Rock Bottom Brewery Tapping Into 'Resilience' To Lift Spirits

CAMPBELL, CA -- What could be the hottest ticket in town is one that is sure to elevate a beer drinkers' spirits and good will at the Rock Bottom Restaurant and Bar Friday night.

At 6 p.m., the Pruneyard brewery on South Bascom Street will tap into its "Resilience," the official IPA brew deemed to support Camp Fire relief and concocted by Sierra Nevada Brewery. The Chico brewery provided the recipe and support for supplies as well as seeding the Golden Valley Community Bank Foundation fund with $100,000.

The Campbell tavern is one in 1,500 breweries participating in the Butte County relief drive. All the proceeds from the sales of the brew is earmarked to go into the Sierra Nevada Camp Fire Relief Fund to benefit those devastated by the deadliest, most destructive wildfire in California history.

What's special about this Campbell tavern's brew?

With supervision from the tavern brewers, it was made by the Santa Clara County Firefighters Local 1165 Union. Santa Clara County sent up a strike team early to assist in the unprecedented inferno that started on Nov. 8 and resulted in the deaths of 86 people and destruction of almost 20,000 structures.

Off-duty Santa Clara County firefighters who were assigned to the Camp Fire will be on hand to assist in the tapping of the kegs of beer for the party designated to last until midnight.

Union President Adam Cosner said the 20 firefighters considered the making of the brew as therapeutic in trying to come to grips with the devastating suffering, desperate rescues and painstaking effort to fight menacing wall-high blazes that leveled Paradise and Magalia.

Six of the breweries participating by footing the labor can be found in Silicon Valley's Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

"It's going to be a great time," Cosner told Patch just before the party.

The brewing process for the firefighters took more than four hours, but paled in comparison to the around-the-clock stress associated with battling the Camp Fire.

Rock Bottom manager Mattew Gardea told Patch Friday that he sampled the IPA by midday, and the brewery is pleased with the outcome.

"Actually, it's really good. If you like Sierra Nevada in general, you'll like this one. It's like their pale ale," Gardea said of the beer that placed Sierra Nevada Brewery on the map.

The other four Rock Bottom breweries participating are located in Long Beach, La Jolla, Burbank and San Diego. The latter two exist under the Gordon Biersch name that Dan Gordon founded.

Sierra Nevada Brewery spokeswoman Robin Gregory said the company plans to go nationwide with cans of Resilience at the start of the new year. It got the idea from the Russian River Brewing Company, which created "Sonoma Pride" after the devastating Wine Country fires the year before.

Other Silicon Valley breweries offering Resilience include:

• Promised Land Brewing, Gilroy
• Loma Brewing Co., Los Gatos
• Blue Oak Brewing Co., San Carlos
• Golden State Brewery, Santa Clara
• Taplands, Santa Clara

Here is a list of breweries sorted by state.

--Images via Matt Gordea, Santa Clara County Firefighters Union #1165 and Sue Wood, Patch