Sierra Nevada Wants to “Revitalize” This Classic American Beer Style

In the age of the IPA, do Americans still want pale ales? Sierra Nevada is betting on it.

closeup of sierra nevada pale ale beer can

Published August 21, 2024

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Taste may be subjective but you won’t find many beer lovers who disparage Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. If it isn’t the most universally beloved craft beer of all time, it’s certainly one of the most influential.

When Pale Ale came out over 40 years ago, American beer was big and it was bland. “For the most part, it was really a light-lager landscape,” Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman once told Gear Patrol in an interview.

Back then, Pale Ale was loud, brash and unapologetically hoppy. To make it, Grossman used Cascade hops, a relatively fringe variety at the time, to “Americanize the beer we were producing,” he said.

Sierra Nevada is the third largest craft brewer in the country, with Pale Ale paving the way for Americans’ obsession with even hoppier beers.

Decades later, Sierra Nevada is the third largest craft brewer in the country, according to the Brewers Association, with Pale Ale paving the way for Americans’ obsession with even hoppier ales — such as Torpedo Extra IPA within Sierra Nevada’s own catalog.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Torpedo Extra IPA — It’d be fair to say that without Pale Ale, hoppy IPAs like Torpedo within Sierra Nevada’s own catalog wouldn’t be America’s de facto beer style.

In fact, by today’s standards, the beer community describes Pale Ale as “balanced,” “very smooth” and “rounded out with no intense sharp edges.” In other words, a respected recipe but not exactly cutting-edge.

Which begs the question: in the age of the IPA, is Pale Ale yesteryear’s beer?

Still relevant?

It’s a valid inquiry, and one that’s been broached plenty of times on Reddit and other forums.

A few months ago, one writer for The San Diego Tribune went so far to ask whether pale ales, as a style, were “going the way of the dinosaurs in beer world.”

Sierra Nevada isn’t convinced. In fact, the brewer doesn’t just think Pale Ale is an artifact of its history but the key to its future, too.

In a presentation to wholesalers this month, leadership at the brewery outlined its top priorities going into 2025, including “revitalizing Pale Ale,” Brewbound reported.

sierra nevada beer — Sierra Nevada has released variations on Pale Ale before, such as the Hoppy 40 Year Anniversary Ale, but they never stay around for long.

It’s not yet clear what that means for the iconic brew but it could mean Sierra Nevada will release special, one-off editions of Pale Ale that put the style on the forefront of drinkers’ minds.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

In 2021, for example, Sierra Nevada released the Hoppy 40 Year Anniversary Ale. That beer paid tribute to Pale Ale by adding Cluster and Centennial to its Cascade-dominant hop profile, and it’s easy to see the brewery remixing that formula with all the new varietals available to brewers.

Quality and quantity

Doing so would track with where Sierra Nevada sees additional growth in today’s shifting beer market.

During the presentation to wholesalers, it outlined a handful of other priorities that ranged from expanding its Little Thing series to diversifying its non-alcoholic offerings through the new Trail Pass line, Brewbound reported.

This year, Sierra Nevada added a wet-hop IPA with cryogenically frozen hops to its Little Thing line and plans to introduce a West Coast IPA in the near future.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. hazy ipa — Sierra Nevada has spent much of the last few years expanding its offerings in other lines, such as the Little Thing series.

It will also introduce new NA variety packs to bring more awareness to non-alcoholic beer and showcase two new styles, including a hazy IPA and Mexican-style blonde ale.

Could we see the same for Pale Ale?

No matter what the brewery does, more Sierra Nevada beer is rarely, if ever, a bad thing.