Our award winning ales have become renowned for their unique flavor profile and consistent quality.Â Steelhead Extra Pale Ale and John Barleycorn Barleywine have received gold medals at The Great American Beer Festival, the most prominent award in our industry.Â Mad River is perhaps best known for our Steelhead Brand Ales, including our flagship Extra Pale and our Extra Stout, a Scotch Porter and Double IPA. With our current Brew Master, Dylan Schatz, at the helm of our brew house we continue this hands-on traditional brewing method. His recipes are still brewed today right here in Humboldt County using some of the cleanest, freshest tasting water in the world. Through the next decade Brew Master Bob Smith handed over the breweries management responsibilities and focused on what he truly loved creating high quality handcrafted beer. Now Mad River Brewing was sharing the great taste of Steelhead with those outside of Humboldt Co. Within the next two months Mad River had purchased Sierra Nevada's bottling line they had outgrown and Steelhead Extra Pale Ale was bottled and distributed throughout Humboldt County.ĭemand for this great quality beer grew through the early 90's.

Production and sales continued to grow and in December, 1990 the first weekly deliveries of Mad River Steelhead draft reached the local taverns. During this start up year the locals enjoyed a good number of amazing brews as Bob and his small crew experimented and created the awesomeness we drink today. nestled in Humboldt County adjacent to the Mad River in Blue Lake, CA. In 1989 construction began on what we know as Mad River Brewing Co. in Chico, Bob became determined to build a craft brewery in Humboldt County. After Ken shared his plans to build Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Excursions to buy brewing supplies led Bob to Ken Grossman's Homebrew Shop in Chico, California. In the late seventies Brew Master Bob Smith, founder of the HOMEBREWERS Guild, dreamed of opening a small brewery specializing in craft beers.

Humboldt homebrew store