Sierra Nevada Changes, Rumors & News (2022)

Hate to see Oktoberfest go away. It’s been a ritual the past several years to seek it out.

Will there be a beer to replace it in the seasonal lineup (like the session ipa replaced summerfest)?

I hope that in the future SN will at least distribute Oktoberfest in a mix pack, as they did with summerfest in this year’s club pack.
Cheers!

 

@SierraTerence

Howdy and thanks for the info. My questions are

Will Celebration and Bigfoot be making the cut? I have seen very little BF the last few years. Will Celebration be bottled again this year? Are you able to elaborate about the sales of these two beers? why is the farm porter a CA Only beer for shipping? Will shipping orders ship only from CA,I live on the East coast and my Bigfoot shipped from CA. Why not can these beers you are shipping? Porter in bottles is just too much to ship. With kettle sour seeming quite popular did Otra vez not sell well? I loved the first version, second one not so much. Keep making great beer, I’m sure along the way I will find new favorites.

Enjoy

 

Years ago I was a semi-regular at a craft brewery tap where I had been acquainted with an owner/brewer since his homebrewing days 30 years earlier. I once told him that I was disappointed that he wasn't offering his (spectacular, in my opinion) ESB at the brewery any more. He told me it was a favorite of his, but couldn't brew it because it didn't have the demand to support it. The local brewery will also cut products when their volume falls too low.

 

As it should be.

 

Feel like he's the type of person that gets mad when his favorite punk band "sells out" too.

 

I don't have a favorite punk band. They all suck.

I'm not mad, just sad that enjoyable, affordable beers across multiple styles aren't good enough for the next generation. Enjoy the never-ending stream of identical Hazy Little Bullshit beers that come out of two large facilities. Except for my annual case of Bigfoot and sixer of Celebration, I no longer have a need for SN.

 

I'm happy to support Sierra Nevada. Sounds like you aren't. Free market or whatever.

 

You sound mad becuase half that post was Sour.

It's NOT the brewers fault. Would you prefer they stop making beer that make them money and they shut their doors? Then you have no sixfoot or celebration.
Or they make hazy shit for hazy bros and middle aged office worker bros who think they drink good beer and you still get your BF and Celebration.

 

I'm more pissed that i can't get narwhal in CA , but with the amount of other Imperial Stouts i buy it prolly isnt worth them brewing and shipping it just so i can buy a single pint can every month or so

 

Breweries used to be about losing money though and appeasing people who buy one six pack of their beer every six months.

 

I guess I need a truly local craft brewery to go all in on the lager game and crush it. Something like Enegren with good pricing, pretty please.

 

Those have been delicious over the years. I remember when SN did a rotating hop series as well and I particularly remember a "wild" hop variety from New Mexico. Oh, those were the days.

 

What part of California are you in?

Enegren ships for pretty cheap

 

Last time I got a case it was $40. That's not cheap in my book. It used to be cheaper.

 

Well gas ain't cheap either so thats understandable.
HairoftheDog was tryina charge me 30 bucks shipping for a 12 shipper and i said fuck that.

A lot of local breweries here are making märzen, shwarzbier, helles and all the others in my area so theres really no need to go to Enegren.
Trader Joes carries Enegren as well

 

depends on the brewery, some of them are definitely actively striving for that.

depends what you mean by "craft beer ethos". Sierra Nevada still does a lot more for their communities and to limit their negative environmental impacts that the likes of Constellation or ABI

Take it up with the 20 somethings that dont want to buy those styles

 

That does appear to be the situation for the larger, distributing craft breweries.

It seems to me that the craft brewing business model is 'evolving' whereby the vast majority of craft breweries are small, local breweries and in all likelihood will remain small and local (i.e., little to no chance to become "big guys").

If you believe the good bye manifesto that Greg Koch wrote he truly believed what he espoused in the past (e.g., Stone will never, ever sell out to big beer) but in 2022 things have changed and due to the changing craft beer market conditions a sale to big beer is now warranted.

I suppose in this thread we can have a side discussion on who we think that Sierra Nevada will sell out to?

Cheers!

 

Lagers are coming back. Even the biggest names in the Haze game are putting out really good lagers, and multiple styles of them.