Steve of Beer By Bart pretty succinctly covers the reaction most people have to Russian River’s Sours.  Vinnie has developed a way with wild yeasts that I think is largely unmatched.  His event at Toronado provided a great opportunity to taste some of his rarer creations.  One of the big highlights of the night included Erudition, a three year old Belgium Saison that was finished with Brett yeast. The age allowed the beer the dry out almost completely, but what’s left is fanatic - it’s creamy and smooth, with a slightly tart finish, and the funk of the farmhouse has mellowed into the light malt. 

 

 

The other great taste of the night was the bottles of the Toronado 20th Anniversary Ale, which is a sour aged in Oak Barrels.  This Flanders Red style ale is sturdy and malty, with a sour finish, but almost no farmhouse funk. The beer is perfectly balanced, with an interplay of roasted malt, hints of brown sugar, and a tart finish that hides all of the alcohol. It was fifty dollars a bottle, and was only available to be drunk on premises to prevent eBay scalping. Although I heard complaints about that price, keep in mind, that’s actually something of a deal: in any restaurant, you’ll pay 150% above retail for a bottle of wine, and here, it was being sold for much less that that, and for a much rarer bottle of barrel aged (and then bottle conditioned) alcohol.  All of that process and storage costs a lot, and it’s reflected in the bottles cost, but also it’s flavors. 

 

 

 

Dave, the owner of Toronado, was in the back room selling aged bottles of some of Vinnie’s finest wares. Vinnie was also onhand to talk about his beers and promote the brewery.  Those bottles of 20th Anniversary sold out in about 30 minutes. 

 

 

One question I didn’t get a chance to ask Vinnie was for the full story on the bottling of Concecration.  Apparently, there are four yeast variations (one for each day of bottling.)   I have day number four, but I’m curious how over time the different conditioning yeast will affect the beers. 

After all of this sour ale drinking, it was time for a well honored Toronado tradition – going next door to Rosamunde for a sausage.  My favorite: the Weisswurst with Curried Ketchup, onions, and sweet peppers.  As it turns out, it goes great with a glass of Consecration. 

 

  

 

As an added bonus, you may be wondering what it’s like to have a drink with me?  Sadly, usually it’s something like this:

 

Tags: Russian River, SF Beer Week, toronado

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Stories, Taste Test. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.