Russian River Redemption (365 Day 3)

By scot in 365 Days of American Craft Beer on Saturday, December 4th, 2010

First off the title, in parenthesis, refers to me doing 365 Days of American Craft Beer and that I am currently on day 3. Yes, this will be at the top of each of my posts to help me keep track as well as introduce any new people to what I am trying to accomplish with this part of the blog. On second thought I just added a category for these posts going forward; hopefully that will be self explanatory enough.

Russian River‘s Redemption, a Belgian Pale Ale, just arrived from my cousin in California along with a few other goodies from Russian River that I will probably be partaking in the next few days.

The nice thing about Redemption is that it is somewhat “cheap” for a Russian River beer: $4.99 for a 375ml. Most, if not all, of the other beers I have tried from RR have been at least double that cost outside of Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig.

The bottle, with a cork, always makes me think that the liquid goodness inside will be better than a beer in a regular bottle. Sort of like a woman wearing a skirt over jeans 😉 So without hesitation, Redemption was quickly poured into my Surly tulip glass (that I later dropped and broke in the kitchen sink cleaning it. No, I didn’t get hurt. Thank you for asking.) with a heaping helping of snow white foam to fill the glass. The aroma was light but was as expected: yeast (Belgian), pepper, and some lemon. Daintily put together. The taste follows with a bit of pepper lingering in the mouth, while the body is light it carries a zesty, crisp carbonation to make it seem bigger. Nice drinking and, in spite of being light, a beer I could have year round. Enjoy!

Aroma: 9, Taste: 9, Look: 8, Drinkability: 9, Overall: 8.9