Russian River

Damnation

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Damnation. No relation. Heh. Seriously, though, this is the bigger sister beer to Russian River’s Redemption (a light Belgian Pale “single” or “Patersbier”). Russian River is famous for their crazy barrel aging and sour beer experiments, but this is just a good old-fashioned Belgian Strong Pale Ale. Don’t let that fool you, though, as this is one fantastic beer. I’ve actually had it several times before, both in the bottle and on tap, and I’ve always loved it.

Russian River Damnation

Russian River Damnation – Pours a slightly cloudy light golden color with a finger of white head. Aroma is full of Belgian yeast spiciness and plenty of citrus, maybe even some lemony sweetness. Taste has lots of sweet malts along with typical Belgian spiciness and again, an almost lemony sweet twang. Not exactly tart, but it’s there. Exceptionally well balanced flavors here. Complex, but no one element is overwhelming. Mouthfeel is on the light to medium side, which is interesting considering the strength of the brew. Perhaps if I didn’t wait so long to open this sucker, the carbonation would have been a little stronger (not that this is bad or inappropriate, just different than I remember from previous tastings). Overall, it’s a fantastic brew. I’ve had this several times before, and will most likely have it again. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 7.75% ABV bottled (375 ml mini-magnum, caged and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass. Batch #60, brewed 7/9/2010, bottled 8/5/2010, and drank on 10/1/11.

Normally I would say that Russian River continues to impress, but I’m pretty sure that Damnation was actually the first Russian River beer I was ever able to get a hold of a couple years ago. It turns out that this is one of the easiest to find RR beers in the area (heck, my local Wegmans usually has some of this in stock), and it’s also relatively cheap (for a RR beer). Well worth trying out if you ever get a chance. I continue to devour whatever RR beer I can find, though at this point, I think I’ve managed to get my hands on most of the popular varieties (I think Salvation will be next on my list)…

Russian River Supplication

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Russian River’s head brewer, Vinnie Cilurzo, is an interesting guy. He started out in the winemaking world, but was apparently so taken with the fact that you could start drinking beer within a few weeks of brewing that he switched over to beer (ok, it probably wasn’t that simple, but it sez so on this bottle of Supplication, so I’m sticking with that story). Perhaps to further taunt his winemaking brethren, Cilurzo started playing around with weird wild yeasts and bacterias when making his beers. Take Supplication, which is a brown ale aged in pinot noir barrels with cherries, brettanomyces, lactobacillus, and pediococcus. Those critters certainly add a nice, complex sourness to a beer that would already be pretty flavorful. They’re also an anathema to winemakers, who apparently think Cilurzo is a nutbag for using stuff like Brett. It’s rumored that those folks won’t even enter Russian River’s brewpubs for fear of picking up some sort of bug that they’ll inadvertently bring back to their winery, infecting their wine (apparently these are hearty little creatures that are difficult to get rid of).

The irony here is that this beer was aged for well over a year before being bottled, so it looks like Cilurzo hasn’t completely escaped his winemaking roots. But this series of beers that he’s created (all aged in old wine barrels of various styles) is quite interesting, and I have to wonder if we’ll see more coordinated wine and beer collaborations in the future (another brewery that mixes expertise from both the wine and beer worlds is apparently Firestone Walker, a brewery I need to become more acquainted with). Ok, enough babble, onto the beer:

Russian River Supplication

Russian River Supplication – The cork for this was really jammed in there. I normally don’t have any issues opening corked bottles of beer, but this one took some coaxing. Pours a really gorgeous clear amber brown (copper?) color with a finger of quickly disappearing white head. The smell is filled with sweetness and funk. You get some of that wine and cherry character along with the typical funky Brett aromas. Sourness hits immediately in the taste, followed by cherries and a dry, red-wine-like finish. The sourness is really the most prominent element here, but it’s well balanced with the other elements. Mouthfeel features the characteristic twang of sour beers, but it’s compulsively drinkable. A wonderful beer, probably favorite of Russian River’s sours (that I’ve tasted so far). A-

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV bottled (375 ml caged and corked mini-magnum). Drank out of a tulip glass on 9/4/11. According to the label, this bottle was from batch 006X2, brewed on 11/7/2009 and bottled on 1/5/2011 (so it was not quite 2 years old when I drank it).

