We just ran out of Batch 4 Beatification at 11:20am! There were about 100 people in line when we opened the doors and there was not much to go around. If you are still planning to come to the pub, you won't be disappointed. We do have about 18 beers on tap, including Mortification, and lots of other great beers in the bottle! Batch 5 Beatification will be out in the Spring and there will be much more available!
Thank you for respecting our wishes and not reselling this beer (or any beer) on Ebay or Craig's List. A bottle of Beatification would make a lovely Christmas gift if you really don't want to keep it for yourself!
Happy Holidays!
Natalie
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Another great year for Pliny the Younger!
We poured the last glass of Pliny the Younger at our brewpub today around 4:30. It feels kind of bittersweet. This year's release has gone so well and been really fun! Thank you to everyone who made the trek from wherever and waited in line for however many hours to enjoy Younger from the source. We enjoyed having you and hope you will come back to visit us again soon!
There are still 19 other great beers on tap at our pub if you were planning to visit us anyway. I do not think you will leave disappointed!
Pliny the Younger will return on schedule next year the first Friday of February.
Cheers!
Natalie and Vinnie
Pliny the Younger Release 2012 Update!
The first 4 days of the annual return of Pliny the Younger has been outstanding! Though the lines have been quite long (up to a 5 hour wait over the weekend), the weather has held up for us... until this morning. But I did see a few hearty souls in their camping chairs and rain gear huddled up next to the building waiting to be the first inside to drink Younger from the source! Kudos to you die-hard beer fans!
Quick recap: we have not run out of Younger until last call each night. At that time of the evening, no one should really be drinking anymore Younger regardless! We did run out of Pliny the Elder bottles on Sunday, but bottled more yesterday and are fully stocked up again. We are also out of Damnation 23 bottles, but we will have to wait for another 20 or so batches to get more of that! BUT, as of this morning, we have 21 beers on tap at the pub! That sets a new record! We had to remove taps of Cider to accommodate our current amazing beer selection, but oh well.
If you are planning on making the trek this weekend you can most likely expect to stand in line for a while. Once inside, there is plenty to eat, drink, and enjoy our newly remodeled pub! I will leave you with some photos from Friday the 3rd:
Corey Reich and his entourage with me and Vinnie preopening Friday!
Keti and Jordan seating the guys from San Jose- they were in line at 5:45am!
Rooftop view of Vinnie and the line on Friday!
Amir getting psyched for the day (after a shot of Younger, that is!)
Nice job on the board, Angie!
What are you serving there, Michael?
New Website and Younger Release!
Welcome to our NEW website! Still working out a few bugs (we don't mind a couple of bugs around here!) but it is fully functional and much improved. We hope you enjoy browsing around!
Pliny the Younger is still scheduled for release at our brewpub on Friday, February 3rd! Here is the scoop: the pub opens at 11am at which time we will be seating everyone in an orderly and civilized fashion. We are reserving the dining room and board room for folks who are eating, but there is plenty of space at the bar for those interested in just imbibing. Younger will be served in a 10 ounce glass for the same price as last year and the year before- still a good deal! As you probably already know, there will be no growlers or bottles, as usual. We want you to enjoy Younger from the source at its absolute best! Like all fresh food products, this beer has a very short “shelf” life and is meant to be consumed only when in season (February, early March)! There will be a certain number of kegs allotted each day for 14 days, wrapping up 2 weeks of Younger on February 16th. We will begin distribution to our local (Bay Area) accounts on February 6th. Our distributors (all 7 of them) will begin picking up their allocation that week and the following week. If you live in one of the few markets where we distribute, they should be getting their Younger within that time frame. One note- we do not dictate where our distributors choose to send Pliny the Younger. That is completely up to them and we trust their decisions!
What can you expect if you come to our brewpub? Last year we had a line out front everyday for 2 solid weeks, rain or shine! On the weekends (particularly the first weekend) the wait was up to 3 hours. And sometimes you could walk right in. We will be queing up at the 4th Street entrance so we can count bodies as they enter. This city is rather strict about occupancy and I'm sure they will be visiting us a few times during those 2 weeks. There are 2 notable differences this year: 1. SF Beer Week launches on the 10th, one week after we release Younger (it was the same day we released Younger last year). 2. We were able to make a little more for the pub, meaning we hope to run out later each day. Last year there were a couple of days we did not run out at all! You can also expect to have about 17 other beers on tap, most of which are available by the bottle or in growlers to go. And it's quite the line-up of some of the old standards and new and exciting brews!
