Sierra Nevada 2007 Celebration Ale

2007 Celebration Ale; Sierra Nevada's holiday offering. This is why the holidays are my favorite beer season. As far as I know, this beer like many other holiday offerings, is not made the same every year. But it is consistently excellent, and this year is no different.

I might be a little partial to this brew though. When I was actively home brewing, a cloned recipe of this was on my regular rotation.

This fine beverage is a nice amber color with little but lingering head. The scent is strong with hops and just a hint of malt. It weighs in at 6.8% alcohol by volume and the taste slightly hints this.
The Celebration Ale would classify as an IPA due to the alcohol content and bitterness.

If you don't like hops, please go ahead and buy this beer and send it to me. The first mouthful greets you with, SURPRISE, hops. I love hops. There is also a hint of the alcohol but is easily overlooked. The hops are citrusy, which is characteristic of Cascade and Centennial hops. The Celebration also gives the lucky consumer what I like to call the "regiving of flavor". This is caused by the carbonation reacting inside the consumer's stomach resulting in some of those gases being expelled back out the mouth. During this process, the blessed drinker is reminded of the wonderful flavor that is Celebration Ale. The regiving of flavor is made possible by dry hopping the beer during the final phase of fermentation. I personally believe every beer is made just a little bit better by dry hopping. Unfortunately not every brewer agrees with me.

You can't imagine my joy when I went into my local "candy" store and saw this on display. They had several closed cases and a few six packs sitting on top. I picked up two six packs and within two seconds decided to swap those for a case. I know I'll be going back soon to get more. Did I mention I like this beer?

Overall, I highly recommend you DON'T buy this beer. Why? So I can buy more.

By the way, the "candy" store I got mine from also had at least five cases of the most excellent Sierra Nevada Fresh Hop Ale. I'll be getting more of that next time I go back, too.