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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

It’s a Celebration

Rick Bonino

Today was Celebration Day.

That’s the long-awaited day each fall when I finally spot Sierra Nevada’s Celebration in the store – sort of like Christmas in October. (It used to be Christmas in November, but Celebration, like other winter seasonals, keeps arriving earlier every year.)

While I rarely buy beer in full six-packs – just too many beers, and too little time – I always make an exception for Celebration.

This year’s version looks a little different from the outside. Unlike the previous, more modest font, “CELEBRATION” is announced in bold, block white letters on the label. And while the snowy cabin scene remains relatively unchanged, barley stalks have largely crowded out the poinsettias along the edges.

“Mills River, NC” now appears at the bottom along with “Chico, CA,” recognizing Sierra’s recent expansion east. And while the brewery has always acknowledged that Celebration is an India pale ale – one of the earliest American interpretations, having debuted in 1981 – that’s finally spelled out on the neck label: “Fresh Hop IPA.”

About that “fresh hop”: Most breweries use the term to denote beers brewed with newly harvested hops, before they’re dried. Sierra draws a distinction between those – which it calls “wet hops” – and dried hops used within a week of harvest, which it counts as “fresh hops.” (Purists may now debate.)

Celebration (6.8 percent alcohol by volume, 65 International Bitterness Units) is a fairly simple beer – brewed with Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops, along with pale and caramel malts – but that combination is more than the sum of its parts.  

Pop the top, and the beer pours the same rich reddish-amber, with a nicely rocky head, and an aroma reminiscent of a pine forest.

Take a sip, and the similarities to previous Celebrations aren’t quite so apparent. Sierra says the recipe remains the same year to year, but that the flavor can change based on the characteristics of each year’s hop crop.

Past iterations have ranged from in-your-face hoppy, to more rich and malty. This year’s seems to start off a bit more subdued, with a distinct balance between hops and malt – until a long, bitter, resiny finish reminds you what you’re drinking. A creamy mouthfeel and citrus notes emerge as the beer warms a bit.  

It’s a nice follow-up to Sierra’s Flipside Red IPA, a more recent fall seasonal (6.2, 60), with its darker malt base and more dank yet tropical hop character from Centennial, Citra and Simcoe.

Which reminds me: Better find a store where I can still pick up some Flipside to tuck away, before Celebration completely crowds it off the shelves. Flipside Day, anyone?