Well, I’m either getting the hang of this sour thing, or Supplication really is just that good. I will no doubt continue to dabble in the world of sour beers, though it doesn’t look like I have any in the pipeline right now, so it may be a while.

Consecration

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One of the frustrating things about reading beer blogs is that people often talk about rare or hard-to-find beers. This isn’t really a slight against anyone – as I’ve grown in my beer nerdery, I’ve certainly been guilty of this from time to time, and it really is nice when you finally find a beer you’ve been looking for. So I’m used to seeing this from the beer bloggers out there, but when the brewery itself starts taunting you, well, that’s a whole other story.

On the label for Russian River’s Consecration, they mention a beer they made for the Toronado’s 20th Anniversary (the Toronado is apparently a famous San Diego beer bar):

When we made the Toronado’s 20th Anniversary Ale, we had no idea that it would turn out to be one of our favorite barrel aged beers we would ever make. With that said, we have always wanted to make a dark barrel aged beer using 100% cabernet sauvignon barrels, but we never were inspired. That is, until we blended five different beers to make the Tornado beer, the tobacco flavor from the dark malts blended nicely with the fruit character that developed in blending. So, with Consecration we set out to make a barrel aged beer using all Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. Now, we are not saying this is a replica of the T-rooms anniversary beer, after all, a beer like that can never be duplicated, and, there was no fruit added to that beer as there is with this one. All we are saying is that it gave us great inspiration to brew Consecration.

Fortunately, Russian River knows what it’s doing, so while I’ll probably never get to try that Toronado beer, I do get to have some of the beer it inspired. Consecration is a wild ale brewed with Brettanomyces, then aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels with currants added. Sounds pretty spectacular, no?

Russian River Consecration

Russian River Consecration – Pours a dark brown color with some hints of amber shining through in the light. Small head that subsided quickly and cleanly. The smell was full of red wine and sweet malts. Tastes starts sweet with an almost immediate sourness that continues through the entire taste and dominates the finish. That quick, puckering escalation in the finish makes for a kinda neat punctuation. The sourness is the most prominent element of the taste, but it’s also reasonably well balanced. Unfortunately, I’m not getting a lot of that red wine character in the taste. Carbonation is a little lower than usual, and the body was in a medium-low range (I was kinda hoping for something a little richer in flavor, but that’s clearly not what RR is going for here). I don’t think this was quite as well executed as Russian River’s Temptation, but it’s certainly a worthy beer if you’re looking for a sour… B+

Beer Nerd Details: 10% ABV bottled (375 ml mini-magnum, caged and corked). Drank out of a goblet on 4/23/11*. According to the label, this bottle was from batch 004X1, brewed on 3/29/2009 and bottled on 2/2/10.

I think Brett beers are supposed to age reasonably well, but I have to wonder how this would have tasted if I got it fresh. In any case, sours still aren’t my favorite style, but I’m beginning to come around a bit. I have a bottle of Russian River’s famed Supplication in my fridge right now… something I’m hoping to pop open in the near future. I’m expecting a little more out of that beer than the Consecration.

* Yeah, I’m really, really behind on some of my reviews. Wanna fight about it? Expect some more old reviews in the near future as well.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp

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Before tonight, I have a vague inkling of what Sierra Nevada Beer Camp was – a sorta Willy Wonka-esque contest with the prize being a tour of their brewery, along with a chance to brew your own beer (collaborating with the other winners and the Sierra Nevada staff). Apparently you win by entering a creative video explaining why Sierra Nevada should pick you to attend – so I would never win! And until now, I was pretty sure I’d never actually get to taste any of these beers either, but imagine my luck: on the same night I got my hands on Pliny the Elder, I spied several Beer Camp beers on tap. Most excellent:

