Russian River Rant

Eh, Lagunitas is packed 100% of the time now, too, but at least they don't have bouncers and lines. The dog thing is not a plus in everyone's mind and obviously they wouldn't be allowed in RR with health codes and what have you. I agree that Lagunitas is a better experience, but not that their beer is better.

 

@smanrob are you trolling? Drop a controversial bomb of an OP and then abandon the thread...

 

I've driven up to RR two times. First was a summer Saturday and the scene was much as OP describes. I stood in the unbudging bottle line for ~30 minutes, decided to bail. Second time was a Thursday and I glided in. No shockers there.

My specific gripe with the Saturday visit wasn't the line so much as with the bouncer on duty -- no doubt the guy has an unenviable job, standing outside for hours, charged with regulating a bunch of impatient, thirsty people, but he did it with the demeanor of a corrections officer wary of a prison riot: gruff, terse, disdainful. By contrast, at the recent West Ashley SARA release, Tim was walking the line, glad-handing with buddies, introducing himself to unfamiliar faces, chatting, thanking folks for coming out, and so on; someone passed out donuts, people were tailgating, etc. Made it feel like a wait for concert tickets. Granted, it's not a weekly mob-scene at SARA the way it is at RR, and of course you can't tailgate in downtown Santa Rosa, but the broader point is that if your brewery has a big long line out front, the vibe of the ambassador who greets it -- in RR's case, the bouncer -- goes a huge way towards determining how exciting, or shitty, it feels to wait in it.

Oh and re: "the near impossibility of finding their bottles on a store shelf outside of Santa Rosa," their bottles are *tons of places* in S.F., from City Beer to Healthy Spirits to Whole Foods to rando organic gourmet delis!

 

A little entitlement here, but that is par for the course for niche hobbies. I eventually realized that other people are more willing to pay the cost to be a boss.

I only wish they would reconsider the younger format if at all possible because I just see the waiting reaching a breaking point where there will be a fight and someone gets hurt.

Pay off your neighbors and create the rear parking lot into a bier garden on weekends to handle the masses? Fair grounds event? I don't know if there is an easy answer. First world problems are real.....

 

You know, Firestone Walker is going to be brewing Pliny for a while because RR needs to do some work on its brewhouse. If that partnership goes well, I could foresee an Alpine/Green Flash situation down the road...

 

right. not everyone wants to push their body and brain to its absolute max limit just to make more money and "satisfy" their fans.

 

That's not been my experience recently and I frequent some of those places. Pliny is gone from everywhere in a matter of hours from delivery and the 'tions don't hang out the way they used to.

 

I believe renting was the better option. Less upkeep.

 

The OP expresses frustration because other breweries have expanded over time and been successful. He used Stone, Sierra Nevada, Green Flash and Lagunitas and there are more. But what the OP probably doesn't know [and neither do I] is how many breweries have expanded over time and not been successful. Business is a risk and the owners of Russian River have decided to minimize their risks and enjoy their life with what they have. Good for them.

And by the way, didn't I read somewhere that they are doubling their capacity? No, it probably won't alleviate crowds at the brewery but perhaps bottles will be easier to find.

 

Six paragraphs. I love these kind of posts.

 

First off, and this may be a matter of semantics depending on your intent, but you are not hurting the local economy by not growing. Perhaps not participating in the expansion of local economy but not hurting it. Secondly, it's not incumbent upon any business to do a damn thing that they do not wish to do (within the confines of the law...). Brewery or otherwise. If failing to grow and subsequently failing to satisfy demand somehow damages the health of the brewery, than that's on them. That's life, that's free market. Finally, holding RR to a higher degree of social responsibility than say a crap brewery isn't fair either. Would you say that "X" brewery is hurting the local economy by brewing crap beer? If they brewed better beer than more people would buy it and therefore expand, etc.?

 

Russian River and other breweries that us older beer advocates have been in to for a long time are really riding the wave of craft beer's growing mainstream presence. New beer nerds don't start with Boston Lager and amber ales like they used to, now you just jump right in to what's trendy. And what's trendy now is the breweries the old beer nerds have known about for years, like Russian River.

My advice to deal with the lines full of new school hipsters- find the new breweries that the people just jumping on the wagon don't know about yet. There's new shit going on in beer all the time, and some of them are at least as good as the breweries that came before them.

 

Unfortunately, this is the trend. I just wish people would be so harsh on the OP on this one. If you have been a craft beer fan since before it was cool, like it sounds like the OP is, and I am, you can totally identify with the OP on this one. I remember going to 3Floyds, walking right in, sitting down, and not bumping elbows at the bar. Boy those days are gone...

 

There will be no increase in capacity, I believe. From what I recall, DFH sent their old brewhouse to RR back when they expanded, and now it's just time for that equipment to be replaced due to being 'worn out'

 

Yeah, my memory sucks. Or it's selective. You are correct or at least closer than I was.

 

A bit of a challenge is all it really is. Hell there are places here in Mid Hudson Valley I have a little challenge too

And, OP, I gotta tell you that if you ever want to get any Hill Farmstead beer, you will feel a whole lot better about the Russian River little challenge. If there ever was a brewery ripe for a rant it is Mr. Shaun Hill in the middle of fucking no where who insists upon a system that makes you wait in a long slow moving line, on purpose, no food, freaking dirt roads that are mudslides in sleety weather.

But, it's their brewery their rules, their eccentricities, their ways to make themselves wealthy and happy.

 

And keep it a secret only your group knows for as long as you can.

 

I don't disagree with your main point, just noting that logistically going on weeknights is not a great option for the OP, especially if he doesn't want to deal with a long wait.

 

Yeah, my point also. Much much worse is is how it is at Hill Farmstead all the time was my point trying to show it to not be more than a little challenge at Russian River, that is not exceptional, and in fact there are far worse brewery situations than that one.

 

In all honesty I think Double Jack is every bit as good as Pliny.