Russian River Damnation

The beer this week is from a legendary brewery on left, er…West…coast; namely Russian River Brewing Company. This brewery gained notoriety around the turn of the millennium when head brewer Vinnie Cilurzo helped create the Double IPA, one of United States few native beer styles. This beer, however, comes from Vinnie’s less widely known area of expertise; Belgian beers. This particular example is a Belgian Strong Ale named Damnation.

The brewery was created in 1997 by Korbel Champagne Cellars when they decided to diversify their markets by entering the brewing business. Vinnie Cilurzo, then head brewer, began winning awards within two years, and in 2002 Korbel sold the brewery to Vinnie. Cilurzo soon moved the operation from Guerneville to a new, larger brewery in Santa Rosa, California so that he could meet the rapidly increasing demand for his beers. Currently, Russian River offers a variety of beers in bottles and on tap in their brew pub, but their primary lines are their IPAs and Belgian beers. Many of the Belgian beers offered are sour beers, which will show up in later reviews, but Damnation showcases the brewery’s ability to turn out basic Belgian style so that I have a basis to judge their sour beers by.

Belgian Strong Ale was developed by the Moortgat company under the Duvel brand name to combat the growing popularity of the Pilsner style following the Second World War, and Duvel remains the archetypical beer of the style. Typically this style has a complex aroma incorporating fruity esters with a spiciness and some hop and alcohol aromas. The esters exhibited are typically reminiscent of lighter fruits such as apples and oranges, and the alcohols should never be hot or solventy. The beer should be yellow or golden in color with a large and persistent white head that is often lumpy or beady in texture. The beer should taste much like it smells, combining fruit, alcohol and spice flavors with a soft maltiness. The hops and the phenols can both give a peppery character as well as well as significant bitterness. The carbonation should be quite high, which leads to a light body for such a strong beer and leads to a perceived dry finish. Overall, beers of this style should be golden and highly carbonated while exhibiting a strong but delicate blend of spiciness and fruitiness backed up by a high alcohol content.

Damnation poured a slightly hazy deep yellow with about a finger of head. The head was a pure white and persisted for a long time, leaving a nice lacing on the side of the glass. The aroma was spicy and had hints of banana, orange and clove. The carbonation was fairly high and in the glass appeared quite coarse, which lead to larger bubbles in the head. The mouthfeel was of a moderate body, with and the carbonation tasted much finer than it appeared in the glass; this probably means the glass I used had some sort of contamination on it to allow the easy formation of large bubbles, causing the coarse head. The taste had a slight sweetness to it that quickly moved to a spiciness accentuated by the fine carbonation. The finish was moderately bitter, but nowhere near that of an American IPA. What struck me most was how well balanced the flavor was, which I did not expect at first given the diversity of the flavors.

Overall, this beer was excellent, and I look forward to tasting Russian River’s sour beers based on how good this beer was. I suggest trying this beer, or another Belgian Golden Strong Ale, along with a spicy food, such as some sort of curry. This style has the strength needed to stand up to some heat, complements it with a different spice profile and provides some contrasting bitterness as well.