The “Ritual” of Brewing and Great Beer
24 Beers on Tap at Ritual Brewing
Best kept secret and hiding place in town. We drove by the low profile, discrete Ritual brewery/tasting room twice before we realized it wasn’t a high-tech break room after all. When we entered the building we were greeted by the extremely hospitable Ed Heethuis (employee #3) Director of Sales. He told me they don’t want it to be too easy to find. He said jokingly, “We only want diligent and dedicated beer lovers to find us.” WE DID! (Address: 1315 Research Drive, Redlands, CA 92374) Ed, thanks for the great tour or your great beer brewing facility of great beer!
It was worth the search. What a great brewery and cool atmosphere. The building is a huge warehouse filled with stainless steel brewing equipment and plenty of heavy-duty, family style seating picnic tables. They also have games to keep your designated drivers busy: Cornhole and a giant-sized stacking Jenga game. When a player loses everybody knows it.
Fermenters
Starting Lineup at Ritual Brewing
The afternoon I visited the brewery Ritual had 24 beers on tap! Their most popular style is Monk’s Lunch. It’s a rare Belgian-style Enkel, or single. This beer is traditionally brewed by Trappist monks for the their own consumption. Weighing in at 4.5% abv and 29 IBU’s it’s not a big Belgian by comparison to Dubbels and Tripels.
Most Memorable:
Ritual Big Deluxe, the Bourbon Barrel Aged version, is incredibly big. An in your face Russian-Style Imperial Oat Stout with a bourbon backbone. This black Imperial Stout has a complex nose of vanilla, sweet and roasted maltiness. The flavor is even more complex with warming alcohol, licorice, spice, molasses, sweet malt and vanilla all followed by a smooth warming finish. This is a huge beer! As it should be. If you are going to call yourself a Russian Imperial Stout, you better be Czarific!
Favorite:
Forced to choose I’d have to say the Extra Red Ale was my favorite beer the evening I tasted. At 6.5% abv and 59 IBU’s this big malty red balanced out thanks to a nice job with the bittering hop additions. The nose on this red is malty and hoppy with a hint of toffee. The complex flavor starts with a caramel malty sweetness that is nicely balance with hop bitterness. A full-bodied, malty sweetness and dry finish is very enjoyable. The complex finish lingers and changes back and forth from sweet to dry. I love it. I think there may be some chocolate malt in the grist that contributes a grainy dryness to the finish. Nice!
Standouts:
– Big Deluxe-Russian Imperial Oat Stout. 12.2% abv 85 IBU’s
– Fat Hog-Barleywine 12% abv. Fruity, malty nose. 12% abv
– Love & Malt-Brown ale. Roasty and smooth. 5% abv 29 IBU’s
– Hop-O-Matic-IPA. A well-balanced malty hop bomb. 7.1% abv 80 IBU’s
Biggest Disappointment:
The tasting room closed at 8:00pm. I could have stayed all night.
Ritual Brewing occupies 23,000 square feet and houses a 30 barrel brewhouse. They are a microbrewery with a tasting room. Head brewer and co-founder, Owen Williams, was BJ’s original brewer. I had the good fortune to meet co-founder Steve Dunkerken while touring the brewery with Ed. The Name for Ritual Brewing is based on both the ritual of brewing and the ritual of celebrating moments shared with the finished product. Even if that celebration is to toast the end of a long day.
CHEERS!