Sierra Nevada Exportation

Sierra Nevada ExPortation – So Beer Camp #25 was a Baltic Porter style beer brewed in honor of Philly Beer week by some Philly beer geeks who won a spot a Beer Camp. It was called Philadelphia ExPorter. Now I’m not sure what genius (not being sarcastic here, whoever had this idea is genius) is responsible, but someone had a brilliant idea: Hey, let’s take this Baltic Porter over to Russian River and have them age it in some Pinot Noir barrels. Fuck. Yes. It pours a nice opaque black color with a finger of tan head. The smell is outright twangy. The funk almost, but not quite, overwhelms the typical roasty aromas. In other words, it’s fantastic. The taste has a similar profile: funky sourness almost, but not quite, overwhelming roasty Porter flavors. Relatively full bodied, but a smooth and easy to drink mouthfeel. The thing that’s most amazing here is that, well, I’m not a huge fan of porters, nor have I truly acquired a taste for sour beers. And yet, this beer is almost perfect for me. It’s like the two styles cancel out the things I don’t like, and amplify the things I do. Amazing. And keep in mind that I had just drank a glass of Pliny the Elder, so the bar was set pretty high here. The only bad thing about this beer is that I will most likely never get the chance to drink it again (unless I head back over to that bar in the next couple days – certainly a possibility). A

Beer Nerd Details: 6.3% ABV on tap. Drank out of a pint glass on 6/23/11.

Sierra Nevada Hop Smack

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp #48: Hop Smack – This one has a less clear provenance. It’s not even listed on the Beer Camp site, nor does it appear on Beer Advocate. I did find the RateBeer page, but it only has one review! Basically, it’s one of them American Black Ales (or whatever the hell you call them)… actually, it said it was a Double American Black Ale. My experience with the style is limited, but since ExPortation was so awesome, and since I was unlikely to ever even see this again, I gave it a shot. It pours a very dark brown, almost black color with a finger of head. Smells surprisingly hoppy – almost no roastiness getting through to the nose. The taste is almost wholly like a DIPA. Sweet, hoppy, and bitter. At first, no roastiness at all was apparent – if you blindfolded me and made me taste, I probably would not have guessed that it was an American black ale. As it warmed up and I got to the bottom of the glass, I got the faintest hint of roastiness out of the beer, but it wasn’t much. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not a terrible beer or anything, it just doesn’t seem like a particularly good take on the style. That, or my palate was obliterated by the likes of Pliny and ExPortation (both very strongly flavored beers). I’ll give it a B-, as I was disappointed, but I suppose others might find more to like.

Beer Nerd Details: 8.1% ABV on tap. Drank out of a half-pint glass on 6/23/11.

There was another Beer Camp beer on tap, but it seemed like a plain old Pale Ale. Don’t get me wrong, I would have tried it, but after having a DIPA, a strong sour beer, and a Double ABA, I think that would have paled in comparison (pun intended!)

Russian River Pliny the Elder

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Oh, this bar looks pretty coo… holy shit, Pliny the Elder, gimme, gimme, gimme!*

Russian River Pliny the Elder

Russian River Pliny the Elder – Named after the famed “Roman naturalist, scholar, historian, traveler, officer, and writer”, Pliny the Elder was one of the folks responsible for initially classifying and documenting hops. The beer itself is somewhat legendary. It’s been at or near the top of Beer Advocate’s Top 100 Beers on Planet Earth list for a while now (last year it was at #1, right now it’s at #3). It’s also somewhat rare, which may be part of why it’s always ranked so high – a hard to find beer always tastes better once you find it! I’ve been keeping my eye out for some for a while now, and have had a couple of near misses before this, so when I actually got myself a glass tonight, I was quite pleased.

Pours a dark golden orange color, mostly clear, with a finger of perfect white head. Aroma is extremely hoppy and quite complex. Full of citrus and some pine, with a nice boozy, malty sweetness in the nose. I could hardly wait for the head to subside, so my first sip got some of that double IPA feel, but with a creamy head texture – a very good first impression. The taste starts off nice and sweet, with some citrus and pine, then you get hit with a wave of bitterness that intensifies as you approach the finish. Sometimes I feel like a lot of DIPAs overcompensate with massive amounts of malt, actually leading to less bitterness (despite the higher amount of hops/IBUs,etc…), but not Pliny. This isn’t to say that it’s overwhelmingly bitter or anything – it’s actually just perfectly balanced. Every component sings. Mouthfeel is also extremely smooth (I’d say “velvety” if I knew what velvet tasted like) and it goes down incredibly easy. I could drink these all night, which usually isn’t the case for beers this big.

