Russian River’s huge new brewery.
It’s a busy time for Santa Rosa’s Russian River Brewing Co., maker of cult beers like Pliny the Younger.
As the brewery team gears up for the 14th annual release of Younger — which will run Feb. 3- Feb.16 — they’re getting ready to break ground on a brand-new, 35,000-barrel brew house in Windsor, more than twice the brewery’s current size. The project has been in the works for years and will feature a tasting room, gift shop, second brew pub with outdoor seating and both guided and self-guided tours. The groundbreaking is expected in late March, with a goal of opening for business in 2018.
“Everything has gone really smoothly,” said Natalie Cilurzo, who owns Russian River Brewing Co. with her husband, Vinnie. (Check out my 2015 profile of the couple and the company.) “It’s been a really fascinating, and time-consuming, process.”
“We’re adding a lot more sophistication to our brewing process by getting updated equipment,” she added.
The new brew house will add open-top fermentation tanks for the first time, sourced from the German company Gresser, which will be used to ferment ales and lagers like Blind Pig and STS Pilsner. Cilurzo says they’re the third brewery in the U.S. to obtain Gresser’s open-tops.
Also new will be a 12.5square-foot cool-ship — a vessel that exposes the beer’s wort to ambient yeast and bacteria. “We’ll be able to brew much like they do in Lambic,” Cilurzo said, referring to the Belgian region. “Beatification (the brewery’s spontaneously fermented sour) will improve.”
The Windsor facility will also strengthen the company’s sustainability efforts. For example, they’ll install a Cambrian Eco-Volt wastewater converter, a different model of a similar machine at nearby Seismic Brewing Co.
No changes are expected at the Russian River Brewing’s Co.’s current brew pub in downtown Santa Rosa. “We hope to release a little pressure from downtown so that there’s not the ginormous lines every weekend to come in,” Cilurzo said. “The regulars will get their old pub back.”
And yes, they do plan to release Pliny the Younger at both locations.
That mega-popular triple IPA, which is released at the brewery for two weeks beginning the first Friday of every February, is known for generating lines that wrap around many city blocks, days in advance. The beer is available only for consumption at the brewery (no growlers), with distribution to just a handful of other bars. In recent years, Russian River has implemented a policy that customers can stay inside the brew pub until they’ve reached three hours or three Plinys, whichever comes first.
(Russian River’s website lays out more tips on attending the release, from queue guidelines to lodging recommendations.)
If you don’t have 12 hours to spare waiting in line in Santa Rosa, you can also find Pliny the Younger at San Francisco Beer Week. Russian River has a bigger booth this year at the opening gala on Feb. 10, and Younger will be back on tap. (Last year, when Beer Week was moved earlier due to the Super Bowl, Younger hadn’t been brewed yet. “And we didn’t change our brew schedule to accommodate the Super Bowl,” Cilurzo said. “We released Pliny the first Friday in February long before Beer Week was around!”)
Other Beer Week events where you can catch Russian River Brewing Co., including its excellent roster of beers beyond Pliny the Younger: at Pi Bar; at the Celebrator Beer News anniversary party at Trumer Brauerei; and at the Bistro’s 16th annual Double IPA Festival.