Russian River Toronado 20th Anniversary

Formerly brewed at Russian River Brewing
Style: Sour Ale
Santa Rosa, California USA

On tap @ O’Brien’s barrel aged beer night. I love brett beers. The sour in this one hits you in the face before the liquids touch your lips. Well crafted and blended.

Hell yeah! 750ml bottle provided to the MN crew most generously by joet. Trademark Russian River brett on the nose. New, clean wood and loads of white grape tannin. Pours a thick looking hazy bright amber. Plenty of tart wood notes and muscat like grape tannin on the tongue. Not too tart or sour. Balanced quite well. Tangy, zesty and lovely on the tongue.

MN Winter RB Gathering. Big thanks to joet for bringing this for us. Nice tart sour appple and biscuity sweet malt on the nose. Acidic biscuity nature with a good dose of tart green apples and a little sweet candi sugar malty sweetness. A very nice and overly complex beer that deserves a much more in depth review than I can give it based on my limited notes.

From bomber. Poured a cloudy copper brown color with a small white head. Aromas of funky yeast, brett, slight sweet citrus, and vanilla. Tastes of vanilla, grapes and sour apple. Not overly sour but very nice.

Orange in color without much head. Crab apple and sour cherry and orange in aroma. Sour cherry flavor present as well as sweet fruit.

MN Ratebeer Winter Gathering, January 12, 2008. A big thanks to JoeT for leaving this one behind for us! Cloudy orange color with no head. Sour apple aroma. Apple turns to tartness in the taste. A bit of sour wheat, strong sweet malt, a bit of fruitiness, yeast... man, a lot going on. Really good.

Poured from a 750 ml. bottle, thanks to JoeT! Glowing, firewall of orange pour. Tangy ginger, sesame seed, orange glaze and lots of asian spice in the aroma; brilliant with unique sour tang and a burly bread of malt in supporting canvas. Dense. Flavor is deceptively simple, highlighting the high soprano of bretty sourness over the duller and richer voices beneath; a thick layer of sour cherry and raw lemon and lime juice glazes the meaty, chocolate and dark wood tinted malt body. The finest of sour and dark strong ale complement each other in quiet harmony here; no single note rings too intensely but simmers within a scintillating, single lasting chord. Calm but searingly acidic in a medium bodied mouthfeel, finished on soft lemon juice. Brilliant and subtle, bright and myterious at the same time; almost too much nuance to handle, but so artfully and tightly crafted that this quality seems quite easy to dismiss. A masterpiece.

Funk and sour and fruit in this lovely orangy small headed beer. The flavour is really wonderful with a bunch of fruit and sour and funk and everything else. Chewy palate full of flavour, nicely complex. I’m not doing this justice but trust me, it is good.