Russian River Wild Friendship Celebration May 2015

Pardon my extended radio silence these past few months.  Life gets in the way of blogging sometimes…

Earlier this month we completed replacement of our aging 50-barrel brew-house at the production brewery with a brand new 4 vessel system made by AAA Metal Fabrication in Oregon.  So far, it’s holding liquid and making great beer!  This was not an expansion for us, merely replacing old equipment with the same size new equipment.  Nothing larger will fit in the space.  The new brew-house should enable us to brew more efficiently and improve quality, which are always our top priorities!

Some of you may remember that last year we participated in a collaboration with Allagash and Cantillon called the “Wild Friendship Blend”.  This was a blend of all three breweries spontaneously fermented sour beers blended and bottled at Cantillon.  We traveled to Brussels last May with Rob and Jason from Allagash to release the blend and pour our own beers at a very special event at Cantillon.  It was one of the coolest events we have ever done!

In late 2014 we recreated the Wild Friendship Blend here in America and are releasing it during 2 special events next month!  The first Wild Friendship Celebration will take place at our pub on Thursday, May 7^th.  Due to space limitations, we will only be able to host 120 people during the 5 hour tasting.  Our special VIP guests, Jean Van Roy from Cantillon and Jason Perkins and Rob Tod from Allagash, will be on hand to discuss their beers throughout the event.  There will be a total of 12 beers including both Wild Friendship Blends (the Belgian version and the American version) and several from Cantillon, Allagash, and Russian River, naturally.  Our chefs are excited to have a little creativity in the kitchen and will prepare some tasty food to pair with these amazing beers.  Tickets are $100 and go on sale this Saturday ONLY April 25^th between 9AM and 10:30AM.  They must be purchased IN PERSON at our brewpub (unfortunately, we are not able to take reservations over the phone or via email).  Each person will be able to buy up to 2 tickets.  This event is ages 21 and up only.  Photo ID will be required when purchasing tickets and again on the day of the Wild Friendship Celebration!  The pub is located at 725 4^th Street in Downtown Santa Rosa.  I will announce on Facebook that morning if and when the tickets sell out!

The ticketed event will end promptly at 4PM.  At that time, the pub will close for an hour so we can clean up the joint.   The pub will open at 5PM to the public where 5 Cantillon beers and 4 Allagash beers will be available to drink until supplies run out!  I’m not sure if there will be any Wild Friendship beer left, but if so, we will make that available for tasting as well.  Since space is so limited for the ticketed event, we bought extra of each beer to enable us to spread the love a little farther!  Kitchen will be open that evening for business as usual.

The following day we and the other brewers board a plane (albeit hungover) to the East Coast.  Allagash is hosting their event on Saturday May 9^th in Portland.  I’m very excited to attend this event, as well, since I have never been to their brewery.  I believe tickets are already sold out for the Maine event (pun intended), but perhaps we will see some of you there!

That’s all for now.  I do hope to have a little less drama and a little more time in the coming months to do the things I really enjoy, like chatting with you, my 72 confirmed blog readers!

Cheers-

Natalie