Weyerbacher Riserva 2011 Release

This past Friday, Weyerbacher released the 2011 version of their powerful raspberry sour, Riserva, along with unveiling their new logo. Yes, I know it's 2012 and I assume so do they but Riserva was bottled in 2011 so it's the 2011 version. It's how dates work in the beer world. Learn to deal with the confusion as it's how everyone does it. Moving past that, unlike some of the other more recent releases like Rapture and Idiot's Drool, there's actually quite a bit of Riserva so it gets distributed around the area. This meant less people showed up to the release so it was a more normal crowd.

When Jo and I arrived, there was a small crowd outside the building and quite a few people inside trying some of the samples of their normal lineup plus the new Riserva.

Actually, now that I'm looking at that picture, I think I have a better version.

See, pretty similar except now you can see Chris Wilson (in the orange hat) and I think Dan Weirback next to him on the right side of the picture. Chris is their head brewer and apparently runs the @Weyerbacher twitter name and Dan is the owner of Weyerbacher.

We wandered around the brewery a bit and I talked to a few of the employees manning the different sampling tables. I find my favorite part of the releases at Weyerbacher is being able to talk to everyone that works there. Here's me chatting with the 2011 Philly Beer Geek and their New Jersey rep, Natalie, plus some of their other employees.

I've met Natalie before which is the reason I actually remember her name and not the others. Sorry guys!

By the time we bought our case of Riserva, I had sampled mostly everything they had around. The Insanity was quite tasty though a little sharp and the new Riserva was way more balanced than last year. Besides that we also got to see all of the other barrels that are currently aging stuff including these Chaddsford barrels that have something in them but who knows what. Guess we'll find out at some point though who knows when!

Oh and I've forgotten the other reason for the special event. Weyerbacher had been working on designing a new logo and they finally were ready to unveil it Friday night. Here's a so-so picture of it.

Sort of like a jester ram guy with messed up eyes. I actually like it plus the font they chose for their name is much better than the old version. Hopefully it'll work well with the new labels when they are finally revealed.

Great trip as usual. Always a good time to wander around the brewery and chat with the employees about different things. I liked the samples I had of this year's Riserva and look forward to enjoying a full glass. I could actually taste something other than vinegar this year which was a nice change. We went to Pearly Baker's after as usual and had a nice dinner there. Since it's only 5 minutes from Weyerbacher, it works out really well as an after brewery stop.