DrinkieMob

Summary:
Company: Russian River Brewing Co.
Type: Dark Belgian Ale
Taste: Cabernet Wine, Smokey Woodsy, Sour, Spicy, delicious
Alcohol Content: 10%
Food Pairing: Pork roast, tritip, steak, cheese, etc.
Rating: 6 out of 6 (awesome.)
Website: Consecration

I have seen this guy in the refrigerators of K&L for a couple months now but unfortunately the $20 price tag kept me from trying it. I knew this beer is probably awesome but it is hard to justify (especially to the wifey) paying $20 bucks for a bottle. Then I had an idea, we live in the bay area (about 2 hours from Santa Rosa), why don’t we take a road trip up there and try the beer at the source. For sure they are cheaper there because you can buy a pint versus a 2 pint bottle! So that is what we did. A group of us drove up for the day to check out Russian River Brewery to try out Consecration and all the other beers we can not get in a bottle. Right off the bat, my wife ordered a pint of Consecration which surprised me so I decided to share hers and I ordered a sampler of everything they have a available at the time….

Her pint of Consecration came out ice cold in a Belgian Ale glass. It was super dark (you couldn’t see through it), with a red hue. It kind of resembles the color on the bottles label, but darker. She took a sip and her eyes lit up. I have never seen her react like that with any beer, so I immediately started salivating awaiting my taste. I brought it up to my nose and took a deep breath, and my nose was filled with a spicy, woodsy, Cabernet wine sent that sent my mind racing. It blew my mind how good and different this beer smelt. I took a sip and my mind got blown again. It was sour but not overwhelmingly sour. It tasted like sour cherries and Cabernet wine…then a myriad of other flavors hit my palate. I got wood from the barrel aging in used Cabernet barrels, Cabernet wine, cherries, bananas, butterscotch, and many other spicy Belgian ale flavors… suffice it to say, it tasted like a nice red wine mixed with an awesomely spicy dark Belgian ale. The mouth feel was just as awesome. You want to sip it and keep it in your mouth so that you can taste everything going on in there, and once you swallow it, you get even more flavors popping up as you swallow. I am here to say this is totally an Avant-garde beer from an Avant-garde brewer. It is really refreshing to taste something so crazy good and different.

My ultimate conclusion is this beer is way worth the $20 bucks a bottle. You have to approach buying this guy like you would approach buying a nice wine. It is for sipping and really enjoying. Once you try it, you will see that one bottle is more than enough for sharing with close friends or savoring by yourself.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 11:36 am and is filed under 6 Beer, Beer, Belgian Ale, Breweries, Featured, Rating, Russian River Brewing Company. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.