For decades, beer lovers have anticipated the annual release of Sierra Nevada Brewing’s Celebration IPA. Among beer lovers, but especially among craft beer industry professionals who know great beer, Celebration is the most anticipated annual beer release because it not only serves as a harbinger of the upcoming holiday season, but because it is made with fresh hops and serves as a celebration of the recently completed hop harvest.
It helps that Celebration simply tastes wonderful.
Why Sierra Nevada Celebration Is The GOAT Of Winter Seasonal Beers
Doug Veliky, CMO at Chicago’s Revolution Brewing and author of the Beer Crunchers beer industry blog, argued in a recent post that Sierra Nevada Celebration is the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) winter seasonal beer release. Because Celebration builds off of Sierra Nevada’s flagship Pale Ale, but with a weightier 6.8% ABV compared to Pale Ale’s 5.6% ABV, the beer is familiar, but more robust for the colder months. Also, the annual release double dips into two seasonal celebrations—hop harvest and the holidays—while eschewing direct Christmas iconography, so the beer can be enjoyed ahead of the holiday season and continue to be enjoyed after the holidays are over.
Everybody loves a good Celebration.
Why Celly Drippings Is The Rarest Sierra Nevada Beer
But secretly, for the last few years, Sierra Nevada has been releasing extremely limited amounts of a special version of Celebration exclusively in the taproom attached to its brewery in Mills River, North Carolina. Dubbed Celly Drippins, the beer is made from the drippings collected from the bags used to dry hop Celebration, resulting in a more intensely hopped, draft-only version of Celebration.
“To get the dry hop bags out of the fermenter takes three people,” explained Scott Jennings, Technical Brewmaster at Sierra Nevada in a video interview. “When we move the beer out of the tank, there’s no time to spare and we don’t have enough people to take the hop bags out until the next day. So a little bit of beer drips from the bags into the bottom of the fermenter and that has to be drained before the three people can open the tank to take the hop bags out and clean the fermenter.” Over the multiple brews of Celebration, the collected drippings from the hop bags are batched together to become Celly Drippins.
A brewer removes dry hopping bags from a fermenter at Sierra Nevada’s brewery in Mills River, North Carolina.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Originally, Celly Drippins was transferred into a serving tank in the Mills River taproom only so that growlers could be filled for staff as a thank-you gift. But slowly, word got out that there was a special beer on tap. “Now, we have people calling the taproom to find out when Celly Drippins will be available and planning travel around it,” said Jennings.
“We started getting the first inquiries about this year’s batch of Celly Drippins in August or September, ahead of the release of Celebration,” said Brian Grossman, Chief Brewer and second-generation owner of Sierra Nevada Brewing. “We decided that it’s time we give the people what they want and announce the release so they can make plans around it. This is the first year we’ve ever publicly announced the release of Celly Drippins. I see it as a good reason to gather in the taproom with our employees and guests, raise a glass together and usher in the holiday season with a toast.”
Because production of Celly Drippins is dependent on brewing Celebration—production of approximately 5,000 cans of Celebration yields the equivalent of one can of Celly Drippins—typically only between five and seven barrels of the beer is available each year, making it Sierra Nevada’s most exclusive, limited release beer. Given the small quantity that is available, only those in the know would be able to visit the Mills River taproom to drink Celly Drippins before it sold out, usually in just a couple of days even though the release was never publicly announced. Last year, All About Beer Magazine was the first to publicly break the story about the beer.
“It’s really amazing,” said Jennings. “I love it. You can tell it’s Celebration, but the hop character is more accentuated. The hops in Celebration vary year to year and it really shows in Celly Drippins. Sometimes you get more floral notes from Geraniol. Other times you get more intense pine. It’s a special thing.”
Sierra Nevada Celly Drippins will be released at their taproom in Mills River, North Carolina on November 22, 2024 with an official tapping at 3 p.m. Additional information can be found on Sierra Nevada’s website.