Russian River Salvation

Brewed by Russian River Brewing
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Santa Rosa, California USA

Batch 008, courtesy of cloudskipper. Thanks Chris! This pours a dark brown color with amber highlights and is topped with a frothy tan head. A nice, interesting mix of dark fruits such as plums, blend with lighter fruits, most notably banana in the aroma with spices, yeast and cloves. This really is a smooth drinking beer. There is a touch of alcohol with an assortment of spices in the finish but it drinks easy for 9%. A lot of dark fruit and spice flavors with banana too but I’d say that is more prominent in the aroma than flavor. After about half the bottle I started pairing this with some cheese per the suggestion on the bottle and it was in fact a good match. Very good example of the style and flavors seem very authentic. In a blind taste test I’d probably say this came from Belgium.

Batch five bottle poured into a tulip glass produced a large off white head that turned to a thick lace. The body was a dark brown color with reddish highlights. The aromas of dark fruits grapes and Belgian yeast were quite nice on this brew. As it warmed you did get a little bit of alcohol warmth. The flavors are like a typical Trapist abbey style dark plenty of raisins and grape flavor with the yeast adding to the enjoyment. It had a medium feel to it in my mouth with good carbonation. A great Belgian dark I haven’t been disappointed with this brewer yet and looking forward to drinking some more.

Bottle - batch 007 enjoyed without Sean Connery. Pours a dark red-brown with a trace of white head. Aromas of vanilla, sweet malt, lilac, and plum. The flavor is intense yet well balanced with red fruit, toasted malt, and some sweet caramel. Very well balanced with skillfully concealed alcohol and a smooth, lasting malty finish. Another fine effort from Russian River...

Bottle of Batch 007. Aroma is distinct figs. Very nice flavor Sweet dates with hints of pure licorice root.

Bottle courtesy of Immy on 07/18/2009. Batch 4. Clear brown body with a medium creamy tan head with some light floaty chunks. Sweet malty aroma with some floral notes. Sweet malty flavor, some caramel. Medium body with moderately low carbonation.

batch 005 shared by psprings at atlas... hazy dark brown pour... nearly blackish with a big ol’ tan head. the aroma reminds me of black bread... molasses, yeast, raisins, allspice, clove, chocolate and star anise. weird, it tastes like black bread too!... yum... take the notes from the aroma and add in licorice, fennel seed, minerals/cement and a dry crisp finish to get the flavor profile. medium body has a light mouth feel since carbonation is prickly. what a treat! 8/5/9/4/17/4.3

Time to catch up before BCTC. Bottle at CL Rosso release. Thanks to all the RB’ers and BA’s that brought great beer. Toasted cereal grainy sugary sweet yeasty. Not a favorite style but nice.

On tap at the brewpub on 6/30/09. Pours dark brown, nice roated nut, banana and yeast aroma. Very well balanced sweetness with hints of currant and clove. Incredibly smooth and drinkable mouthfeel. Thinking about it now, I probably should’ve given it higher numbers, but I’m sticking with my notes.