(Chico, CA) – It is unusual to see beers that are widely available get much attention in beer forums but Sierra Nevada Celebration is an exception. It got some 20-25 forums mentions at Beer Advocate last year, not bad for a beer that is not a special release/one-off. Here are a few notes on this year’s batch along with some info on the upcoming Life & Limb. According to the brewery’s Bill Manley, the beer was sent out on schedule on Monday and will filter out across the country over the next couple weeks. Wisconsin should be a late arrival sometime in early November.

Sierra Nevada will continue to make Celebration into early November and expects to brew around 40,000 BBL’s this year. Manley notes, “Depending on how the market reacts the amount could go up or down.”

“In that 40k, about 30% goes to draft and 70% in to bottles. Almost 9,000,000 12 oz bottles. So roughly, 374,000 cases. About one third of that is 12 packs, so 100,000 12 packs. To make matters more complicated, we also release Celebration in 24 bottle loosepack cases for Costco and the like, and new this year, 24oz bottles. […] Celebration is one of our best sellers and I believe our second biggest beer volume-wise after Pale Ale.”

Next up after the first wave of Celebration is the collaboration with Dogfish Head, “Life and Limb.” 3,000 cases have been produced so there will be limited availability.

“We bottled the beer on Tuesday and it is now in our warehouse conditioning. The beer is bottle conditioned with Birch syrup and is pretty strong, 10.2% ABV. Since birch is a new medium for us, we’re giving some extra time in the conditioning warehouse before release. The pending date is 11/9/09. However, we are having a release party beer dinner in San Francisco with Ken and Sam on 11/8 and in New York with Ken and Sam on the 15th. These will probably be the first venues to see each beer, and they’re on cask! Tickets for both events will be available online in the next few days.”

Manley estimates that “about 45% is staying in California and about 45% will be in the Northeast near Delaware (DC, VA, MD, PA, NY, MA) the other 10% is going out to the rest of the country.”