The benefits of visiting your local brewery are many. You not only get to watch the splendor of your local beer being made, you also get to sample it, often for free.
Still there? For those who stuck around, wait, there’s more. No longer are many craft breweries content simply offering full-bodied ales—some habitually create and bottle specialty brews rarely found on store shelves. And if these rarities do appear on such shelves, they don’t reside there long.
Yesterday, I tried for the first time Russian River’s Damnation 23. This Santa Rosa brewery’s run-o-the-mill Damnation is already sought after enough. Whereas Damnation is a Strong Golden Ale in the Belgian style (similar to Duvel, which is widely available) and weighs in at around 7% ABV, the brewery calls Damnation 23 a Tripel Ale which is aged on oak chips and kicks the alcohol up to about 10.5%. Taste-wise, the fruity esthers of the regular batch are spruced up with a hint of peppers, augmented by the heat from the extra alcohol. The 23, incidentally, comes from the fact that every 23rd batch of Damnation is singled out to age on oak.
The day before, I was treated to a taste of North Coast’s Old Rasputin XI. Just like the non-Roman-numeraled beer, which is a Russian Imperial Stout, meaning a viscous, sweet stout, the XI version is aged in a spent bourbon barrel to commemorate the 11th anniversary of this heady brew. Whereas the regular Old Rasputin is 9% ABV, the XI boasts over 11%. If you hurry to Fort Bragg, there are still some bottles left as it’s only available in their store. But good news, XII will be released soon. Best of all, these types of beers age very well, and I’m still sitting on my bottle of North Coast’s Old Stock Ale Cellar Reserve, also aged in bourbon barrels.
So whether you are heading out on a road trip where you can easily cart back some special bottles, as I did with the Full Sail Brewery’s Top Sail Bourbon-aged Imperial Porter, available only from the brewery in Hood River, OR, or you’re taking out-of-towners to the Anchor Brewery, which recently sold out of 100 cases of an experimental beer in just 4 days, it always pays to ask what special treats they may have on hand.
What are you waiting for? They’re not going to knock on your door, so start visiting some nearby breweries pronto.
Comments
I envy you being so damn close to Russian River. My wife's mother lives 5 minutes away, so whenever we come for a visit to see her... we hit up RR for a little R&R. ;) Geez, been a while now that I think of it. We can get some of their brews out here in Colorado now (Pliny, Blind Pig, Damnation), but not the one I most want - Sanctification.
Cheers!
- Southern Colorado Beer Examiner
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