Road Trip to Russian River Brewery
Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2014 1:48 pm
ROAD TRIP!
My buddy and I finally got off our asses and made this happen. The drive is just about 2 hours so I'm not sure why we didn't do it before. Likely because it involves a free day.....
Anyway, we arrived just after opening at 11:00am and there was already a small line formed which we had been told about. Hitting the brewery on a weekend means to expect to wait. We only waited about 10 minutes to get in and were seated outside under clear blue, crisp 50-degree skies at the last available table (20 minutes after opening!!. We had planned on lunch here and the kitchen was already starting to smell great.
When the waitress came by we ordered the sampler flight as we didn't get try anything but Pliny the Younger on our only other visit here last year. We were told that all of the glassware and flight trays were out already so it might be a bit of a wait (wow). In the meantime, we ordered a 1/2 pint of Pliny. On tap. Yum.
When you see the picture below, you'll understand why they run out of glassware for tasters so quickly. It's 18 beers!!
Most of these are only available on tap at the brewery with a few exceptions like Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig IPA and a few of their sours/Belgians. We waited about 30-45 minutes (we weren't keeping track and in no hurry) for the tray to arrive and in the meantime enjoyed the clean air, the Pliny and a couple of calzones that were outstanding and worth the trip themselves.
Of the 18 beers, I liked 15 of them (and that's tossing out the Irish Stout and Imperial Porter). The styles ranged from Pale Ales and Pilsners to Session IPAs and IIPAs to Stouts and Sours. It was, by far, the widest range and best taster flight we've had. If the wait seems crazy, it really isn't that bad IMO. If you do what we did and plan to just hang out, it doesn't really seem that bad at all. Of course the people that showed up at 12:30 were told it was a 2 hour wait for a table! Those just buying beer to-go (bottles or growlers) had a separate line that was only about a 5-minute wait.
After lunch, we were headed back to the car (we spent about 2 1/2 hour there total) and remember that Third Street Aleworks was right around the corner so we dipped in. They had only 1 new beer on tap (an IPA) so we split a 1/2 pint just to taste it. It wasn't very good so we were glad we didn't buy more.
Back in the car, but not headed home quite yet......
Between us and home stood: Lagunitas! We've been there twice before but it's LAGUNITAS for cyin' out loud, we had to stop. It was PACKED. Every table had people waiting and the line to bar took 20 minutes to just order a beer!
They had about 6 taproom only options but only 4 that sounded good we got a 4-flight taster. Two of the beers were using new experimental hops (one Pale and one IPA) and we didn't care for either one. One used lemon peel in a Pale Ale and it was like chewing Lemon Peel - bitter and harsh. But the last Pale Ale that was wet-hopped with an un-known hop was fan-freakin-tastic!
However, we didn't want to wait in the line again so we just enjoyed what we had, chatted with a few folks who were kind enough to let us share their table and then headed back home.
We had picked up some beers to go at RR, and when I say it's fresh I mean we bought it on the 27th and here's the packaging date:
Not at bad Saturday. Not a bad Saturday at all.
My buddy and I finally got off our asses and made this happen. The drive is just about 2 hours so I'm not sure why we didn't do it before. Likely because it involves a free day.....
Anyway, we arrived just after opening at 11:00am and there was already a small line formed which we had been told about. Hitting the brewery on a weekend means to expect to wait. We only waited about 10 minutes to get in and were seated outside under clear blue, crisp 50-degree skies at the last available table (20 minutes after opening!!. We had planned on lunch here and the kitchen was already starting to smell great.
When the waitress came by we ordered the sampler flight as we didn't get try anything but Pliny the Younger on our only other visit here last year. We were told that all of the glassware and flight trays were out already so it might be a bit of a wait (wow). In the meantime, we ordered a 1/2 pint of Pliny. On tap. Yum.
When you see the picture below, you'll understand why they run out of glassware for tasters so quickly. It's 18 beers!!
Most of these are only available on tap at the brewery with a few exceptions like Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig IPA and a few of their sours/Belgians. We waited about 30-45 minutes (we weren't keeping track and in no hurry) for the tray to arrive and in the meantime enjoyed the clean air, the Pliny and a couple of calzones that were outstanding and worth the trip themselves.
Of the 18 beers, I liked 15 of them (and that's tossing out the Irish Stout and Imperial Porter). The styles ranged from Pale Ales and Pilsners to Session IPAs and IIPAs to Stouts and Sours. It was, by far, the widest range and best taster flight we've had. If the wait seems crazy, it really isn't that bad IMO. If you do what we did and plan to just hang out, it doesn't really seem that bad at all. Of course the people that showed up at 12:30 were told it was a 2 hour wait for a table! Those just buying beer to-go (bottles or growlers) had a separate line that was only about a 5-minute wait.
After lunch, we were headed back to the car (we spent about 2 1/2 hour there total) and remember that Third Street Aleworks was right around the corner so we dipped in. They had only 1 new beer on tap (an IPA) so we split a 1/2 pint just to taste it. It wasn't very good so we were glad we didn't buy more.
Back in the car, but not headed home quite yet......
Between us and home stood: Lagunitas! We've been there twice before but it's LAGUNITAS for cyin' out loud, we had to stop. It was PACKED. Every table had people waiting and the line to bar took 20 minutes to just order a beer!
They had about 6 taproom only options but only 4 that sounded good we got a 4-flight taster. Two of the beers were using new experimental hops (one Pale and one IPA) and we didn't care for either one. One used lemon peel in a Pale Ale and it was like chewing Lemon Peel - bitter and harsh. But the last Pale Ale that was wet-hopped with an un-known hop was fan-freakin-tastic!
However, we didn't want to wait in the line again so we just enjoyed what we had, chatted with a few folks who were kind enough to let us share their table and then headed back home.
We had picked up some beers to go at RR, and when I say it's fresh I mean we bought it on the 27th and here's the packaging date:
Not at bad Saturday. Not a bad Saturday at all.
