Sierra Nevada is stealing the show

False.

If you prefer to drink SN, go for it! I love me some Torpedo from time to time. But your statement above is false and makes your argument entirely unsound.

 

I don't see any irony involved. The local neo-beer geek sipping his hand bottled wax-dipped $32 white whale that arrived in the mail probably also buys some Sierra Nevada. Cuz that guy is me.

 

I'm that guy as well. Sipping on a SN pale as I type.

 

While I agree that Sierra Nevada is a good beer for the $ I am more than a few steps away from calling it a superior beer over any number of other micro and not-so-micro breweries in the USA. But that's just my 2 cents.

 

I'm old and don't have the time or patience to always seek out the "white whales".
I spend most of my beer money on Sierra.

 

Yeah, I don't think this is even close. Sierra makes some good beer, but saying SNPA is on par with something like Black Tuesday, Beatification or even Cantillon Classic Geuze is just close minded.

Don't get me wrong, I'll drink SNPA over a ton of other beers out there, but there are also many I would choose over it as well.

 

$32 white whales don't have slugs in em

 

I enjoy a lot of different sierra nevada beers but there are a lot of others that i prefer. The 32$ whales that i would drink wouldn't be every day beer because lets be honest i cant afford to drink 2-3 32$ beers per day but once in a while i will buy and enjoy one and when i do, it is nothing close to being a similar experiance as a SNPA.

 

Sierra Nevada is great. I drink their beer a lot, kind of like my go-to beer for the money. I also drink those fancy beers you speak of and find some of them to be of higher quality and more enjoyable. Sierra Nevada just doesn't even need the social media. They have established themselves with great beer, this happened a long time ago.

PS. Most people buying rare or expensive beer probably aren't using it to break ice or be trendy. There are much easier ways to do that.

 

I really like Sierra Nevada. They're consistently solid at worst, can be found just about anywhere, are generally reasonably priced, and have good business practices. If I need a cheap sixer to bring to a friend's, I won't hesitate to grab some great SN. However, they rarely make it into my regular line-up because, while I've not had a single bad beer from them, I've also yet to have a beer from them that really wowed me and made me crave more. Now if they would put their bourbon barrel-aged tripel in bottles, I'd always have a few bottles on hand.

 

I like SN. I think SN gets alot of respect and love. Not everything they produce is a homerun but they have a very solid arsonal, I love Torpedo, Celebration, Juniper Black Ale, and Bigfoot and Tumbler are pretty tasty, and their Anniversary beers were good. SNPA, it is what it is.. it's good but not the best, although it would be the first pale ale inducted to the Pale Ale Hall of Fame. And I've had some beers from them I was never really interested in. I appreciate what they do and how it's so easily accessible to the masses.. but unfortunately they're are quite a few breweries I'd personally put ahead of SN based on flavors, not business.

 

The only reason Sierra Nevada does not get praised as much as some other breweries is that it brews no "rare" beers. I've read that SN is going to release a BBA Bigfoot this year. No doubt it will be awesome but since they will brew enough of it to sell nationwide it will never be "rare" only great.

 

Agree with many of the OP's sentiments. Add (sorta) bottle dating to the "pros" column for SN.

 

This. The premise that you have two different drinkers here is entirely silly. The SN drinker IS the whale drinker, at least in this community. And the guy who only drinks SN is missing out on a LOT. Yeah, he is having good beers at a low cost. But there are better beers out there. I think it is generally a matter of money.

 

Goodness gracious! Sierra nevada is a great brewing company and I love them very much and its OK that not everyone feels the same way I do.

 

I think it depends on who you consider competition for Sierra Nevada. Sierra's size I believe puts it in a different weight class than many other craft breweries. Are you comparing Sierra to Boston Beer Co.? Anchor? New Belgium? Saranac? I think Sierra does very well, but I wouldn't say they are crushing the likes of New Belgium. The others, maybe. I know I haven't bought anything from Sam Adam's in quite a while.

 

Kellerwies has been my go to wheat beer for a long time. I agree they are consistent and make some great beers, but your whole irony statement doesn't seem true to me.