Russian River Damnation

Brewed by Russian River Brewing
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Santa Rosa, California USA

This is wonderful and absolutely one of the best Belgain strong ales I’ve ever had, if not the best. It’s a bright gold with a pretty big, dense white head that lasts very long and leaves decent lace. The aroma is rich, fruity, flowery, a definite Belgian-ale aroma but a bit more hoppy, flowery, citrusy, and complex. The taste is similar: it tastes like a Belgian strong ale such as Delirium, Tremens or Duvle, but has more complexity, more hoppy-citrusy-flowery character and a little more bitterness, with grain, hints of spice, nuts, pears, and honey, It’s wonderful.

Perfect color and smell of banana yeast deliciousness. Perfect palate. Slap of clove spiciness completely hides its ABV yet still allow the mild bitterness to come out. To top it off, the malt is delicious and blends perfectly. Achieves perfection if enjoyed a bit warmer than normal. A highlight of Nor-Cal craft beer.

Nicely carbonated with a nice golden color. Clean flavor to the beer, refreshing. This would be a great beer at the end of a summer’s day.

750 ml corked and caged from batch 007. Big props to Oakes for sending this my way. Gorgeous luminescent, completely transparent golden brew. Lasting fine-laced white head. Aroma is initially sweet and spicy, with a very soft yeast, candi sugar, light dustiness, apricots and some soft pear/apple notes. There is also some notable spicy hop aromas in here. Lots of aromas with perfect balance amongst all of them. Flavour is much maltier than is typical of most beers in this style. Loads of honeyish malt sweetness up front before some nice apricot and pear flavours add complexity. Soft and subtle yeasty spice flavour appear before some nice orange citrus peel makes an appearance. Despite all of the sweet descriptors, the beer finishes dry enough to make you crave another mouthfull immediately. Absolutely gorgeous brew.

Yeasty and dry, the way I like my BSA. The mouthfeel is the most memorable of all the beers I’ve had to date

GABF: multiple samples. Wow! This has gone from terrible to terribly amazing. Love this new batch -- sparkling golden, citric twang, bright, bits of tobacco, aggressive and full bodied -- round and lightly creamy, slightly slick. Love the yeast components. Can't wait for the brewery to open.

Batch 26, aged it about a year or so? WOW, score jumps quite a bit. Huge improvment, aroma, and balance. Slight malt sweetness is gone, amazing finish. Well worth the wait. Always impressed with this, very consistant out of bottle and tap. Aged a bottle for 1 year. Helped cut down on the mid palate that I sometimes feel is flawed / disjointed. Seemless and lingering finish with some age. Blind I’d never pick this as a US beer, very Belgian. Aroma is captivating. Would love to see this beer 5 years old, I’d imagine it’s fantastic.

Cloudy, effervescent golden with a billowy head. The richness of the gold colour cannot be understated here. Champagne-toasty aroma with pear esters. The body is full, the malts sweet as honey and well-rounded. Delightful spiciness backs them up with faint esters and peppery alcohol. A precision brew. I’d always suspected somebody could do this style as well as Moortgat...