There are breweries — and then there is Sierra Nevada Brewing, the one that taught America how to taste again. Long before hazies clogged the skyline and pastry stouts stormed the dessert cart, there was Chico, California, and Ken Grossman quietly redrawing the map of rebellion in copper and Cascade. Forty-five years later, the hum from Sierra Nevada’s brewhouse still sounds like America’s heartbeat — steady, unyielding, curious as ever. They don’t just brew beer; they distill intent. Pale ales built the altar, fresh hops kept the faith, and stouts still stare unblinking into the dark.
Today’s Peaks & Pints flight is a pilgrimage — five chapters in the ongoing gospel of Sierra Nevada: the spark that started the fire, the beer that bottled the harvest, the seasonal hymn that smells like winter hope, the sun-drunk haze that refuses to behave, and the barrel-aged beast that proves even shadow can sing. Raise a glass, pilgrim — this is the story of American craft, still breathing, still bitter, still impossibly bright.
Peaks & Pints Sierra Nevada Celebration Flight
Sierra Nevada Brewing Pale Ale (Draught Style)
5.6% ABV | American Pale Ale
The beer that reprogrammed a nation’s palate, one pine-bright sip at a time. Sierra Nevada’s draught-style Pale Ale is the unassuming rebel that started it all — bold but balanced, grapefruit-tart yet grounded, timeless but never tame. Brewed with whole-cone Cascade hops and two-row malt, it hums with caramel warmth and citrus voltage, finishing crisp and quietly electric. It’s not just the blueprint; it’s the spark, the first hymn in the American hop gospel — still preaching, still pure.
Sierra Nevada Northern Hemisphere Harvest (2025)
6.7% ABV | Wet Hop IPA
Where the legend of the fresh hop begins. Brewed with Centennial hops snatched straight from Yakima’s fields and rushed into the kettle still singing with chlorophyll, Northern Hemisphere drinks like October caught in a pint. The aroma bursts green and radiant — citrus oil, pine sap, rain on cedar — all riding a soft malt backbone that grounds the chaos. The finish is dry, resinous, almost meditative. It’s not just a beer; it’s the annual harvest sermon — reverent, fleeting, divine.
Sierra Nevada Celebration (2025)
6.8% ABV | Fresh-Crop Whole-Cone IPA
Every year, when the air sharpens and the fields in Yakima fall quiet, Sierra Nevada lights its annual beacon — Celebration, the beer that somehow makes nostalgia taste like citrus and pine. First brewed in 1981, it’s the original holiday IPA, a winter hymn to the first hops of the new crop. The 2025 release keeps the faith: whole-cone Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook, kiln-dried and rushed from the fields to the kettle, saturate every corner of the pint with grapefruit peel, pine resin, orange pith, and a halo of caramel malt. The body is firm but fleet, the bitterness a clean, resinous strike that vanishes like breath on cold glass. Forget the cocoa and candles; this is how beer celebrates winter: green, golden, and alive.
Sierra Nevada Peachy Little Thing
7% ABV | Hazy IPA
Here comes trouble, wearing sunlight like perfume. Peachy Little Thing takes Sierra Nevada’s soft, hazy core and drenches it in orchard sweetness — Alora and Magnum hops swirling through wheat and oats until the glass hums with ripe stone fruit and citrus heat. It’s juicy but not naive, playful yet sly, finishing just dry enough to make you chase another sip. Think peaches with a plot twist, summer flirting with sin.
Sierra Nevada Barrel-Aged Narwhal
11.9% ABV | Imperial Stout (Bourbon Barrel-Aged)
When the lights go low, this is what Sierra Nevada whispers. Barrel-Aged Narwhal begins as a fearsome imperial stout, then spends a year in Kentucky bourbon barrels, trading rage for resonance. What surfaces is velvet darkness: oak, vanilla, espresso, charred sugar, and warmth that lingers like candle smoke on glass. Each sip unfurls — firelight, restraint, revelation. It’s less beer than benediction, proof that even monsters can grow old gracefully.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
