Russian River Damnation

Bottle from Southbay. Batch 045. This was the first RR I tried a couple years ago but I never entered a rating for some odd reason. Nice to have another bottle and reconnect with this nice brew. Pours a slightly hazy golden with a large, fluffy white head. Nose is nicely sweet, crisp and dry--all at once. Banana, pear, apple, sweet belgian malts, spices highlight the flavor. Mouthfeel is incredibly crisp and dry, I wish all belgian strongs were like this. I tried to find flaws, but damn(ation), vinnie does it all.

Pours very clear golden with a white lacy head. Aroma is crisp with hints of citrus, vanilla, with a touch of banana. The taste is smooth mildly bitter that lingers long on the tongue. Very satisfying and well made.

Batch 003, served from a 750 ml bottle. When I took the cage off the bottles, the cork flew out of the bottle neck without any agitation. Nice presentation. The beer poured a golden yellow color with a thick white head, good lacing. The beer had an aroma of of citrus and bananas, a bit acidic. The taste is a good balance of spice, citrus and carbonation. As with most RR beers, there is a good balance in the beer so that the higher ABV is not overally noticable.

Bottle, batch 39. Pours a light gold body with thick, white foam head. Aroma of belgian malts, clove, banana, citrus, sugar, and light hops. Flavor is mainly belgian malts at first then finishing with a sweet honey, spice, and light pine hop taste. Medium bodied with a light carbonation and a somewhat creamy and dry mouthfeel.

Batch 40 750ml bottle $4.99 (pretty sure I got a good deal). Nice golden yellow color with a white head. It smells like faint hints of banana, bubblegum, esters, belgian, very nice. Nice flavors that diverge from the nose but are hard to describe. A dryness that works well, easy to drink but I will still sip it because I want to savor the whole bottle. BSPA is not my favorite style but this is one of the better ones I’ve had. I’d still prefer a Salvation or Perdition but this was well worth the $5 per bottle. It will be interesting to taste this again in a year or two. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 08-26-2008 00:38:21

Poured a slightly hazy light copper color with a dense white head that settled slowly and plenty of active carbonation sending bubbles streaming upwards to their doom. The aroma was light Belgian yeast, bubblegum, malt and very light citrus. The flavor was yeasty and bready with sugary bubblegum sweetness and some light citrus and spice coming in on the backside. Nice, medium bodied mouthfeel. Enjoyable.

Draft @ Monk’s: Poured a golden yellow color with not much head. The aroma was sweet honey, fruits, and bread. The flavor was sweet, sugary, bubblegum, bananas, yeast and pears. Overall, a very smooth, very tasty brew from Russian River.

Clear gold body with a tall white head that quickly disappears, and moderate lacing. Sweet honey and bubblegum aroma. Flavor has a sweet dry yeasty flavor, a bit of bitterness middle to end. Finishes fairly clean.