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If You Screw It Up, Oh Well!
Remnants of the old mill can still be seen in Eel River Brewing Company’s Beer Garden, one of the best places in the world to enjoy some of the best beer in the world on a sunny day. Inside the Taproom you’ll see historic photographs of the mill and various other Humboldt County scenes from days gone by. Have You Had Your Climax Today? The brewing began at Eel River Brewing Company in December of 1995 and right away the beer was winning awards! By 1997 it was winning at the BIG ONE…the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. ERB’s Ravensbrau Porter won a Silver Medal there in ’97. A year later: The Best Beer in America! That’s right, a GOLD Medal for Eel River Brewing Company’s CLIMAX CALIFORNIA CLASSIC, a lager that was named after the Climax Engine, a steam locomotive that used to haul logs out of the forest! “Have you had your Climax today?” Much more than just an ad slogan, the question took on a whole new meaning for fans of the rich, smooth hand crafted brew. And that was just the beginning of the winning tradition for the little brewery by the river. The years since then have witnessed hundreds of awards, ribbons, medals and honors of all descriptions for Eel River Brewing Company. The California Sate Fair. The California State Brewer’s Competition. The Los Angeles County Fair. The World Beer Championships. The Great American Beer Festival…and of course our own HUMBOLDT COUNTY FAIR. These are among the organizations that have honored ERB creations. Certified Organic: 99! The year was 1999 and the beer was organic. The spring of 1999 was when Eel River Brewing Company came out with America’s first certified organic beer: ERB’s Organic Amber Ale. That year another Eel River Valley product also went organic, and you’ll still find it today in the kitchen and on the menu at Eel River Brewing Company’s Tap Room and Grill: It’s Loleta Cheese! “We thought we were the first certified organic brewery in California,” said Ted. “Turns out were the first in America!” One hundred percent certified organic beer has been a huge seller, and since 1999 six additional beers have joined Organic Amber Ale in the organic category to become the flagship brews of ERB: Organic Porter, Organic Extra Pale Ale, Organic I.P.A, Organic Ravens Eye Stout, Organic Triple Exaltation, and Organic California Blonde. These beers make the Eel River Brewing Company the nation’s FIRST certified organic brewery. And the beer and cheese aren’t the only organic products on the menu! Visit the Tap Room and Grill for brewery raised Organic Beef! The beef served at ERB, registered Black Angus, has all been raised strictly on organic sweet alfalfa and spent products from the brewing process. How does this affect the taste of the beef? TRY IT, you’ll LIKE it! Happy Anniversary! In December of 2005 the reality sunk in: “Wow! We’re TEN years old! PARTY TIME!” On January 19, 2006 Eel River Brewing Company celebrated its tenth anniversary in style…with beer prices rolled back to 1995 levels. Door prizes, raffles and complimentary meals for daily winners went on that entire week. Thinking back to the first year of operation Ted remembers brewing about 380 barrels of beer. After ten years ERB was producing more than ten times that amount and bulging at the seams! Well guess what? It won’t take another ten years to multiply production by ten again! But more room is needed. More Beer! More Beer! Hello Scotia! 2007 – What a year! It’s seen a move upstream for Eel River Brewing Company. While the Tap Room and Grill maintains a bustling business at the old Clay Brown Mill site, ERB’s brewing operation as moved a few miles up river to another historic mill, where the nation’s first certified organic brewery has become the nation’s first biomass powered brewery! A victim of a downturn in the timber industry, an old growth redwood mill known as Mill A in Scotia California was looking for tenets, and the Eel River Brewing Company has moved in. The new brewing and bottling facility in Mill A will result in another ten fold increase in brewing capacity, helping to quench the demand for ERB’s certified organic brew…a demand which is growing throughout the nation. Biomass powered…what’s with that? Well, all the power used to brew the beer in Scotia is produced from mill leftovers such as wood chips, bark, scrap lumber and clippings. Even your lawn clippings if you bring them in are being recycled to help produce the power in Scotia. AND THAT"S THE BITTER TRUTH. Eel River Brewing © 2000-2010 Company - Organic Beer - Site design: Precision Intermedia |
That was Eel River Brewing Company co-owner Ted Vivatson back in 1996 explaining why they hired a top notch professional brew-master when they first opened. As avid home-brewers, Ted and partner Margaret Frigon had a vision of excellent hand crafted beer and great food in historic surroundings. The vision came to fruition in 1995 and the beer begin to flow at the former site of the Clay Brown Redwood lumber mill in Fortuna, California. 
