Santa Rosa / Russian River Roundup

After the quick updates on Thursday we still had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to get through. On Friday we headed out for an early lunch to The Flavor Bistro because I heard they had a nice lineup of Moonlight beers. I wouldn't have even known about them if not for Jay at Hedonist Beer Jive who is a big fan of their beers, especially the Death & Taxes black lager (pictured left), so naturally that was the first beer we started with. It was a very nice roasty beer with a light mouthfeel (you could have probably guessed that on your own though). The advantage here is getting a lot of the taste you get in a stout without it being too full or thick. Next I tried the Twist of Fate Bitter Ale which was also a nice beer. Very floral in aroma and a biting hop bitterness. The body on this is a little towards the heavy-light or light-medium side which took me just a bit off guard as I was expecting it to be a little lighter and easier to quaff. On our way out the door the owner of The Flavor Bistro thanked us for coming and I thanked him for having such a great beer selection. After a minute of talking about the Moonlight beers he shared a secret which was to take a spoon with a very small coating of balsamic vinegar and dip it into the Brown Ale (which was in his opinion Moonlight's best beer). Apparently this gives it just the right feel in body and a little bit of something extra he couldn't really describe, that I guess makes the beer really great and interesting (and this wasn't his original idea, this was a tip from someone way at the top who he wanted to remain nameless ;-) After this nice experience at the Flavor Bistro we walked over to Russian River where I was able to get the Blind Pig IPA. I was actually so full at this point that it wasn't the best idea in the world, though when I had Blind Pig again on Sunday it was every bit as good as it was when I had it for the first time a couple months ago.

We decided to call it a half and head home for a nap. Later that evening we went back out to Russian River and then over to Third Street Aleworks. We ordered the sampler which consists of a 4 oz. glass of every beer they have at that moment, in our case being 12. Our favorites to note were the Stonefly Oatmeal Stout, Bodega Head IPA, Annadel Pale Ale on cask, and Stepchild Red. Later that night when our friends Loren and Rene arrived from their drive we went back out to Russian River to have a few beers. Loren ordered a Lap Dance Pale Ale which looked like it contained something that kinda looked like a nice flemmy loogie to us, though I'm not saying that's what it was.

We got home at a decent time and went to bed as we had to leave for our white water rafting trip on the Cache River by 6:30 am. The rafting trip was great, though we didn't take any beer cause we didn't prepare well enough, plus I don't really like drinking craft beer out of bottles anyway (I'd just assume drink a swill from a can). Sunday when we got back to the hotel after 2 days of rafting we went out one last time to Russian River. We put together a case of beer to take home (5 Toronado 20th Anniversaries, 5 Sanctifications, 2 Redemptions) plus some shirts and glassware (I love that Blind Pig jar). Interestingly, the woman who was behind the bar serving us our beers we found out was a former manager at Father's Office in Santa Monica, just before Christina Perozzi took over, so it was kinda nice to meet someone from our area.

In the end it was a fantastic trip, and Santa Rosa is a pretty cool town. I'll be looking forward to the day when I go back.