What is your holiday tradition? Do you gather with your family around the fire and play Scrabble? Do you go ice skating and sledding before making a warm cup of cocoa? Perhaps you light the candles in the Menorah for Hanukkah with your parents on Zoom. You could light the kinara for Kwanzaa and talk about the seven principles. Or maybe just pulling the box of ornaments off the top shelf of your garage and setting up the tree is your festive custom. 

At Sierra Nevada, they celebrate the holidays a little differently. Not with hot cocoa. Not with eggnog. Not even with an imperial stout. 

For forty years, every time the winter rolls around, they celebrate with fresh hops. 

Each year, Sierra Nevada picks the best, freshest Cascade and Centennial hops before rushing home to throw them into that year's Celebration Fresh Hop IPA. 

Picked and brewed with at the peak of their freshness, these hops will give off very aromatic citrus, pine, and floral notes. 

In other words, aromas reminiscent of the holidays. 

"It's a magical time at the brewery," writes Sierra Nevada on its website. "When breweries huddle around the fermentation tanks, toasting the start of a special season with a holiday beer in hand." 

In this week's special episode of Drinking Socially, hosts Harrison Hickok and Kyle Roderick chat with Sierra Nevada's Innovation Supervisor Isaiah Mangold and Project Manager Terence Sullivan about the magic behind Sierra Nevada's iconic seasonal beer!

Catch the latest episode on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. 

And don't miss out on the Sierra Nevada Celebration badge. To earn this badge: Check-in one (1) Celebration Fresh Hop IPA from Sierra Nevada between November 11, 2022, and December 16, 2022.