburn] make sure to mention my name and tell him to call me. I'll come down and have a beer with the two of you."
I was overwhelmed at the providence. That is all that I can say at this point. I haven't called because I don't know what my time here in San Fransisco is going to look like. Alan and I need to figure out when we are going to Surf and I need to figure out what breweries in the Bay area I am going to visit and then I will call. I hope to see him this next week, but if I need to back track, I am willing.

I am open and willing to see these adventures through. I am walking in high expectations that things similar to this will happen all throughout this trip. I feel God's leading in this time.