Nov. 15, 1980: 26-year-old Ken Grossman brewed his first commercial beer, four years after launching his home-brewing hobby. There were just 40 breweries of all makes in the country, with sales dominated by Coors, Miller, and Budweiser. From modest beginnings on a 10-barrel brew system, Grossman now owns and operates the largest independent brewery in America ― Sierra Nevada Brewing. Grossman’s second batch, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, boasted 36 IBUs, at least thrice as high as Bud Light. Peaks and Pints doesn’t know how many times we’ve heard someone say they tried a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on a whim in the 1980s, and that was all she wrote. Sierra was their introduction to the world of craft beer. The bitter hops were a palate shocker — a proverbial beer awakening. Since debuting its Hazy Little Thing back in January 2018, Sierra Nevada has developed a solid portfolio of beers using the Little Thing tagline. Wild Little Thing came next that was followed by Big Little Thing and Sunny Little Thing. With the arrival of Cool Little Things, Peaks & Pints presents a flight of Sierra Nevada’s Little Things — a flight we’re calling Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Sierra Nevada Little Things.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Sierra Nevada Little Things
Sierra Nevada Wild Little Thing
5.5% ABV
Sierra Nevada has reached out to younger and non-beer drinkers with this slightly tart and hazy ale with a bright pink pop of color. Wild Little Thing is a highly refreshing, slightly sour ale with just the right smack of tartness. Brewed with hibiscus, guava, and strawberry, it hits the nose with cherry, strawberry, blueberry, and grape. Strawberry flavors are there, sure, but we also get cherry, blueberry, and apple. The finish is long with a surprisingly thick, coating mouthfeel.
Sierra Nevada Juicy Little Thing
6.5% ABV
Jammed Citra, El Dorado, Mosaic, Sterling hops, Juicy Little Thing uses a specialized yeast to enhance the fruity notes, while also refining the smooth mouthfeel that helps boost the juice. It hits the nose with dank buds and citrusy undertones. Taste is buddy hops right up front with pine fading into sweet grapefruit and tropical fruit finishing heavy on the dank bud flavor.
Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing
6.7% ABV
Sean Lavery joined Sierra Nevada in 2017 as vice president of technical innovation and brewing replacing Steve Dressler, who had overseen Sierra Nevada’s brewing program since the early ’80s and had overseen the development of almost every new beer for 30 years. With the rise of hazy IPAs, Lavery was tasked with developing the extremely successful Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing IPA, which he launched in January 2018. It is now Sierra Nevada’s best-selling draft product, and even outperforms its iconic Pale Ale, which launched in 1980. The beer’s base contained a complex blend of malted and unmalted oats and wheat, whose proteins would provide the all-important creamy mouthfeel and cloudy appearance (together, essentially, haze). Juicy hops and silky malt meet in a Hazy Little Thing with fruit-forward flavor, modest bitterness, and a smooth finish.
Sierra Nevada Cool Little Thing
7.5% ABV
Cool Little Thing hazy IPA unlocks juicy tropical fruit and bittersweet citrus flavors once frozen deep within Cryo Fresh Mosaic hops and a trio of other subzero Cryo varieties — Crystal, Comet, and El Dorado. The aroma is a mix of tropical and citrus fruit, pineapple forward. Flavor follows the nose, sweet up front with just enough dank bitterness in the finish to balance things out.
Sierra Nevada Big Little Thing
9% ABV
Sierra Nevada mashes their grain aggressively to yield a higher ratio of fermentable versus unfermentable sugars in their Big Little Thing double IPA. This allows yeast to metabolize nearly all sugar, which both boosts the ABV and cuts the malt sweetness. At the same time, yeast and hops collaborate on their own. Dry hopping during active fermentation sparks biotransformation: yeast cells alter the chemical compounds in hops to unlock entirely new aromas — like the tropical wave that washes over this double IPA.
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