Russian River Toronado 20th Anniversary

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

Many thanks to pepsican for bringing this bottle to iowaherkeye’s’ farewell to Iowa’ tasting. Very generous. Poured a hazy amber-orange color. the head was off white and left some decent lace behind on the glass. invigorating funk-o-rama aroma with a splash of red wine vinegar and dry aged cheese. Medium bodied with mouth watering moderate to high acidity. Unripe fruit, red wine vinegar, and oak flavors. There was also a delicate hint of booze. Wow.

Thanks Odeed for the bottle. You rock! Murky brown/amber pour with a thin white head. Aroma was heavy oak, caramel, toffee. Flavor was caramel, toffee, wine tannins, vanilla, oak, rum, limes, flower, butter, booze, maple syrup, lemons. I’m serious. Sour, dry finish. This was oddly complex with a ton of things jumping out at me and throughout the experience. Very complex but somehow pulls itself together just enough. Very good!

Bottle at Toronado during the RBSG Pub Crawl Tour on 08/01/2008. Very clear golden body with a small white head. Lovely sour with fruit and faint caramel. Big sour flavor, barnyard, sour fruit, light caramel. Medium light body with moderately high carbonation.

GABF 2007. After waiting in the huge line at the Russian River booth, I grabbed this first. Smells sour and malty at the same time, which is nice and unique, as I usually don’t smell the malts in sour beers; they are like toffee here. Also smell oaky vanilla. Flavor hits in stages that smoothly transition into each other: an initial salvo of yeasty acidity, then wood (and sawdust and cracked oats), then tang in the finish before it dries out and the dark woodiness wafts up again in musty glory. Wood wood wood. And glory. (But not quite dopeness.)

Draft at Toronado in mid-2007. Bright orange in color, nice golden head. The flavors are unbelievably complex -- hard to believe that you can pick them all out without the same colors just swallowing each other up. Really sour, but also quite malty. The acid is outstanding, and I had to have another the second I finished it.

Sampled from bottle courtesy SoLan during RBSG. Clear dark amber color, 1 cm persistent white head. Lemony/citric funk aroma, a hint of pepper, tangy oak. The sourness is definitely up front, but blends well with the barrel characters. Taste is a mix of spicy acetic sourness, dark malts, tannins, slight alcohol. Something about the sourness reminded me of Supplication in particular. Everything really comes together on this one. Thanks again, SoLan.

thanks again to odeed for sharing this bottle with me.....tried multiple times.... great sour nose with a bunch of funk and complex and awesome tannins that work really well...hides its booze well....wish it was not so rare and hard to find!

2 very cool cats bought this at the Toronado in San Diego during the RBSG Pub Crawl. Massive thanks to odeed and SoLan, you guys really were insanely generous to both have purchased these bottles. This was like the Lost Abbey Veritas 003 in that there was soooooo much complexity here.I am not good at describing flavors but all I can say is that I would take a sip and then stare like a at the glass like a moron in amazement, the I would swirl the 20th for a while and smell some more, shall I sip some more? I wouldn’t have had to drink this to enjoy it.