I really suck at picking favorites and whatnot, so while I don’t really know if this beer deserves the title of “The Best Beer on Planet Earth”, it certainly deserves to be in that top 100 list and, more importantly, it wasn’t a letdown. All too often, I’ve tried a beer from the BA top 100 and wondered what all the fuss was about. Of course, this may have lowered my expectations somewhat for this beer, but I was still hoping for a lot. In any case, I can see why everyone loves this beer. If you ever get a chance, and if you like IPAs, you must try one. It’s a delicious and complex beer. A

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV on tap. Drank out of a, what would you call that, a goblet?

Now, of course, my focus shifts to finding me some of Pliny the Elder’s rarer sibling, Pliny the Younger. I expect that to be a much more difficult task – apparently only a handful of kegs make their way to the East Coast every year. I’m not complaining – most areas are not fortunate enough to get any of that beer, and Philly seems to always get at least some (even if you have to wait in line for hours just to get a few ounces).

* Ok, so I was actually told ahead of time that the bar had Pliny on tap, but still. I’ve been told this before and still missed out on some Pliny goodness (this stuff don’t last long). Thanks to friend and fellow beer lover Mike for the tipoff!

Again with the IPA Double Feature

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I didn’t plan this, I swears! There just happened to be some interesting IPAs on tap last night:

Russian River Blind Pig IPA

Russian River Blind Pig IPA – Apparently this bar had a keg of the vaunted Pliny the Elder on tap a couple days ago, but I missed out and had to settle for Russian River’s standard IPA offering (Not that I mind too much, as this has been on my wants list for quite a while!) Pours a clear golden color with a couple fingers of bubbly white head. It’s got a fantastic smell – citrus and floral hops, maybe a little pine. Taste matches the aroma well, with that nice bracing bitterness coming through prominently. Extremely well balanced. Mouthfeel is very smooth. A dangerously easy drink – I could drink these all night. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Victory’s Hop Devil. Maybe not the best IPA ever, but overall a fantastic beer. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 6.1% ABV on tap. Drank out of a shaker pint glass.

Victory Hop Wallop on cask

Victory Hop Wallop – Yes, I’ve reviewed this before, but this time… it was on Cask! I’ve really come to enjoy beers on cask, but I have to say, I don’t think this was a good match. Perhaps I got this one too long after the cask had been tapped (beer in casks quickly degrade), but it was a real disappointment. Gone are all the fantastic grapefruit and orange aromas, gone is the tart citrus in the taste. Cask pours usually produce a smoother beer, but this was still pretty well carbonated, and it just didn’t work right for me. What I was left with was an ordinary bitter and boozy IPA… which isn’t that bad for what it is, but it’s not as good as what I had in the bottle. Again, not sure what the source of this disconnect is – it could be the cask (or associated hardware), it could be the time since the cask was opened, or perhaps it could be that the Blind Pig just set too high a bar! I still love Hop Wallop in general, but I’d recommend it in the bottle rather than the cask (luckily, finding this on cask is probably unusual). On cask, I give it a B-, but in the bottle, it was an A-

Beer Nerd Details: 8.5% ABV on cask. Drank out of a shaker pint glass.

Someday, I will get my hands on Pliny the Elder (or, if I’m really lucky, Pliny the Younger), oh yes.

Russian River Redemption

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I’ve written about Trappist style beers before, mentioning their naming convention of dubbels, tripels and quadrupels. The styles are notoriously vague, but the idea is each numerical step up the ladder represents an increase in the strength of the beer. Furthermore, at many breweries, there is often what’s called a House beer or a “Single” (aka “Enkel”). In a lot of cases, this terminology has yielded to the term “Blonde”. In any case, it’s generally the lightest and least alcoholic of the styles (again, with each successive step up getting stronger). So apparently the monks at Westmalle aren’t constantly getting sloshed on their excellent tripel (9.5% ABV), instead preferring to pop open a single to enjoy with their meals. In some cases, these beers are not released to the public, earning the name Patersbier (which translates to “father’s beer”, meaning that it is reserved for use within the abbey). For instance, Westmalle’s single, called Westmalle Extra, apparently has very limited availability.

