Russian River Rejection and Damnation

Hard to believe it's been almost year since we last visited Sonoma County and the bounties of wine and beer that can be enjoyed there. Last week I decided we needed to get away for a few days, so we booked a room in Sebastopol and left the house by 10 so we could get to the Russian River Brewing Company before it got too crowded. We got there around 11:50am and still had to wait about 15 minutes for a table, but all things considered, I'm guessing that's about as chill as the place ever gets. There were many more people waiting on the front patio by the time we left.

As always, they had about 16 beers on tap, divided between California-style and Belgian-style (very loose categories). My favorite beer here is Row 2 Hill 56, a single-hop Simcoe pale ale, and I think the sours are amazing as well, but I wanted to try something different. First up was Rejection, a Belgian-style black ale (almost all of the Belgian-style beers end in "tion"). It's very dark with nice lacing on the glass. The nose is yeasty and fruity and very mild, but the taste, to my surprise, was much more roasty and even a little bitter. If the nose reminded me of Belgian beers, the taste mostly reminded me of a stout. It had a pleasant, creamy mouth feel. Definitely a sipping beer.

Next up was Damnation, a strong golden ale. It's a dark straw color, with again the yeasty and fruity nose typical of Belgian-style beers, but with a mildly fruity taste as well. This beer goes down really easy, especially with the pizza and beer bites we ordered. Scarily easy, in fact, at 7% ABV. If you find yourself unable to make a decision about what to order here, well, if you like IPAs, you should order Pliny the Elder. But otherwise Damnation is a fine beer to start with.

Russian River is such an iconic brewery, and while some of the beers show up on tap elsewhere in the Bay Area, it requires good timing. I highly recommend stopping by if you're in Santa Rosa, at lunch on a weekday if you can since I think evenings and weekends are always crazy. If you don't care about getting a table (and you should, the pizza is delicious), you can always grab a beer at the bar.