Sudwerk is a brewery in
Davis, California
Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of ...
. It has been crafting German-style
lager
Lager (; ) is a Type of beer, style of beer brewed and Brewing#Conditioning, conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be Pale lager, pale, Amber lager, amber, or Dark lager, dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially availab ...
s since 1989. It was a pioneer of lager in microbrewing,
[.] following the strict requirements of the German
Reinheitsgebot
The (; ) is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in beer in Germany and the states of the former Holy Roman Empire. The best known version of the law was adopted in Bavaria in 1516 (by William IV), but similar regulations predate the ...
,
[.] and it continues to specialize in craft lagers.
[.]
Beer
The beers made by Sudwerk include California Dry Hop Lager, which was created by replacing the German hops with Pacific Northwestern hops in the recipe of the Helles Lager; Northern Pilsner; Märzen Amber Lager; Hefeweizen Bavarian Wheat; Cascaderade India Pale Lager; and 3 Best Friends. Seasonal beers include Mai Bock Spring Lager in spring, Fest Harvest Lager in fall, and Doppel Bock Ulimator in winter. The Helles Lager, Northern Pilsner, Marzen Amber Lager, and Hefeweizen are brewed using the same family recipes originally brought to California by Sudwerk's first German Brewmeister.
History
Ron Broward and Dean Unger founded Sudwerk in 1989 as Sudwerk Privatbrauerei Hubsch.
It was the first brewpub in Davis,
and the only one there until the 2015 opening of another brewpub, the Three Mile Brewing Company. By 1993, when it went through a major expansion, Sudwerk had become the largest microbrewery in the US.
Jay Prahl was hired as brewmaster in 2003, and Broward and Unger sold off the associated restaurant in 2006.
After the two founders died in 2011 and 2013,
the brewery was sold to Unger's grandson, Trent Yackzan, and his friend Ryan Fry, who quickly promoted long-time employee Mike Hutson to brewmaster.
In 2015, they began distributing their beer to states outside California, beginning in Missouri. The restaurant which operated independently from the brewery closed at the end of June, 2016.
As of 2018, Sudwerk has won a total of 13 medals at the
Great American Beer Festival
The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is an annual beer festival hosted by the Brewers Association, held in Denver, Colorado. Typically held in late September or early October, the event is currently held at Denver's Colorado Convention Cente ...
including three gold medals. In 2021, Sudwerk won the "Brewery of the Year" award at the Great American Beer Festival
[https://cdn.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/GABF21-Winners-List.pdf]
The brewery maintains close ties to the
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
, where Prahl and Hutson were educated, and its facilities include classrooms used by extension classes at UC Davis.
References
External links
*
Beer brewing companies based in California
Davis, California
Companies established in 1989
1989 establishments in California
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