A Surprise and My To Do List Gets Longer

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. While I've done a lot of beer things and been to a lot of beer places, it didn't occur to me that I'm a beer writer again and to take pix and make notes. (Note to self: stop enjoying the moment so much and start taking pix). Posting more on this blog/socials is on now my To Do list.

What spurred this post is that I had my first (and second) Sierra Nevada Celebration of the season last night. Sometimes you go to party not expecting find great beer and you get a surprise. As if the Eagles whipping the Cowboys wasn't great enough.

Sierra Nevada Celebration is an old school favorite. I always knew it as a seasonal treat that showed up in Philly around Xmas. Doing a little Googling (great link below), I was shocked that Celebration has been brewed for over 40 years! At some point they renamed from "Celebration Ale" to "Celebration Fresh Hop IPA". It was only last year that I learned it was, and always has been, a fresh hop beer.

Like apples, hops are ready to be harvested once a year. So brewers use dried hops to be able to brew year round. Once a year (actually Sierra figured out how to do it twice a year but that's another story), brewers can make a beer that uses fresh hops, wet off the vine. Which why these fall harvest beers are often called "wet hopped".

I know that green isn't a flavor, but for me wet hopped beers are best described as being "greener".

Besides the narrow window to brew, wet hopped beers are rare because they require many more pounds of hops than normally hopped beers to get the same level of hop flavor. And it's logistically challenging as well getting all those hops picked and into the brew kettle while still wet.

If you want to learn more about Sierra Celebration (and you know you do), I found this great post from last year by David Nilsen on Pellicle: https://www.pelliclemag.com/home/2021/11/8/a-time-and-a-place-sierra-nevada-celebration-ale.

Picking up my first Celebration 12-pack (of what is sure to be many) for the year is also now on my To Do list. I recommend picking up a some this legendary beer while you can. You won't be disappointed.

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