Rusian River Torando 25th Anniversary

Russian River is set to release Toronado's 25th Anniversary Ale this year. The beer will be called Oe Ta Meulick. This will be a follow-up to the wildly-successfully Toronado 20th Anniversary Ale, aka T20 (BeerAdvocate). Here is a description and photo of the label, courtesy of Beer Street Journal:

Toronado 25th Anniversary Ale started out as six individual brews, each with their own personality, and all incorporating Brettanomyces and or micro-organisms. Once the barrel aging was complete, Russian River’s Vinnie Cilurzo and Toronado’s David Keene got together to create the final blend. To create its fine carbonation, we re fermented the Toronado 25th Anniversary Ale in this bottle. Spent yeast cells from a thin layer of sediment in the bottom of the bottle. Pour slowly, allowing the natural yeast sediment to remain in the bottle.

This has the makings of a big year for Russian River, as they will also be releasing their Brett-fermented collaboration with Sierra Nevada this summer, via Sierra Nevada's distribution chain. The collaboration was fermented with Brett B., and will be called "Brux."

Daily Beer Digest -- 08.03.2011

Embrace The Funk has a short interview with Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River. In it, Vinnie states that Framboise for a Cure should be released again this October.

The ninth installment of Avery's barrel-aged sour series, Immitis, will be a dark sour in Zinfandel barrels.

New Belgium will make its official launch in DC on August 22, 2011. Bombers to start with kegs to follow.

DRAFT Magazine has an article on the "white IPA" from Boulevard and Deschutes. Is this the next IPA iteration? Aside from the standard, we already have black, red, and brown.

SweetWater is expanding its capacity to 500,000 barrels.

Stone is finally debuting its Quingenti Millilitre series, which consists of 500mL bottles of limited beers. The first installment is a barrel-aged version of the Ken Schmidt / Maui / Stone Kona Coffee Macadamia Coconut Porter.

Seattle Mariners pitcher Chris Ray teamed up with Femont Brewing to put together an IPA that was partially aged with baseball bats.

White Labs' "San Diego Super Yeast" (WLP090) is starting to make the rounds. This is a strain that is fairly similar to the standard California Ale (WLP001; Wyeast 1056) yeast, but features faster fermentation times and higher attenuation.

As of April of this year, it looks like Surly still had at least one keg of Darkness '07 around.

Daily Beer Digest - 04.01.2011

Sierra Nevada will be releasing a mixed 12-pack with four of its "Beer Camp" beers, including Weizenbock, Juniper Black Ale, California Common, and the very well-regarded Ghidorah Double IPA.

Goose Island's new brewmaster--Brett Porter--discusses his new position on WGN radio.

Fritz Maytag and Ken Grossman give the keynote address at Craft Brewers Conference 2011.

Jean Van Roy, Cantillon's master blender, speaks at CBC 2011.

It looks like Captain Lawrence has some new sour offerings in the works, as it has received label approvals for a raspberry and a cherry blend. The labels appear to be part of the brewery's Barrel Select series, something which I've hoped would become an East Coast Veritas, though they haven't released any bottles in the series since Barrel Select Batch 1.

Russian River is turning 7, and is celebrating the month of April with free shipping on all online orders.

Daily Beer Digest - 03.25.2011

Big collaboration news today, as Sierra Nevada and Russian River announced today that they will be releasing a Belgian Pale Ale with Brett in bottles nationwide in 2012.

Surly announced today that the bill that will allow it to build its "Destination Brewery" will get a hearing with the Minnesota Senate Commerce Committee on April 5, 2011.

The Wine Enthusiast has an article on the collaboration between Dogfish and Sam Adams, which will be making its debut at SAVOR.

Russian River Pliny the Younger & Supplication

Russian River announced last night that Pliny the Younger will be available starting February 5, 2010 at the brewery and will go out to distributors soon after. Supplication will be hitting shelves soon afterward in RR's markets along with the Younger kegs. The full post:

Most FAQ for RRBC: Do you have Pliny the Younger?

Eleven months out of the year, the answer is NO. But today, the answer is this: on February 5th, Pliny the Younger will be available on tap at our brewpub in Santa Rosa ONLY! Our doors open at 11am, so if you are in town for San Francisco Beer Week, or just feel like visiting us, you can be one of the first to have super fresh Younger right from the source! It will be poured in 10 oz. glasses for $4.50. Growlers are available NEW for $42, and REFILLS for $36 with a maximum of 4 growlers per person. Pliny the Younger is not available in bottles, so the only way to get some to-go is in a growler. And we DO NOT fill other breweries growlers as it is against the law per the State of California’s Dept. of Alcoholic Beverage Control. You can look it up if you don’t believe me! Here are some brewing specs for you beer enthusiasts, or those just wondering what this special beer is all about:

Style: Triple I.P.A., due to the HUGElarge amounts of malt and hops (way more than Pliny the Elder!)

Alcohol by Volume: 11%

Hops: CTZ, Simcoe, Amarillo, Summit, and Centennial (same hop bill as last year, but slightly more bitter)

Once we release it at the pub, we will begin local distribution to key accounts the week of the 8th in and around the Bay and North Bay areas. Then we will begin shipping to our distributors, beginning with Southern California that same week. It is safe to say you should see it in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and the Philadelphia area by the end of February. Unfortunately, because we are such a small brewery, we ship infrequently to our distributors but will get it to market as soon as possible. Distributor contact information, as well as account listings, are located on our website- go to ”BREWS”, then “Where to Get Our Beer”.

But wait, there’s more! Also on February 5th, we are unveiling Batch #4 Supplication in its NEW adorable 375ml bottle! It will be sold by the bottle for $12 per bottle at our pub, including sales tax and CRV. It still comes in 12-pack cases (if you are thirsty), but are much easier for me to carry with my bad knee! The new Supplication will be shipped to markets in which we distribute along with Pliny the Younger.

And we are celebrating Valentine’s Day a little early at RRBC! Yesterday I had a glass of Rejection and it went down pretty easy! It’s a Belgian-style Black Ale we make every year for V-Day. We will have plenty available through February. So if you find yourself enjoying San Francisco Beer Week, or just feel like hanging out at our pub, you are sure to enjoy a large selection of interesting beers! For more info on SF Beer Week, visit www.sfbeerweek.com

Cheers!

Natalie