Beer Mecca

Tucked into the sloping hills of Napa Valley wine country in the town of Santa Rosa, Russian River Brewing Co. is brewing up adventurous, envelope pushing, and delicious brews.


The current tap line-up at Russian River Brewing Co.

Russian River is best known for their Double IPA, Pliny the Elder: A velvety, hoppy, hand grenade of a beer that provides thirst quenching and refreshing hop bitterness with none of the lingering astringent, soapy, flavors that can arise from too much overbearing hops. This incredible balance is achieved, in part, by the use of the yeast Brettanomyces. This yeast (commonly known as Brett) is not normally used to produce beer, or wine, is typically considered a danger to brewing process, and a flawed flavor in most end products. In fact, many of the vinters from the local wineries will not step inside the brew pub for fear of accidentally smuggling some of these little beasties back to their winery. While many brewers fear Brett, it is used beautifully by the Brewmaster at Russian River to add a subtle, balancing, barnyard funk to Pliny the Elder that ties together the hops and malt, and smooths out the back of the palate, making this 8.0%ABV beer quaffably quaffable.


The oak barrels used for aging the Belgian quaffables

Along with excellent examples of big bold American style ales, Russian River also brews a wide variety of Belgian style beers that are aged in oak wine barrels previously used by local wineries (one of these brews being consecration, which we had at Toronados in San Fran). Not only does Russian River brew great beer, they also serve up some great thin crust pizzas like the salami, garlic, artichoke hearts, feta, and pesto pizza I had with my tasting platter.



From Santa Rosa we headed further North to Booneville where we visited the Anderson Valley Brewing Co. (AVBC). Another well respected California brewery, AVBC is represented by their mascot, the “Beer”, a Bear Deer hybrid that presides over their tasting room.


The Beer

Due to rainfall we didn’t get to play a round of disc golf on their own private course out behind the brewery, but we did get to sample some tasty brews and support the USA mens soccer team in their match against the Czech Republic. AVBC makes some stellar beers, such as their ESB and Amber ales which are great session beers. They also have some great big beers, their Abby ale and barrel aged sour barley wine were definite standouts. The sour barley wine (which gets its sour flavor from an assortment of yeast and bacteria) was aged in old oak bourbon barrels. The sour and tart cherry flavors from the barley wine, mixed with the vanilla from the bourbon barrels produced visions of tart, slightly sweet, cherry syrup drizzled over a bowl of vanilla ice cream as I sipped this intense brew.

From Booneville it was up to the Redwood National Forest on the north coast of California.


Valeria overlooking the Coast