Inspired by the tradition of “singles”, Russian River brewer Vinnie Cilurzo created this beer, called Redemption. Apparently, like many of RR’s other beers, Brettanomyces was added to the initial bottling to add a wild flavor to the beer. However, it appears that the Brett additions were not included in subsequent batches, and the alcohol content seems to be shrinking as well. Initial batches were in the area of 6-6.5% ABV, but the bottle I got (batch #8) is marked as 5.15% ABV (strangely, their website says 5.0%)

Russian River Redemption

Pours a very light, hazy straw yellow color with about a finger of head. Smells strongly of fruity belgian yeast. Taste has an almost wheat beer character to it… Very sweet and crisp, with just a hint of lingering dryness in the finish. There’s maybe some citrus in there, perhaps lemon, but it’s not particularly tart, though there is a bit of a sharpness to it. This isn’t a beer that will blow you away, but it’s light and refreshing and would make a fantastic summer beer. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 5.15% ABV bottled (375 ml mini-magnum, caged and corked). Drank out of a goblet. Batch #8, bottled on 9/1/2010 and drank on 4/30/2011.

And on an ironic note, after all my blathing about singles and patersbiers, BeerAdvocate lists this as being a simple Belgian Pale Ale, which probably makes sense. Anyway, according to the bottle, this is the sister beer to Russian River’s stronger pale ale, Damnation. I just happen to have a bottle of that sitting around here somewhere, so expect a review at some point (I’ve had it a few times before, and it’s great).

Russian River Temptation

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Still catching up on some old tasting notes! One of the strength’s and weaknesses of the whole craft beer thing is the emphasis on local breweries. In some ways, this is a very good thing (for the local economy, for the environment, etc…), but dammit, I want to try me some west coast beers from places like The Bruery and Russian River. It’s rare to see their brews around here at all, but I’ve found a few places that regularly stock them, and have been snapping up whatever I could find from either of those breweries. A little while ago, I managed to get my hands on a couple Russian River beers and tried one of them right away.

Russian River Temptation

Russian River Temptation: Part of a series of beers by Russian River where they brew beers with Brettanomyces (a type of wild yeast that yields distinctive flavors and often matches up with sour flavors – to be honest, not something I’m tremendously familiar with), then age them in used wine barrels from local wineries. The beers are generally matched with complementary styles of wine to yield a complex flavor profile. Or something.

Temptation is a sour blond ale that is aged in French oak chardonnay barrels. It pours a clear golden color with a couple fingers of thick head that leaves ample lacing as I drink. Smells a little bready, earthy, and kinda tart, with some sweet citrus there as well… Tastes very sweet with a well balanced sour note in the finish. Some flavors are reminiscent of white wine and champagne, obviously a result of the barrel aging. There’s some fruitiness coming through as well, perhaps sour apples and grapes. It’s sour, but not overpowering like my last foray into the world of sours. This one is much more subtle in its flavors. Mouthfeel is surprisingly smooth, making for an easy drink, though I like that this came in a 375 ml bottle and not something significantly bigger. A complex and well balanced beer, one of the more interesting things I’ve had lately. I will give it a tentative A-, and am looking forward to trying some others in the series.

Beer Nerd Details: 7.25% ABV bottled (375 ml, caged and corked bottle). Drank from a tulip.

I’ve already got a bottle of Consecration in the fridge (I’m sure a review of that will be coming soon), and am kicking myself for not having picked up Supplication when I saw it a few months ago (with any luck, I will still be able to pick one up later).

Update: Ah, the glories of the internet. Since Russian River posts an absurd amount of details about the bottling of their beers, I’m able to tell you some more about my particular bottle. It was from batch 05x1F, brewed on 10/16/2009 and bottled on 7/6/2010. And I drank it on 2/12/11. Score.