Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, California
CrushBrew Editorial · Beer · 6 min read
Key Takeaways
Santa Rosa icon — Russian River Brewing is a Santa Rosa, California craft brewery famous for hoppy IPAs, Belgian-style ales, and barrel-aged sours.
Pliny the Elder — Its flagship double IPA helped define the style and remains the brewery’s most popular beer.
Pliny the Younger — A once-a-year triple IPA released for about two weeks each spring, drawing crowds from around the world.
Double IPA inventor — Co-owner and brewer Vinnie Cilurzo is widely credited with creating the double IPA style.
Two locations — Bought from Korbel Champagne Cellars in 2003, Russian River now pours at two Sonoma County pubs, in Santa Rosa and Windsor.
In This Article
What is Russian River Brewing Company known for?
Plenty of breweries make a good IPA. Few have shaped a whole category the way Russian River has. Korbel Champagne Cellars started the brewery in Guerneville in 1997 and hired Vinnie Cilurzo as brewmaster; when Korbel left the beer business, Vinnie and his wife Natalie bought the brand in 2003 and opened their own brewpub in Santa Rosa the next year.
The brewery built its name on three things: aggressively hoppy ales, Belgian-inspired styles, and barrel-aged sours. Cilurzo is regarded as one of craft beer’s true innovators, with awards from the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup and the Brewers Association’s Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Craft Brewing.
Double IPA
A hoppy, high-alcohol style of India Pale Ale brewed with far more hops and malt than a standard IPA, also called an Imperial IPA. Vinnie Cilurzo is widely credited with creating the style in the mid-1990s, and Russian River’s Pliny the Elder became one of its defining examples.
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What are Russian River’s flagship beers?
Pliny the Elder is the one most people know, and it is the brewery’s most popular beer. The double IPA is built on four hops, Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ, and Simcoe, which give it a fresh pine-and-citrus character behind a clean, slightly floral bitterness.
Blind Pig IPA is the drier, crisper sibling, with its own snap of citrus and pine over a firm bitter bite. The name is a nod to Blind Pig Brewing, Cilurzo’s earlier brewery in Temecula, where he first pushed hops to the extreme and brewed what is often called America’s first double IPA.
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What are the Belgian-style ales and barrel-aged sours?
Beyond the hops, Russian River runs a whole line of Belgian-inspired ales, many sharing the brewery’s signature “-tion” names. Damnation is a dry, medium-bodied golden ale with a spicy edge and notes of banana. Redemption is a lighter Belgian-style blonde with a mild, spicy finish, around 4.8% ABV. Sanctification, fermented with Brettanomyces, sits somewhere between an ale and a lager, lightly tart and refreshing at about 6.75% ABV. Benediction, a Belgian-style abbey dubbel at roughly the same strength, runs darker, with chocolate and spice against a crisp, hoppy bitterness.
The barrel-aged sours are where the brewery’s Sonoma County roots show. These beers are aged in used wine barrels from local wineries, a fitting nod to the brewery’s start under a champagne house, and fermented with wild yeast and bacteria. Temptation is the lighter of the two best-known, aged in Chardonnay barrels. Supplication is darker and more intense, aged in Pinot Noir barrels and fermented with three cultures for a deep, puckering tartness.
Brettanomyces
A wild yeast prized in sour and barrel-aged beers for the funky, fruity, tart flavors it produces. Russian River ferments several of its sours with Brettanomyces, often alongside the bacteria Pediococcus and Lactobacillus, aging the beer in used wine barrels from local Sonoma County wineries.
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When is Pliny the Younger released?
Pliny the Younger is the beer people travel for. It takes the Pliny the Elder recipe and pushes the hops, malt, and alcohol to a triple-IPA extreme, which makes it slow and labor-intensive to brew, so the brewery makes it only once a year.
Triple IPA
A style that pushes the double IPA further still, with even more hops, malt, and alcohol. Russian River’s Pliny the Younger is a triple IPA of about 10.25% ABV, balanced despite its strength, with bright citrus and resinous pine.
The release runs for about two weeks each spring and is only poured at the brewery’s own pubs, never bottled for stores or sold online, which is why fans line up for hours. For years it was tapped on the first Friday in February; the brewery shifted the release to March, and crowds still arrive from around the world. If a single beer sums up why Russian River matters, it is the one people will stand in a long line, in the cold, to drink fresh.
Frequently Asked Questions About Russian River Brewing Company
🍺 Russian River Beers at a Glance
A quick reference to the brewery’s best-known beers, by style and character.
| Beer | Style | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pliny the Elder | Double IPA | Flagship; four hops (Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ, Simcoe); pine and citrus |
| Pliny the Younger | Triple IPA | Limited annual spring release; about 10.25% ABV; pubs only |
| Blind Pig IPA | IPA | Drier, crisp; named for Cilurzo’s former Temecula brewery |
| Damnation | Belgian-style golden ale | Dry and medium-bodied; spicy, with banana notes |
| Redemption | Belgian-style blonde | Light, mild finish, spicy; about 4.8% ABV |
| Sanctification | Brett-fermented ale | Between ale and lager; lightly tart; about 6.75% ABV |
| Benediction | Belgian-style abbey dubbel | Dark; chocolate and spice; about 6.75% ABV |
| Temptation | Barrel-aged sour | Lighter sour; aged in Chardonnay barrels |
| Supplication | Barrel-aged sour | Darker, intense; aged in Pinot Noir barrels; mixed cultures |
