Was it worth the trip? Absolutely!
Once a year Sierra Nevada releases their rarest and most sought-after brew - Celly Drippins! It is only available for a limited time in their taprooms at Mills River, NC and Chico, CA. This year I was gifted VIP tickets, by our Sierra Nevada sales rep, to get in early and be one of the first to try this year’s release.
Celly Drippins is made from the “drippins” of the dry-hop bags used to make their annual Fresh Hop IPA “Celebration.” They squeeze out all they can get to use in another, more hop concentrated, batch of Celebration. This stuff is like pure hop juice! If you like your brew bold, bitter, and resinous, this is the beer for you!
Due to the arduous process used to make this craft beer, the yield is very small - only a handful of barrels. And they sell out almost as quickly as they can pour the beer.
I was told by one of the team members at Sierra Nevada that this brew was a house secret for many years. It was brewed and reserved for the staff only - but the word got out, demand increased and they now release this brew to the public annually.
I stood in line with other VIPs as we were told to arrive on-time. Those ahead of me had “Sierra Nevada Gold Cards” which granted them early access. I do not have a gold card, so I had to briefly explain I was “On the list.” The woman checking us in looked at my “Carolina Beer Temple” t-shirt and without even looking at her clipboard, said with confidence, “Yes, of course you’re on the list!” And let us pass.
As a VIP the line was small, it was easy to grab a cold Celly Drippins and head out to the balcony at Sierra Nevada’s Mills River location. Both the day and the brew were fantastic!
If you are already familiar with the bold hop profile of Celebration, you can imagine what this beer tastes like - it is exactly what you’d expect! An absolute palate wrecker in the most desired way possible.
It might have been my imagination, but it tasted like the hop profile got even more concentrated the deeper into my pint I got.
After the VIPs got their first dibs on the Drippins’ they opened the doors to the general public. When I went inside to get my second pint the line was now at least 50-70 people deep! It wrapped around the taproom and down the hallway and I literally could not see the end of it.
For this occasion, the owner of Sierra Nevada, his wife and son were all in attendance. I did not realize what was going on as I was outside on the balcony and there were additional festivities taking place on the stage inside, which included a group toast and culminated in a bluegrass band playing some tunes.
Joining me for the festivities was an old friend of mine. He had not taken a tour of the brewery before, so we grabbed a second pint and began the self-guided tour.
The brewery was already decorated for Christmas and holiday tunes played over the house sound system.
Along the long hallway that extends across the entire brewery, there are glass display cabinets. These are normally filled with Sierra Nevada memorabilia - things like bottles and cans or newspaper clipping talking about the history of the brewery. For Christmas these cabinets are full of nothing but Santa Clauses. Hundreds and hundreds of Santa Clauses!
When we first noticed them we stopped to take a look. As we checked out all sorts of Santa Clauses - from the cute ones to the creepy ones - a man walked up behind us and said, “The Santas are pretty cool, aren’t they?” We certainly thought so.
After he walked away, my mind told me that he “looked familiar.” But I kept it to myself.
We continued the self-guided tour - past the copper kettles, past the hop room, past the giant fermenters and all the way to the bottling line. On our way back, we stopped again at one of the Santa displays (there were probably a dozen or more of them). When we stopped the second time, the same guy stopped and spoke to us again. “It’s quite the collection!”
“Indeed, it is!” And I made a little small talk with him about the Santas before he walked off again.
“That’s him!” I told my friend. “Who?” he asked. “That’s the owner of Sierra Nevada!” I did a quick search on my phone and pulled up his picture! “That was him! That’s Ken Grossman.”
Ken Grossman, owner of Sierra Nevada
Being the craft beer aficionado that I am, I’m a little embarrassed to say I didn’t recognize him right away - but now I have an even better story to tell. Like a cameo appearance in a movie, he had a little fun with us behaving like a regular Joe in the hallway chatting with the patrons as we all enjoyed the bitter delights of Celly Drippins.
Cheers!
Rob Jacik (President & Owner, Carolina Beer Temple)