Sierra Nevada Pale Ale goes into production

What was going on around it

An event on its own is a date. These are the periods it belongs to, where the argument about what changed is actually made.

• Consolidation and revival

  Choice narrowed almost everywhere for thirty years, and then was rebuilt from below — by a consumer campaign in Britain and by homebrewers in the United States, for quite different reasons.

Why it matters

The most influential single beer of the American craft movement, still in production and largely unchanged.

How well this is established

Styles this shaped

• American pale ale4.5–6.2% ABV

  The beer that defined American craft brewing: clean pale malt under bright citrus and pine hop character, balanced rather than extreme.

Traditions

• American craft brewing — The post-1980 American movement built on intense hop character, reinterpretation of European styles, and rapid categorical change.