Chico or Bust (Part 3)

I'd like to start off by saying......

I don't like beer.

I know you probably think I'm crazy but I just don't.

I'm working on it though because I'd like to be able to sit down and drink a beer like everyone else.

I do however really like tours and museums and I was really excited for this one.

One big attraction in Chico is the Sierra Nevada Brewery.

The brewery is pretty awesome. 

They organically grow hops on the property along with an organic vegetable garden. Plus the vegetables from the garden are used in the restaurant.

Our tour guide was informative and out going.

But I can't tell you anything informative now.

 Hops! 

I know thats hops at least....

Here is my dad smelling the hops. What they have you do is take the hops in your hands and rub them together. This leaves the aromas on your hands and you can smell them. The hops smelled different depending on where they were grown and give the beer a different flavor (Oh look you just learned something!).By doing this oils are released onto your hands turning them a yellow color.

Well, this stuff is not water soluble meaning it will not come off of your hands when you wash them. The only thing to get it off is to use hand sanitizer. 

Of course the hand sanitizer outside the nicely chilled hops room was empty.....

So we had to leave it on our hands for a while. 

My stupidly sensitive hands of course broke out.

Yep, they hurt and turned red.....

Story of my life

Here is where they brew the beer.

Don't mind the window reflection.

It was a billion degrees in that room.

Literally.

Because we went during the week they were bottling!

It was pretty awesome to watch.

I could stand there all day.

After the tour they take you into the tasting room and gave us 7 beers to try! 

Oh did I mention this tour was FREE???

Pretty awesome right?

Then they gave us pens, posters, key chain bottle openers. 

This one in their Pale Ale. Each beer came is a specific type on glass.

I wanted to steal some... but I held back the urge.

After the tour I of course went to the gift shop.

It's ridiculously cheap. 

I got a shirt, a glass, and a mustard they make with their Porter. 

It's addicting and the glasses are so cheap only $3! And you can't break them.

We then went to restaurant and had big pretzels and a garlic beer cheese sauce.

I don't have a picture of that because I scarfed it down.

The other thing my dad really wanted to go to was the National YoYo museum.

Well, it ended up being in the back of a store in downtown Chico. 

Needless to say he was disappointed.

Basically it was just rows and rows of yoyos. 

(Sorry for this is an oddly cropped photo because I had to crop of the reflection 

of my boobs in the glass.)

They had one the size of me.......

It was pretty cool.

All in all I think this was a successful trip.

I got to learn even more about the city I call home for 9 months a year.