Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale Clone Recipe

One of my all-time favorites is Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale, and I’d like to have it year-around. That’s why I started digging for a Celebration ale clone recipe.
Celebration ale a full-bodied IPA brewed with two-row malt, caramel malt, and the season’s freshest hops. In true Sierra Nevada style, Cascade and Centennial hops are in the spotlight. A touch of Carapils malt adds a frothy white head that lasts and lasts, providing a billowing pillow for the spicy hop aroma that emanates from the glass.
As a big time mega craft brewer, Sierra Nevada has access to the very first hops of the harvest. Given the changes in the growing season from year to year, Celebration is a little different each year it’s brewed. If you grew your own hops this year, you may want to play around with your own crop. If adding your own fresh, un-dried hops to the boil, read this short article about wet hopping. Otherwise, we can still obtain abundant hop flavor and aroma using pellets.
The following Celebration ale clone recipe is adapted from the October 2000 issue of Brew Your Own magazine. Use it to enjoy Celebration Ale year round!

Celebration Ale Clone Recipe
(All Grain, 5 Gallon Recipe)
Specifications:
OG = 1.064
FG = 1.014
IBUs = 60
SRM = 12
ABV = 6.4%
Ingredients:
11.5 lbs. two-row malt
1 lb. Crystal 40L malt
.5 lb. Carapils malt
1 oz. Chinook hops at :60 (11 AAUs)
1.75 oz. Cascade hops at :30 (8.5 AAUs)
1 tsp. Irish moss at :15 mins
.66 oz. Cascade hops (dry hop)
.66 oz. Centennial hops (dry hop)
Wyeast 1056: American Ale Yeast or Safale US-05
.75 cups corn sugar (if bottling)
Directions:
Mash the grains with a single infusion at the higher end of the temperature range (~156°F) for big body and mouthfeel. Draw off and sparge to collect enough wort for a full-volume boil. Boil for 90 minutes, adding the hops according to the schedule. Add 1 teaspoon of Irish moss with 15 minutes left in the boil. Whirpool, chill, and transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenter, then ferment at 66°-70°F for seven days. Dry hop for five days in secondary. Bottle or keg at you would normally.

Partial Mash Option
If you are not an all-grain brewer, no fear. Here is an alternate procedure for making a Celebration ale clone from extract in a partial mash.
Replace the two-row malt with 6.6 lbs. light LME and 2.75 lbs. two-row malt. Steep the two-row with the Crystal 40L and Carapils (all crushed) for 30 minutes in 1.5 gallons of water at 156°F. Strain out the grains and rinse them with 1 gallon of water at 170°F, collecting the runoff in the boil kettle. Mix in the liquid malt extract and bring to a boil.
Boil for 90 minutes, adding the hops according to the schedule. Add 1 teaspoon of Irish moss with 15 minutes left in the boil. Whirpool, chill, and transfer to a clean, sanitized fermenter, topping off with enough water to make five gallons. Ferment at 66°-70°F for seven days. Dry hop for five days in secondary. Bottle or keg at you would normally.
And there you have it… a Celebration ale clone recipe for brewing all-grain or extract in a partial mash, so know is the time to get started!
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder and editor of the Local Beer Blog.