On our recent stumble through Sonoma Valley, we took a break from wine tasting and went to the Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa.  The very blurry photo below shows the tasting sampler, which includes almost every beer on the menu.

Russian River Brewing is home to Pliny the Elder, which is a highly sought after beer in this neck of the woods.  At the brew house we could purchase an entire case without bribing a grocery clerk (just kidding, we tried but the bribes didn’t work).  Of course we liked the Pliny, but my husband though the Brux was just a little bit better.  This was shocking to us since he loves Pliny enough to swing by our local store every week to see if a new shipment came in.

Befitting the theme of the weekend, we liked just about everything we tasted.  Our favorites were:

• Brux
• Pliny the Elder – Double IPA
• Benediction – Abbey Double
• Damnation – Golden Ale
• Redemption – Blonde Ale

We enjoyed the food too.  On a scale of 1 to pub food, we found it very good.   The hot ham and cheese sandwich was the favorite and the pizzas were quite good too.  Our pizza had really nice heirloom tomatoes on top.

If you visit Russian River Brewing, I recommend walking across the street to visit the Barnes and Noble bookstore.  The store is in an old Art Deco building.  In addition to the cool facade, you can see what appear to be original fixtures inside the store.

Bottoms up!