Russian River Blind Pig IPA

Brewed by Russian River Brewing
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Santa Rosa, California USA

Draft @ the brewpub. Pours a clear golden color with a small white head. Has a hoppy bitter piney citrus aroma. Sweetish malty hoppy pine needles and citrus flavor. Has a long hoppy bitter piney finish with a long bitter aftertaste. Nice!

Draft at Ron’s. Pours hazy dark straw toward copper. Nose is grapefruit and tangerine, heavy hops, malt. The taste is bitter, very hoppy and resiny, with hefty pineapple and grapefruit flavors, and black peppery hints. Smooth and crisp, with a niice complexity, this one is a hop head’s wet dream, literally and figuratively.

A golden IPA with a lacing proteinaceous off white head. A super fragrant aroma, with loads of c-hops, grapefruit, resinous and pinhey...a real hop bomb. In mouth, an onctuous and classy IPA, pungeant, funky, with grapefruit notes, no harshness. Top notch. On tap at brewpub, August 17 2009.

Draught, Russian River. Body is medium to dark yellow. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), moderately to heavily hoppy (grapefruit, resin). Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately to heavily bitter. Medium body, watery/velvety texture, lively carbonation. I’m not particularly fond of Vinnie’s hop bombs like this and the Plinies, but those who love it west coast styled will undoubtedly find this exciting.

bottled, many thanks to mwsf for bringing this to plzen. almost clear orange colour with a light off-white head. fantastic aroma of pine, mandarin, vanilla wafers, freshly-mown grass. plenty of grapefruit and pine flavours with some toffeed apple and a big burst of citric bitterness. excellent ipa!

Bottle from Healthy Spirits in SF. Light amber color with a minimal white head. Citrus and pine aromas over somewhat roasted malt. Medium body with very mild carbonation. Flavor is mild malt and primarily citrus hop. Some light stone fruit seems present. Finish is very clean. So tasty it could be a DIPA, but rather than run of the mill it’s an exceptional IPA. I’m enjoying it.

Tap at the brewpub. The body was cloudy dark gold with an off white head. The aroma was strong grapefruit with some peanuts and caramel. The taste was bitter grapefruit with peanut shells and burnt popcorn. I suppose I should try a bottled version, but this tap version had tons of burnt popcorn that threw off the entire package.

Very pungent and spicy initial hop aroma blows off to a milder level that offers more citrus within the first thirty seconds. Hazy deep golden body is topped by a decent, if large bubbled white head that lasts well. Strong bitterness lacks a sufficient malt backbone to adequately support it. Plenty of citrus, grassy and pine-like hop flavours but malt sweetness is almost not there. Very dry medium body with decent and lasting carbonation. Sampled on tap at Beachwood Bbq with JohnC