We are looking forward to your visit to our newly and beautifully remodeled pub! If you can’t make it to the pub, we do hope you can at least enjoy our new website.
Cheers!
Natalie, Vinnie, and the Crew
Out of Batch 4 Beatification!
Holiday Greetings From Russian River!
Holiday greetings from clear and chilly Santa Rosa! It’s cold like winter should be, but dry as a bone- thank goodness for the lotion industry!
We had our annual RRBC Christmas Party on Monday night and had an incredibly fun time! Last year we had the party on my birthday, so this year it was the day prior. I think I had more fun on my birthday LAST year! Needless-to-say, not much was accomplished yesterday but somehow our wonderful employees went to work and made it happen, pretty much without my help! Thank you to all our fabulous employees for another great year at RRBC!
Vinnie said he is finally ready to release Batch 4 Beatification. It’s a VERY small batch so we will be selling it only at our brewpub, and limiting it to 2 bottles per person. We bottled ALL of it so it will not be available on draft, but you are more than welcome to drink it at the pub as we will be keeping some bottles cold for your immediate enjoyment! The price is $15 per 375 ml bottle and makes great stocking stuffers! Batch 4 Beatification will be released on Monday December 19th at 11am when we open. If you can’t partake in this batch, we will be bottling Batch 5 (a much larger batch) in January 2012, which will be released in the Spring. Vinnie really wants me to tell you we are installing a new Coolship once we empty the Batch 5 Beatification barrels at the pub. Clearly, he is very excited! Merry Christmas, Vinnie, for about the next 10 Christmases!
Still need a gift for that special beer enthusiast in your life? Check out our online gift shop for some gift ideas. Brena and Aura are working hard all month to make sure your gifts are shipped quckly and arrive in time for Christmas!
We are still finishing up the renovations at the pub. Like most things in life, nothing big is ever completed on time. But we hope to wrap it up before the New Year! Speaking of- we booked a Big Band for New Year’s Eve, The Moonlighters! Show is Free, 21 and up and starts at 9:30!
This will be my last post to our blog on our OLD website. We have an awesome team working on a whole NEW website which will be launched early January! I may even venture into Facebook, but will continue to blog for our old-school friends!
Happy Holidays from our family to yours!
Natalie
Sutter Accepts “The Really Big Check”!
Greetings from Santa Rosa on this rainy Veterans Day! I have a lot to say in 10 minutes, so I will keep it brief. First, thank you to all our Veterans for serving our country! Your service is invaluable and appreciated.
So last night we presented the “Big Check” to the Breast Care Center! The total donation for October 2011 is…..
$66,059.43
Needless-to-say, the Breast Care Center was surprised and delighted with our donation! Thank you to everyone who contributed. We could not have made that crazy number without you!
Also, thank you to the following people and businesses who contributed in some way last month (I may not list everyone, so anyone I leave out will be thanked personally):
Melinda for dying my hair pink once a week all month
Roy and Johnna at Revolution Moto
Kevin and Timmy at Ribbecke Guitars
Cambria Bicycle Outfitters
Clone Digital Print and Copy
Tom Peters- Monk’s Cafe
Willie Birds
Tasty
Annie Alderson
Suzanne from Virginia
Wild Card Belly Dance
The Famous and their Yard Sale
All the bands for passing the tip jar
Every single Russian River Brewing employee for their enthusiasm and extra effort every October!
One quick thing about Pliny the Younger- we will be releasing it at the pub on February 3, 2012. It will be available for 14 days, no growlers, we are not bottling it, and it will be distributed in limited amounts as usual. I will provide more later as it gets closer, but that is all the information available right now! So no need to email us as we don’t know anything else at this time. We haven’t even made it!
Well, I gotta run! We are driving to Mendocino for our annual mushroom and beer dinner at Little River Inn tonight. Happy Birthday Dad! And Happy Birthday Ken and Katie Grossman! We get to have a beer with all of them on their special day today in Mendocino 
Cheers!
Natalie and Vinnie
October was a smashing success!
