Hip hops

For my fellow beer-obsessed Renoites, there’s pretty big news in our area. While the grand opening is still to come, operations have commenced. It’s time I addressed the elephant in the room. Let’s look at Revision Brewing Company.

First, walk with me down memory lane. The year was 2010 or so. Some of my beer friends and I heard about a beer launch party downtown at the unlikeliest of places, a now-closed nightclub called Divine Ultra Lounge. We got there promptly to get in on the beer before it got too crowded and chatted a bit with the brewer, enjoying his Hopstar IPA. As the clubbin’ crowd started to filter in, we beat a hasty retreat.

Jeremy Warren was a local homebrewer just getting his fledgling Knee Deep Brewing Co. off the ground, starting with a small portfolio of brews like Hopstar and Tanilla, a vanilla porter. He talked about plans for his new facility. But as it goes sometimes, his vision of a brewery in Reno never materialized. Instead, he opened in Lincoln, California, then expanded to a larger facility in Auburn. Knee Deep grew rapidly, winning over hopheads around the country with its massive hop bombs, strong Double- and Triple-IPA beers that took hoppiness to new levels.

Eventually divesting himself from Knee Deep and its other owners in 2015, Warren looked to open a new brewery all his own. After an exhaustive search for the right place, Revision Brewing Company announced it had leased a 30,000-square-foot facility in Sparks. After months of construction, equipment installation and permitting and licensing, Revision opened its doors recently to the delight of craft beer fans.

As expected, Revision’s beers are a love affair with the hop flower. Several variations of pale ale and IPA are already sold in bottles and draft throughout our area, and Revision just won the gold medal at the 20th annual IPA Fest in Hayward, California. With time, Revision will expand its lineup to include barrel aged and blended beers. For now, though, the hoppy beers will flow.

I waited for the initial excitement and crowds to die down before visiting. I just wanted a beer on a regular day. As a destination, Revision isn’t much to look at or enjoy yet—inside and out, it looks like the vast warehouse it is, brewing operations taking just a fraction of the floor space.

The giant cooler, covered by a graffiti-style mural, looks large enough to hold my house and the lot it sits on. The taproom feels new and sterile. For a production brewery like this, brewing and shipping for distribution are the focus more than creating a place to drink and socialize. But it’s still a good place to sit down for tasters or pints. Revision also does growlers.

My eagerness to taste Revision’s beers meant I had already tried several, so I opted for tasters of the one that was new to me and others I knew I preferred. Although all are hop-centric, differences in recipe, strength and hop varieties make each one unique. I enjoy the dank, herbal, fruity/citrus flavors in moderation—the 11 percent triple IPA, “Dr. Lupulin,” I find drinkable but a little excessive. Besides the house beers, some variety is available via four guest beers and a selection of wine.

It’s an amazing time to be a beer lover. Alluring trends in styles and flavors, access to dizzying choice in the market, and now, nationally anticipated, fresh, award-winning beer are factors making Reno a little bigger on the beer map.