Could Celly Drippins Become The Next Pliny The Younger?
Just when you think you’ve defeated the final boss and obtained that case of Sierra Nevada’s Celebration for the holidays, you find out that there’s a final-final boss. When brewers at their stunning North Carolina facility empty a tank of their iconic Fresh Hop IPA, the dry-hop bags full of soaked Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook stay behind, dangling in suspension by a pulley system, dripping into the cone of the fermenter. The cellar team collects every last drop of beer from those saturated bags, keg it off, and taps this supercharged Celebration IPA called Celly Drippins at the Mills River taproom for a limited time. As the legend of Celebration continues to grow, so too will the interest from beer fans to make the pilgrimage for this extra special 10oz pour.
I don’t know what’s more impressive: the creation of the Pliny the Younger by Russian River Brewing, or their ability to keep it a phenomenon this many 𝚢̶𝚎̶𝚊̶𝚛̶𝚜̶ decades later. Last February, over 25,000 attendees descended upon the original Santa Rosa Brewpub and new Windsor brewery, split equally between both locations. Attendees generated an economic impact of $8.6M according to a study shared by the Sonoma Country Economic Development Board, a number that has grown every year since 2018, including a 37% increase from 2023 to 2024. While the ability to take home bottles the last 4—5 years has been a great addition, it’s about the journey for most attendees than it is the limited amount of time they’re allotted at the actual destination.
You know what town could also use an economic boost after a brutal 2024? Asheville, NC. The city, located about 20 minutes from Sierra Nevada’s show piece Mills River brewery, is already up there among the best beer destinations in the country. Celly Drippings could begin serving as an additional catalyst for more fans to build a trip that centers around the timing of this draft whale’s release.
This appears to be the first year that they announced the tapping ahead of time and they shared that it sold out in record time soon after. Short of major production changes, I would expect the need for more of a ticketing system and elimination of crowler sales to arise as soon as next year. Last night I shared a TikTok video of my own experience opening a crowler with the crew at the Beer Temple and within a few hours, comments like this began to pile up:
The challenge with this lofty goal of becoming a Pliny the Younger-like phenomenon lies in the fact that only about 1 Barrel of Celly Drippins is collected for every 5,000 BBLs of Celebration brewed. Sierra Nevada’s Innovation Brewmaster Scott Jennings told All About Beer’s John Holl last year that the 2023 yield amounted to about 6 BBLs total, or 12 kegs. That leaves zero potential for a can release in order to preserve the sacred process in which this beer is collected. The engineering differences at the original brewery Chico, CA doesn’t make the beer currently feasible there either.
While Celebration’s popularity could continue to rise, leading to additional turns of the brewhouse, Sierra Nevada might need to move mountains in order to satisfy the future demand for this drip. But the bread crumbs are already starting to be left behind 👀
