Salt, Straw and Beer

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.

Tip of the Hat!

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.

44 IPA

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.

Not 42 Yet

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.” 

Uncommon

Despite the name and rumors swirling about an Anchor Brewing comeback, the California Common is not that common on beer menus and I do nor think that Russian River Brewing would launch one during the Pliny Season but here we are.

And its an interesting malt too, read on…

“Excited to announce our collaboration with craft maltster Valley Malt from Western Massachusetts! Established in 2010 by Andrea and Christian Stanley, Valley Malt specializes in malting grains for breweries and distilleries while sourcing from farms primarily around the Northeast. For our collaboration we used Golden Valley Pale malt in a California Common beer recipe which really showcases this malted barley.”

More Canned Russian River

Vinnie Cilurzo has been slow and steady on entering the can arena. He wanted to make sure that the quality was top notch. And now more Russian River Brewing beers are a’coming…

“As part of our commitment to brewing more lagers in 2023, you will soon see both STS Pils and Velvet Glow Helles in 12oz 6-pack cans!”

It will radiate out from Santa Rosa then to outside markets later.

Zumo

Russian River Brewing got their hoppy hands on a new hop from Segal Ranch in Washington State and punned it into Zumo Wrestling Pale Ale.  Maybe some stray cans will get to Los Angeles or you can order online.

Tempo Stack

Russian River Brewing and hops go together like peanut butter and jelly.  You may have seen their posts on social media from the hop fields and timed to that are two hoppy options that others may have seen but are brand new to me.  Mosaic Stack and the metronomed Tempo Change.