Joey first joined the Sierra Nevada #beercamptour in Flagstaff, AZ to go white water rafting down the Grand Canyon. He’ll be joining up again in Chicago all the way through to Mills River, North Carolina. His Beer Camp collaboration is the Yonder Bock, a tropical take on a traditional German Maibock.

Greatest memories so far
Definitely going out to Chico to brew the pilot batch of Tropical Bock, the pilot batch. Just going there, and seeing how they do things really re-invigorated me and my head brewer, Wayne. Being able to take that knowledge back, seeing how seriously they take process — it got us fired up to go back to Tampa and brew.

And then white water rafting down the Colorado River. That’s just something, just the scope of it — Grand almost isn’t a big enough word. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.

But I hope the greatest memory is yet to come.

Why this tour is important
What’s interesting is that you have so much happening in craft beer and so many new breweries coming in, and it’s all about the shiny new thing. What I like about what I’m seeing on Beer Camp Tour is that you’re seeing a range of breweries get involved, a lot of brewers that have been around for quite awhile. Sierra Nevada is one of the grandfathers, but even more established breweries like Victory, Bells, and New Glarus are all coming together. When a Brewery like Sierra Nevada asks, “hey, do you want to participate in this” — it’s a resounding yes. It shows a willingness from these other breweries, which is unusual in business of any kind.

It reminds breweries that they should think about Sierra Nevada and the things they’ve done and that they’ve paved the way for you to be here. You should remember your roots. That’s what this Beer Camp Across America does, it reminds the newer wave of beer geeks that they were born into a time when craft beer was prevalent, you could get it anywhere. It reminds them of some of the struggles that took place before, and the achievements those struggles resulted in, which Is Sierra Nevada.