Russian River Brewing - Perdition

In 1997 Russian River Brewing Company was founded by Korbel Champagne Cellars in Guerneville, California, and Vinnie Cilurzo was hired as their brewmaster. Shortly thereafter at the Great American Beer Festival in 1999, RRBC and Vinnie were awarded "Small Brewing Company of the Year" and "Small Brewing Company Brewmaster of the Year."

In 2002, Korbel decided to leave the beer business and sold the brewery to Vinnie and his wife, Natalie. Now located in Santa Rosa, California, Vinnie and Natalie operate RRBC as both a brewpub and a production facility, distributing beer in California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Just two weeks after reopening the brewery in 2004, they were awarded "Large Brewpub of the Year" and "Large Brewpub Brewmaster of the Year" at the World Beer Cup.

< More recently, Malt Advocate magazine named RRBC their 2005 "Brewery of the Year" in their annual whisky and beer awards, and then again in April of 2006 at the World Beer Cup in Seattle RRBC was named Champion Large Brewpub, and Vinnie the Champion Brewmaster.

Michael Jackson’s tasting impressions on the first-ever bottling of Perdition – note on the label, “Batch 001”!

Strawberries in the aroma, and a hint of tar – like having a summer picnic with fresh strawberries, and somewhere nearby they are tarring a road. A very earthy beer, which is a very good characteristic for a biere de garde style beer.
Very hoppy, with quite a punch to the solarplexis in the middle, along with some strawberry toffee. It’s got a lot of big flavors.