Took a trip up north today into wine country to have lunch at Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, California. Best known perhaps for their exemplary Double IPA Pliny The Elder, brewmaster Vinnie Cilurzo also brews a full line of other ales including an extensive selection of barrel aged Belgian style and sour beers.

Russian River is one of those breweries with a reputation that far exceeds their production capacity. A very small brewery that distributes in only a few states , their beers are known and sought out by beer geeks across the country. In this case the reputation is well deserved. I enjoyed a sampler tray with lunch that included all eleven tap beers. Of the eleven, there were only two that were disappointing…and these were good beers, just not quite up to the standard of the nine others in my view. So let’s run down some of the highlights.

First, the two that I found less sumptuous. The Damnation, a Belgian Strong Golden Ale, was not bad, but seemed to lack the fruity/spicy complexity of other Russian River Belgian ales or similar beers from other breweries. The OVL Stout, an Irish Dry Stout, had a nice creamy mouthfeel and some nice coffee/roast malt notes, but was again, nothing to jump up and down about.

Now to the great stuff…Of the nine remaining beers, my favorite was Pliny the Elder. You can read about it in my reivew, but it bears talking about again here. This is a wonderfully crafted beer. Bright, bold hop bitterness and flavor with deep balancing malt. If this were the only beer Russian River brewed, it would still be worth the visit. There were two other IPAs in the selection, Blind Pig and Russian River IPA. Of the two, I preferred the Blind Pig. It again had a good hop/malt balance with nice caramel and biscuit character in the malt.

Of the Belgians I tried, I loved Salvation, a strong dark ale with rich dark fruit and characteristic Belgian yeasty phenolics. It weighs in at a sneaky, drinkable 9% ABV. Sanctification, a blond ale fermented with 100% brettanomyces wild yeast was also nice. Breattanomyces is a wild yeast strain that is a major part of what gives Belgian lambic and Flemish ales their characteristic sour funk. Light and tart with a touch of horse blankety wild funkiness, Sanctification has all the qualities I would expect from a brettanomyces beer, but have not found in some others I have tried. I also enjoyed the Perdition. Called a biere de Sonoma, it is a dry and bitter Biere de Garde style with rich toasty malt to balance the spicy Belgian yeast.

Also of note were Aud Blonde, a light blond ale with nice bready malt and bright spicy hops, and a nice creamy/caramelly porter.

The food was good too. We each had a calzone full of pesto and rich creamy cheese. If you happen to find yourself in the Bay Area, its worth a trip up to wine country for a Russian River beer.