Celebration Ale treat (not trick)

Trick-or-treating participation seems to go in cycles in my neighborhood. This year, there weren't many youngsters coming to the door.

One 3 year old's attempt at "rib-bit", dressed as he was in his frog costume, came out as "wibit, wibit". Broke my heart. [Halloween photos.]

I had a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale to celebrate the evening. And that brings me to this.

"Celebration Ale is not as good this year as it was last year," I was told a couple of days ago. I have heard that same complaint almost every year.

My father used to proudly exclaim every December that that year's Christmas tree was the best we'd ever brought home and decorated. Using that math, he must have been using Charlie Brown-like scraggly dwarf trees the first years of my life and of my two older brothers.

Calculating, but in reverse, Celebration Ale must surely have been the most awesome, unreal, ambrosial nectar of a beer the first year it was released!

For the record, the beer last night was piney and citrusy, with a touch of shortbread-like malt sweetness, and spicy at the finish. Beautifully tawny orange hued, it was as delicious as I remember it ... from last year.