Sierra Nevada Dank Little Thing

So. I'm pretty eh/meh on Hazy Little Thing, Sunny Little Thing, Tropical Little Thing, Juicy Little Thing. I've tried them all, and they're all fine - but not something I'd go out and buy again. In fact, they all have this mass-produced, not like a micro-brewery-at-all vibe to them and the variations are like the difference between Vanilla and French Vanilla.

I saw a Youtuber post about Dank Little Thing and he said it was actually one he would buy. I saw it on my grocery store's shelf so I picked it up.

It is like no beer I've had before. While not exactly dank to my nose and taste, it gives off this foresty mint and spruce character I've just not encountered in a beer. It also has some kind of undecipherable fruitiness too - but not in a juicy way - just to give a little bit of sweetness mid-palate. Then it finishes with a proper WC bitterness.

Believe me, I was skeptical because of my experience with SN Little Thing series, and the 7.5% ABV also had me raising an eyebrow. But I actually think this is a unique tasting beer that I would buy again, and the most interesting SN hoppy beer to me since Hop Hunter.

Anyone else actually try this? I'm really pleasantly surprised.

 

All the hop varietals check out. The munich and oats intrigues the mouth. Please start making little beer that is actually smaller than 7% for better truthiness. Aside from that verbal miscue. Where is this, and why isn't it in my tum tum?

 

Finally got to try this.

As a die-hard Sierra Nevada fanboy and a big fan of dank notes in IPAs, this was a miss for me. Nothing too “dank/west coast” about the flavor notes (I know it’s a hazy) and it reminded me way too much of the regular hazy little thing.

Dankful is far better than this beer, but really hard to find. Oh well. I still have some Celebration left and Torpedo is always around.

 

I'm certain I saw this at my local Costco at the weekend (SF East Bay), it was part of a mix pack where there were four six packs of cans. The theme of the pack seemed to be big/strong beers, the other beers were: Big Little Thing, Atomic Torpedo and Hop Bullet Magnum. From what I gather Costco sometimes have these type of packs. There was also one during christmas that had a winter warmer type beer.

 

Dankful is currently available in a mixed case at Costco

 

Yeah that's definitely what it looked like

 

My regular store is relatively good about not having old stock, but they still have a stack of Fan Favorites from July. Just imagine if those weren't such "fan favorites."

 

I bought a 6 pack of this last week and have been nursing it ever since. I had high (ba-dum-tiss) hopes for it but can say that it's probably the worst Sierra Nevada beer I've ever had. The overwhelming flavor I get is Moscow Mule, which is fine if a) that's intentional, and b) you like it, but it really, really missed the mark for me.

 

That is still better than never getting Fan Favorites in the first place.

 

Whole Foods has many of the DLFs, with multiple package dates, the latest of which is mid-January, so I got a sixer. From the first try, it is an in-between WC and NE IPA — something I usually like similar to Fiddlehead, or Cape May Coastal Evacuation. Not bad, and better than other "little things", but also not quite SN's best offering.

 

I see them too. I did my part when they were fresh. welp

 

Actually I got dankful yesterday at Costco in a high gravity mixed case. Tastes just as great as I remember. I wish I could get a whole case of dankful

 

I think the worst SN beer I ever had was still head and shoulders better than a lot of the beers crowding shelves these days.

 

Today in that February/cellar tasting thread, I made a reference to a 2015 Torpedo that I drank last year. That beer held up remarkably well. Here was a comment I made back when I had it:

“I think it's fair to say I probably enjoyed this one more than a ton of fresh IPAs I could have drank instead.”

I was being honest, but it’s worth noting that fresh Torpedo is my favorite American IPA.

Oddly enough, the worst Sierra Nevada beer I ever had was a 1 year old Oktoberfest (one of the collabs), but that bottle felt like it was abused.