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Russian River Brewing underscores a fun fact about the Russian River with their new West Coast Pils, 110.
It is named for the 110 miles that the Russian River flows from Mendocino County all the way through Sonoma County on the journey to the Pacific Ocean.
“110 is a cold fermented Pilsner but hopped more like an IPA. A lower alcohol content and a balanced hop profile make this beer extremely drinkable.”
Cherry trees in bloom and cherry ale from Santa Rosa and Russian River Brewing.
The website describes FF as a “Mildly sour Saison aged in large oak foeders with tart cherries for 6 to 12 months. Distinctive aromatics of cherry, notes of raspberry, strawberry, and rhubarb. Light bodied with medium carbonation, slight sweetness, moderate tartness, and low bitterness, with no astringency.”
The beer pours a cheery rose color with plenty of bubbles initially. Acid and sawdust on the nose. The fruit taste is restrained here letting the oak and tartness take the lead. Reminiscent of the old school sours where the barnyard and the funk was let loose. The sour doesn’t force a pucker, it is more balsamic to me, if that makes sense.
Beer fanatics will know those initials and what month we are talking about but you may want to try a different Russian River Brewing option…
A new Sparkling Hop Water infused with Citra and El Dorado hops available, to start, in Windsor and Santa Rosa.
Cheers are in order as Russian River Brewing has a special Pliny coming in January! Double Dry-Hopped The Elder is making its bottle debut.
I have been lucky enough to find some Russian River beers at my local Whole Foods / Amazon and maybe I will see the new R –n- D Series beer coming from the Santa Rosa brewery because Hazy IPA #54 is coming and it is coming with Brewer’s Gold and Citra hops.
Each month, my wife and I will walk by Salt & Straw here in Glendale and look at their limited release flavors. Usually our noses turn up at what weird combinations that they choose (especially at Thanksgiving) But for June at Salt & Straw locations across the country the theme is beer!
The collaborating breweries include Métier Brewing Company in Seattle, WA; Breakside Brewery in Portland, OR; Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, CA; Cerveceria La Tropical in Miami, FL. Salt & Straw AND Monkish Brewing Co. from right here in Torrance.
You can check out all the flavors HERE but let’s focus in on…. Monkish Brewing’s Space Cookies Hazy IPA. The beer is a vanilla wafer riff on an IPA. And the ice cream will be a mix of a hoppy simple syrup, grapefruit zest and vanilla cookie butter.
Screen Time!
You can almost smell the hops
Russian River Brewing does some really cool things for the craft beer industry. Their latest is….THIS
..which is just a cool way to help an up and coming brewery. An if Pliny is brewed on that kit, there are some good vibes coming from that for sure.
RnD IPA # 44 is coming from Russian River Brewing with quite the interesting hop list. HBC-586, Luminosa, NZH-106, Riwaka and Zumo hops.
On occasion, bottles will end up in my local Whole Foods and I will grab and review if this one shows up.
Science, along with agriculture underpin beer and a brewery who is deep into both has another experiment coming out. Actually two as Russian River Brewing recently released RnD IPA #40 & #41.
They “were born from a collaboration with Omega Yeast for a special discussion at the 2024 CCBA Summit. Similar in taste yet distinct in appearance – one embraces a subtle haze while the other stands clear, all due to a genetic variation in the yeast.”