Where did all the Russian River Beers go?

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If you can get it there Knee Deep Brewing makes a DIPA called Hoptologist and a Triple IPA Called Simtra. You should also be able to get some Heretic Evil Twin or Evil Cousin they are out of Pittsburg. Drakes is another one for you they make a bunch of really good IPA's. Those are some good brews that will take care of your hop fix.

CHEERS!!

 

Not all stores sell out that quickly. In fact, most in SF seem to have it for a couple of days after receipt. Shipments usually come in Thursday.

Pay attention to the seasonal releases: Knee Deep (Simtra), Drake's (Denogginizer and Hopocalypse), Bear Republic (Racer X), Ballast Point (Dorado), Stone (Ruination 10th and Enjoy By), Lagunitas (Sucks), Alesmith (Yulesmith and IPA), Firestone Walker (Double Jack).

Tons of good IPAs around, but you should still be able to find a place that carries RR to get your fix.

 

Well, maybe it's all gone to Marin and the East Bay. On Thanksgiving holiday, I was in Marin at my sister's, and I went looking for Stone Enjoy By. I went to two Whole Foods and a bottle shop, and they all had Pliny, Blind Pig, and other RR beers. Since I didn't find Enjoy By, I went to Ledger's in Berkeley the next day, and they had Pliny and other RR's too (in addition to Enjoy By). About a week before that I bought some Plinys at Beer Revolution. So these kinds of stories about how it's become impossible to find leave me kind of puzzled.

 

Many of those aren't seasonal. Simtra, Denogginizer, and Double Jack are made fairly regularly.

OP, the only time I've had trouble finding Pliny was when I tried to get some at Whole Foods this last Friday. My guess is that they had sold out because of the holiday. Most places get it regularly, but don't put it on the shelf.

 

My store (in SF) got 3 cases of Pliny yesterday. If you were looking last week, there was a bit of a supply interruption because of Thanksgiving. Otherwise there's just as much coming to SF as there ever was.

Also, try Iron Springs Casey Jones DIPA.

 

Must be a South Bay / Peninsula thing. OP is from San Jose, and I'm not too far from there. I haven't seen any Pliny or Blind Pig in the following stores in a long time:

Whole Foods Palo Alto / Los Altos / Redwood City / San Mateo / Cupertino / San Jose
K&L (I know they get it, but it sells out immediately online)
Kelly's (they get it, but it sells out immediately)

Any idea how often Simtra is made? I liked it the last time I had it (summer?), but I'm worried that the bottles I see on shelves are all from that same batch. I've had a number of old Knee Deep IPAs, so I've sworn them off unless I know the bottles are fresh.

 

True, I'm just too lazy to differentiate. Except for Simtra - didn't realize that one is year round. Good stuff, it's their best beer.

 

You can get Simtra anytime.

 

Don't know, but I see it announced as a new arrival pretty often (every month or two). Either they're brewing it regularly, or they brewed a whole asston once and are trickling it out. I was assuming the former, but we can't know!

Also, I've had that beer twice now and find it completely repugnant. The love it gets is just baffling to me.

 

I feel that way about everything else they make. I wonder if it all boils down to old bottles.

WE'LL NEVER KNOW, WILL WE, KNEE DEEP? BECAUSE YOU DON'T USE BOTTLE DATES. *cockpunch*

 

They do have a code on the label which is the date. I have only had 1 bad bottle from them and when I emailed them they let me know what the date was after I gave them the code. They replaced it with 3 fresh bottles and 2 other bottles of another new brew. Plus threw in a very nice glass. Nothing but class from them. So you my wanna know your facts before you speak. Where's your cockpunch now?

Knee Deep: Uses a bottling code. Example: KDBFZBC12. F=6 / Z=nothing (because it wasn't bottled in October-December) / B=2 / C=3 / 12=year ... Bottling was 6/23/12.

 

Technically, I was correct: they don't have a bottling date. A code that you need to e-mail the brewery to decrypt defeats the purpose. Though I will keep this info in mind next time I'm at the store.

I have spare cockpunches if you want one.

 

Using a bottling date that opaque is only marginally better than not dating. If you can print those characters on there, you can print "11282012"

 

The stores I frequent always have RR beers in stock, but the Pliny will sell out in a matter of days. Perry's and Raja's in Livermore and Kavanagh liquors in Pleasanton.

And I'm not sure what you mean by Alesmith IPA(City Beer only). You can find it all over the Bay Area.

 

That's how I feel about Knee Deep in general. Overpriced garbage.

 

The Knee Deep's ive had in the past have all been beauties...maybe ive gotten lucky with fresh bottles. Certainly not garbage, but to each their own. Looking forward to what they bring for the double IPA festival at San Francisco Beer Week.

 

The "overpriced" adjective plays heavily into my "garbage" opinion. Knee Deep is one of those breweries that turns out average beer but charges a premium price. That's garbage. And there's only about 40 other DIPAs I'd take over Hoptologist and Simtra.

 

All of Russian River's beers are in my stomach. Sorry.

And I completely agree with you Arbitrator. Some bullshit, esoteric, crazy alphanumeric code does not constitute a bottling date. Why even bother?

 

I think I may hate cryptic, indecipherable bottle "dating" even more than I hate a lack of bottle dating entirely. Why don't you just go ahead and write the name of your product in Esperanto while you're at it?!