Some would say I’m naturally a “hoppy” guy, (pun intended, really) but this past weekend, I’m EXTRA “hoppy” and why is this might you ask? Well, it all started when my wife and I took a nice little day trip to Napa. Went through a nice little winding road, past the Petrified Forest in Calistoga and ended our day at Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa. It was there that I fell in love, yet again, with a little “big” beer called the “Hopfather”.
I remember trying this beer last year at the annual IPA festival at The Bistro in Hayward. It didn’t stand out that much to me. Could have been all of the drinking I did prior to tasting the Hopfather , but it didn’t give me that “wow” punch. Well, Vinnie did a little tweaking to the recipe and it is…..well, just read below!
Now for the Beer Review!
Got my beer glass ready, grabbed the growler from the fridge, popped the ceramic cork and poured.
Pours a nice clear orange amber with small white head which disappears fairly quick. Nice carbonation that just screams “refreshing”. Really looking forward to this beer. The waiter just told me that this beer will blow me away and that it’s his new “favorite”. No need to tell me more, please!!
Smell is bursting with orange and tangerine. Just pure citrus “juice” with a slap of pine and lemon. Wow, this smell is pure heaven and the anticipation is killing me.
The taste hits me with what I expected. Like a big bite into an orange/tangerine citrus piece of fruit as you drink in the pine stickiness. The carbonation coats your throat and just pushes this beer down like it’s velvet. The malt is barely noticeable but yet it holds the beer together. This beer is extremely refreshing and so dam easy to drink. It’s almost the same feeling that you get from biting into a juice piece of watermelon on a hot summer day. Just “refreshing”. This beer, to me, is something in the “middle” of Blind Pig and Pliny. But a little lighter bodied.
Overall, I really liked this beer. I would highly recommend this beer to the Hop Crew and will be highly anticipating this again. Again, I tried this fresh from the brewery and I bought two growlers. I feel this will not age well at all and the growler should be drunk in one day. (friend tested). Happy drinking!
Hopfather| ABV 6.81% | Growler
Russian River Brewing
725 4th Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
www.russianriverbrewing.com
Michael,
I can’t tell you how envious I am that you can get Russian River where you are so damn easily!!!
LOVE this brewery and every style I’ve tried so far has just been a home run hit way out of the park. I WISH they would distribute to Texas…or maybe I just need to move to Cali.
Ilya