Nevada Brewery (Nevada City)
Nevada City, California, USA
Tally's Take
Why this matters
The building is on the National Register, which is why this is the best-documented of Nevada City's five breweries and still has no founding date. The nomination describes a brewery structure from the mid-1850s, a major expansion across 1882–83, and several ownership phases before Simon Hieronimus moved his brewing operation to the Sacramento Street brewery in 1893. He made steam beer there until his death in 1911, after which Simon Jr. became brewmaster. Bottling stopped for Prohibition. Steam beer is California's own style, brewed without ice — and here it is running in a Sierra foothill town for eighteen years under one family.
The Museum
Timeline
- 1882Major expansion
Across 1882–83; the structure dates to the mid-1850s and the first founding date is unknown.
- 1893Hieronimus moves in
Simon Hieronimus relocates his brewing to the Sacramento Street brewery.
- 1911Hieronimus dies
He had produced steam beer there since 1893; Simon Jr. becomes brewmaster.
The Beer Library
Beers
Hieronimus' Steam Beer
Year-RoundSteam Beer / California Common
California Pass 187. Aliases: Steam Beer. 1912 Morning Union advertisement explicitly promotes Hieronimus' Steam Beer from Hieronimus' Nevada Brewery.
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Sources
- recordProbable
Brewery record taken from Tally's California master, Pass 187, which cited https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/4564a506-2434-49ba-b770-5e71542e6a75 for this entry. The cited page has not been opened by the archive.
Tally's California master, Pass 187 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026
CommercialMedium reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-19Reviewed 2026-08-19 - historyProbable
Dated evidence as recorded in California Pass 187: 1882, 1893, 1911.
Tally's California master, Pass 187 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026
CommercialMedium reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-19Reviewed 2026-08-19
Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.
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