Has anyone had any of the Sonoma Pride beers from RR? I went there today and picked a couple up but had no idea what they were about. I found a link tonight (on the bottle) saying it's a side project: http://sonomapride.com/index.html Haven't cracked any open yet but curious what people have to say about when they were released or anything else? I don't see many reviews for them on here.
I tried both tonight. As the bottles say, they're both saisons, but of slightly different natures. Amasa is a lighter golden base with lots of citrus on the nose alongside some ester character, a nice dryness, and a light brett and mineral character to it. The finish was a little more bitter than I had wanted it to be, but the mouthfeel was great -- nicely effervescent and moderately drying. Overall a pretty strong effort. Dauenhauer is a hoppy, slightly larger bodied saison with a heavier base and ABV. This one felt like they basically put more of everything (malt, hops) into the saison and overall got less out than with the Amasa -- it lacked the nice drying character, was just a bit more overdone on the bitterness. I wasn't sad to drink this beer, but I would take the Amasa over it any day. Nothing really special about either of them, but both acceptable beers. YMMV
If one was a sour, I would drive up today and get them, but a couple of saisons aren't worth the 2+ hour round trip to me unless they're mind-blowing. Interested to see what the next beers from the project are.
