(Santa Rosa, CA) – I caught up with Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing after listening to his guest appearance on The Brewing Network. The show, which aired last Sunday, features over three hours of Cilurzo talking about beer and telling stories. I am only scratching the surface but here are the highlights with additional info from Cilurzo about upcoming releases.

First off, the most updated information on the February 5th release of Pliny the Younger and Supplication Batch 4 can be found in the brewery’s most recent blog post. Cilurzo provides some insight as to why Younger is more expensive than its other hoppy beers. He explains that it takes six weeks to make whereas Pliny the Elder takes three weeks. So there is an opportunity cost of two tanks of beer. The price has relatively little to do with any increase in hops.

Cilurzo also said on the show, definitively, that this is the best batch of Supplication yet.

Some may be wondering what the story is with Sanctification, the first bottling in two years. The brewery mentioned it as being a third beer at the release previously but didn’t mention it in the new update. The Pedio in Sanctification is not cooperating with the intended release date. As Cilurzo puts it, the beer is “sick,” a term used in Belgium to describe “ropey beer.” In other words, the beer should be fine when it is ready but it’s not there yet. Cilurzo doesn’t expect the beer to turn around by Feb. 5th.

Russian River will also debut new 375 mL bottles at the release. Says Cilurzo, “The Supplication that is coming out next week is the first of the new 375ml bottles. Today and yesterday we bottled the first of the Damnation in the new 375ml bottle so this will be out in a month. Later this week and next week we are bottling Consecration for the first time in the new 375ml bottle, these will be out in late March or early April.”

The 375 mL bottles, as many of you probably know, come from a proprietary mold that Russian River, The Lost Abbey and North Coast Brewing bought last year. The mold cost the breweries around $24,000, Cilurzo said on the show.

Lastly, in its first full year having both the new brewhouse and the brewpub, the brewery did 9,000 barrels (3,000 at the brewpub, 6,000 at the brewery) and is already at capacity.