Why I collect Sierra Nevada Beer Bottles

It all started in college... The house my roommates and I lived in had kitchen cupboards that had space between the top of the cupboards and the ceiling that was just right for display purposes. We decided the perfect decoration to fill this space would be adding unique beer bottles. As we all moved out after college, I was the lone person interested in keeping the collection. And so it began.

Those original bottles ended up in boxes that moved with me as my life progressed and the various moves that go along with that. After an early career job took me out of Chico, I eventually found myself back in Chico, CA and settled into a more permanent home, with a garage. My wife gave me reign of the garage and lo and behold, the bottle collection was back up and on display!

I had continued to collect during those years the bottles were mostly in boxes. While traveling, I'd find interesting beers and bring some home as my suvenior from our travels. And living in Chico, CA, I also would continue to add to my Sierra Nevada bottles, getting various seasonal beers and pretty much anything that was new or different. That love of Sierra Nevada beer + the awareness amongst friends of my growing bottle collection also helped. Friends who worked at Sierra Nevada would gift me interesting employee or test bottles here and there.

I also worked for a software company that wrote tools for eBay sellers. Which meant I was on eBay a lot, testing things or just contributing to my various collections. I stumbled across a old long neck Sierra Nevada bottle one day and reached out to the seller, since I noticed they were in Chico. I ended up meeting the person, who was managing the estate of her uncle who had passed away. Her uncle happened to have quite the collection of Sierra Nevada bottles, pretty much all from the 80's. Both opened and unopened bottles. This was my first major addition to the collection outside of beers I directly purchased (and most likely drank).

Ok, so none of that really answered the "why". I'm just a collector at heart is what it comes down to. And certain collections of mine have more meaning or history. The fact those college day beers stayed with me for decades and multiple moves made it that much more exciting to continue the collection. And being able to live in the same town as one of the first successful microbreweries has made it fun to focus on a specific bottle and also gave me an opportunity to be at the home base of where they sell limited edition bottles and cans in the Sierra Nevada gift shop or that I find from friends.

I hope you enjoy the site and perhaps learn a bit about Sierra Nevada and the vast variety of bottles they've produced over the years.