If you did not hear from me on October 29th at 10pm, you did not win the bike, the guiter, or the scooter. But your generous donation went to a really great cause, which I will be presenting to the Sutter Breast Care Center in the form of a really BIG CHECK Thursday, November 10th, at 7:30pm! Congratulations to Janell for winning the scooter (3-time cancer survivor, lifelong dream was to own a motorcycle), Jim in Phillie for winning the guitar (totally excited about his custom guitar), and Kat for winning the bicycle (local cyclist, very excited)! We are all winners for helping people who can’t afford mammograms or get treatment for Breast Cancer.
I will post the final amount, pictures, and lots of Thank Yous on Thursday night. I don’t want ruin the surprise for the Breast Care Center. I don’t like to see people cry, but I kind of hope they do!!!
Cheers!
Natalie
Framboise For A Cure Still Available!
Just wanted to let you know we still have Framboise available at the pub! It appears we will definitely have it through the weekend, too! So if you have not made it to the pub to pick up some Framboise, raffle tickets, and t-shirts, there is still plenty of time! Our fundraising efforts are off the charts this year and we are so grateful to everyone for being “All Hopped Up For The Cure!”
Hope to see you this weekend! Don’t forget The Famous are rockin’ out at the pub on Saturday Night!
Cheers!
Natalie
Don the Younger and a Pink Guitar!
The beautiful custom Ribbecke electric guitar has arrived! And it’s amazing! Raffle tickets are on sale at the pub. Victor, from The Famous, is going to ROCK out with it next Saturday, October 22nd, during their show! He just wants to make sure it works for the lucky winner 
We will draw for the guitar, bike, and scooter all on October 29th! I think I might take guitar lessons now…
As many of you know, our friend and publican, Don Younger, passed away in January of this year. He owned the iconic Horse Brass Pub in Portland, Oregon, for nearly 35 years. Last year he asked Vinnie to make a beer for the Pub’s 35th Anniversary Party in November, 2011. He asked for a hoppy, low alcohol session ale. And he wanted us to call it “Don the Younger”! Sadly, Don won’t be making it to the party at Horse Brass, but we honored his wishes and made his beer for the Horse Brass 35th Anniversary anyway! Don the Younger is currently on tap at our pub in Santa Rosa, and is shipping to Horse Brass next week. I’m not sure when they are tapping it, but you can check their website! Don the Younger will only be available for toasting at the two pubs. We really hope this beer is exactly what Don would have wanted!
There’s Good Beer and Pink Hair in Santa Rosa!
Greetings from rainy Santa Rosa! Things are going swimmingly at our pub this first week of Breast Cancer Awareness Month! We kicked things off in style with the Breast Care Center on Monday and have already raised lots of money. Good news- the Framboise has NOT sold out the last 2 days, so we continue to add to each days allocation. So if you are planning a trip to Santa Rosa this weekend or next week, it appears we will have plenty available! I will absolutely keep you posted throughout the month.
I forgot to tell you that we released Damnation 23 on draft and in the bottles at the pub! We will be distributing some on draft and in bottles, but only in California. We don’t quite have enough to ship out of state this batch. AND the newest batch of Temptation is on tap and in bottles and also being shipped out to our accounts in all 5 states in which we distribute. But if you do come to the pub for the Framboise, you can fill up the rest of your box with Damnation 23 and Temptation (no limit on those)! The weather should be nicer this weekend. I hope so for the sake of the grape-growers!
We have had to implement an allocation on Pliny and Blind Pig bottles. We were running out everyday at the pub and having to cut into our distribution allocation, thus making our distributors and accounts very unhappy. In order to try to share what little beer we have, there is now a 12 bottle limit per person, up to 1 case per group. Our other bottled beers are not allocated, so have at it! Here is a friendly reminder to bar, restaurant, and store owners: it is illegal to purchase alcohol retail and resell it in your establishment. I’m surprised how many liquor license holders don’t know that it is a $10,000 fine and a potential license suspension if you are caught by the ABC. Please resist the temptation if you can’t get our beer for your store or bar- it’s just not worth the risk!
I will leave you with a couple of fun pictures…
Great American Beer Festival 2011- Vinnie, Jack McAuliffe (New Albion), Chris and Cheryl Black (Falling Rock), Don Barkley (New Albion, Mendocino, and Napa Smith), Me, and Ken Grossman (Sierra Nevada). Pretty cool to have everyone in our booth at the same time!
Clint getting in the spirit of things! Real men dye their hair pink!