Russian River Brewing Company
Santa Rosa, California, USA · Est. 1997
From the record
What we have established
Official current site shows active Windsor production hiring and Santa Rosa pub operation. Sonoma County tourism documents origin at Korbel in 1997 and sale to Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo in 2003.
Tally’s Take
The benchmark of bitterness. Vinnie Cilurzo is widely credited with inventing the modern Double IPA in 1994. Pliny the Elder (first brewed 1999) became an instant cult classic; the brewery's obsessive freshness controls keep it in tight allocations so it's never consumed past its prime.
The founding thesisFounded by Korbel Champagne Cellars in 1997; brewmaster Vinnie Cilurzo and Natalie Cilurzo bought the brewery and recipes in 2003.
The Museum
Timeline
- 1997Korbel founding
Russian River launches under Korbel Champagne Cellars.
- 2003Cilurzo purchase
Vinnie & Natalie Cilurzo buy the brewery and recipes.
The People
Behind the beer
Vinnie invented the modern Double IPA style in 1994; the couple turned Russian River into a global destination.
The Beer Library
Beers
Pliny the Elder
Year-RoundImperial / Double IPA
Tops 'best beer' lists; the West Coast DIPA benchmark.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Pliny the Younger
LimitedTriple IPA
Annual February release that draws lines around the block.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Supplication
LimitedAmerican Wild Ale
Aged in Pinot Noir barrels with sour cherries and three strains of wild yeast. Vinnie Cilurzo was pouring barrel-aged sours in California years before anyone was asking for them.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Blind Pig IPA
Year-RoundAmerican IPA
Named for the brewery where Cilurzo brewed what is generally credited as the first Double IPA in 1994 — a beer that began as an attempt to hide the flaws of a badly built brewing system.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Beatification
LimitedWild Ale
Spontaneously fermented in the Californian style Vinnie Cilurzo built from Belgian practice. Wild fermentation in a warm climate is far harder to control than in Brussels.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →RnD West Coast Pils # 7
Year-RoundVera Hop Beer
Aliases: https://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/2025-winners/. 2025 GABF Silver; winning facility Russian River Brewing - Windsor.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Travel Guide
Plan a visit
- Full kitchen
- Taproom
On the record
Awards
- 2025
Silver — Vera Hop Beer
Great American Beer Festival
Only awards we could attribute to a named body and year appear here. An empty section means unresearched, not unawarded.
1 organisations
Connected suppliers & bodies
- great american beer festivalAwarded2025Silver — Vera Hop Beer
Show your working
Sources
- recordProbable
Brewery record taken from Tally's California master, Pass 187, which cited https://russianriverbrewing.com for this entry. The cited page has not been opened by the archive.
Tally's California master, Pass 187 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026
CommercialMedium reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-19Reviewed 2026-08-19
Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.
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