Russian River Blind Pig IPA

Beer Name: Blind Pig
Brewery: Russian River Brewing Co. (Santa Rosa, CA; Windsor, CA)
ABV: 6.25%

How sold: 17.25 oz bottles, on draft
Where bought: Belmont Station (Portland, OR)
Price: $6.99 for 17.25 oz bottle

Date Bottled: August 15, 2023
Date Drank: October 8, 2023

When brewed? Year-round beer. One of Russian River's flagship beers.

IBU: 70

What's on the Bottle: "Blind Pig is a prohibition-era term for a speakeasy. Our very first brewery was named Blind Pig Brewing Company which was located in Temecula, CA. It was here that we first fell in love with IPA's and hops. Our Blind Pig IPA is generously hopped with hints of citrus, woody notes, and a lingering bitterness. Keep refrigerated and consume fresh to best enjoy this beer's intense hop character."

What's on the Website: "A full-bodied, very hoppy brew with citrus, pine, fruity notes, and a nice dry, bitter finish! This West Coast-style IPA is true to its style as it is very hop-forward with just enough malt character and alcohol to balance it out.

Blind Pig IPA was first brewed at the Blind Pig Brewery (Vinnie’s first brewery in Temecula), though the original Blind Pig recipe was something that Vinnie brewed for many years as a homebrewer before brewing it commercially. At the time, Blind Pig IPA was one of the hoppiest, if not the hoppiest IPA available anywhere, weighing in at 6.5% ABV with 92 BU’s. In 1994, it was a total hop-bomb and different from most anything commercially available at the time. In time, this and other hoppy beers earned Vinnie the nickname 'The Hopfather.'"

Where distributed: Russian River distributes to limited locations. They now distribute bottles to Portland, which they started probably in the past couple years.

REVIEW:

Appearance (5%): Poured clear golden into pint glass. White head, virtually no head or lacing. 4.5/5

Smell (25%): Typical West Coast-style IPA, with a balance of pine, hop, and grapefruit citrus. 4.5/5

Taste (40%): Follows the nose. Balanced pine, hop, and citrus (mostly grapefruit) from start to finish. Again, clean flavors, what one expects when getting a West Coast-style IPA. 4.5/5

Mouthfeel (10%): Medium-bodied, good carbonation. Some dry tongue. 4.25/5

Overall (20%): An outstanding IPA. I was surprised that, after hundreds of blog posts (and enjoying Blind Pig on draft several times in the Portland area), I had yet to formally do a blog post on this one. While most of the attention will focus on Pliny the Elder or the seasonal Pliny the Younger, Blind Pig holds its own as one of Russian River's iconic flagship brews.

While I personally prefer Russian River's Happy Hops IPA, Blind Pig is one of the reasons people enjoy the modern West Coast-style IPA today, and 30 years after its debut, Blind Pig still holds strong as the West Coast IPA standard. 4.5/5

Final Weighted Rating: 4.475/5